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I went to a tire store to have my the rim leaks sealed and when they lifted my Astro, the guy put the rubber pads under the doubled seam that's supposed to be used with the OEM jack, bending the standing seam and crunching the sheet metal below the rocker panels- has this happened to anyone else? I can't believe mine is the first, nor will it be the last.

I looked into the shop and saw that the sheet metal was bent, told the guy at the counter that it's not supposed to be lifted that way and then, he AND the guy working on it said that those were good lift points. I immediately searched on my phone and everything shows that it's supposed to be lifted by the frame.

I took it to a few body shops and because it has a small amount of rust (not in these areas), they won't repair it because they offer a lifetime warranty on their bodywork. I don't want to take it to some schmuck just because he'll do it, but I want to be compensated now that my resale and trade-in value have been stabbed in the eyes. It's originally from PHX, so the body is in excellent condition,considering the age and miles.

Any others with this problem? What did you do about it?

 

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I called a body shop this afternoon and was told to stop in, but he said that it's incredibly common- I don't know if people just don't notice it, or if they don't care but the way I see it, the resale/trade-in value took a big hit when this was done and I'm not happy about them blowing it off by saying "Those are good lift points", "That's what it showed" (referring to their manual or computer info) and "It's unibody- that's where we lift them". Whatever they use to see where vehicles should be lifted, it's freaking wrong!. I didn't go very far underneath when it happened because I have a messed up knee, but when I changed the oil and was on my creeper, I could see that the sheet metal box under the door was crunched and from the outside, the edge where it's closest to the bottom edge of the door is curved. When I showed them the same diagram as in post #7, the guy at the counter just said I would need to talk to the manager.

AFAIK, the pinch points are to be used only with the OEM jack, not when the lift has flat pads.

 

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There are adapters that would be put on the pads of the lift to fit around pinch welds the way the OEM jack does. There are also block type adapters for differences in elevation in parts of frames for frame lifting. Most mechanics just go to the frame.
It is plain to see a few people there didn't know what they were doing.
What pray tell did the manager say?

Same thing- the pinch welds are where they place the pads although he did say that once the estimates come in, their claims department should be notified. I want to avoid being a d!ck about it, but they did damage my van. I didn't hear from the mgr in many months, so I called several times and never got anywhere after leaving messages, so I called corporate and the woman found that the mgr had created a case, so I'm going to proceed. they'll stop lifting under the pinch welds- I was surprised that the body shop told me this is extremely common damage and that people don't do anything about it- if I speak with anyone higher up in the claims department, I'll explain my past experience as an installation department mgr and try to get them to understand that they're causing damage on a regular basis- it's a national chain, so I would guess that they have done this to tens of thousands of vehicles, if not more.

Hopefully,

I told everyone I spoke with at the store that I'm not blaming anyone because I think it's a training/info problem more than carelessness. I ran a car audio installation shop and know that damage can occur from accidents and this is covered by insurance but bad workmanship is specifically excluded by the shop's policy- if they're using bad information to lift vehicles, the company needs to eat the cost for repairs or compensate the vehicle owner in some way.

So far, I haven't found a shop who is willing to repair this- I'll see what they say at the most recent shop on Tuesday when I go in for the inspection and show the bulge under the passenger door.

 

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Yep,call a lawyer. You may even get a bit of rust repair out of their screw up. Yep, most shops have big rubber blocks that sit on the lift/hoist pads, but tech's are too lazy to use them. If you really want to buy a set of GM ones- here ya go, but be sitting down when you see the price!

Kent-Moore J-41602-A | Body Protect Hoist Adapter Pad-KMJ-41

www.autotoolworld.com

I don't see them paying $550/set for each store but I'm going to send the link to the claims department, to show them that this IS a real problem and the solution is available.

 

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WRT the line about making the horn louder, it's an old Steven Wright line.

As far as using a horn, I'm honestly surprised mine hasn't burst into flames because I use it all the time. Too many idiots driving around here- time to hit the old dusty trail and get out while I still can.

 

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I got tires for my Equinox last week at Discount Tires. I asked them if they lifted on the pinch welds and if they use the hoist adapters and they didn't want to talk about it (I should have checked before I took it in). All I could get out of them was that it shouldn't be an issue with the Equinox. I think I'll start asking every shop about this just so they know somebody is paying attention.

Didn't want to talk about it- don't care, they're GONNA talk about it if they do it to my vehicle.

Still waiting for a response- I called and e-mailed the guy from Bridgestone and was told he was off for more than a week. The message I heard when it asked me to leave a message said he would be off from Dec 12-Dec 18, or something like that. Nice to see someone is detail-oriented........

 

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Souns like you are being blown off until you lose interest. That is their hope anyway.

In the words of Bugs Bunny, "He don't know me vewy well".

 

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I just saw in your quote of my reply I missed the "D" in sounds. Oh well, it works. I'm not changing it😆
There is small claims court. It is usually less expensive to cover the repair or insurance claim from a business' standpoint, than it is to go through that, and will usally settle once the claim has been filed. Don't forget to include the filing fees in the settlement too if you have to do that.

As I told the guy at the counter (while the tech was standing nearby), I'm not actually blaming them because they were blindly following info provided by the company and, possibly, some third party. It's wrong. The guy who inspected it asked if the manual shows the lift points and I didn't have that, but the jack is unused and still has the rolled up plastic coated sheet with the jacking instructions, in several languages. It clearly shows that the jack is to be placed under the frame, not any part of the body- he photographed this, as well as the damage, viewed from the sides, underneath and included shots of the body, which show rust only at the rear wheel well edges.

I also told them that I know it's not a new van, has fairly high mileage and the value isn't extremely high, but also that I wasn't planning on replacing it anytime soon and that the damage has tanked any resale/trade-in value it had.

Before it goes as far as a legal case, I'll go over the head of the guy who isn't responding to my calls. I have no problem with that if someone doesn't provide good customer service but if the service is good, I do compliment them on it and if I speak with someone who's higher up the food chain, I tell them, too. I don't have any problem doing that because I have been in customer service and retail for a long time and with the abuse some people like to dish out/customer support training, I'm not a dik about things. They don't need it and it sucks being reamed when someone else fails to do their job.

One area where I have found that name-dropping helps- I have worked in audio/video/network sales and installation for a long time and two providers that have a long history of bad service are ATT and Time Warner/Spectrum. ATT is the hellhole of the planet, IMO and I would rather eat crushed glass and battery acid than deal with them, but when they didn't let me see the surveillance video after someone went to the store to pick up whatever they bought by using my credit card online, it was game on. I found the CEO's e-mail & phone number, then called and sent an e-mail. I got a response in only a few hours. Last year, I was doing some work for a customer, transferring them to Spectrum from TDS, which they had used at their office (they decided to stop renting an office and create one in the 3rd floor of their house). It was a terrible experience, but I had told them it wouldn't necessarily be painless, at the beginning. It was far from that- so bad that I found the CEO's name and started dropping it when a manager seemed uninterested in making things happen when the transfer reached the one month stage. I dropped the name and he immediately said "Hold please". When he returned, he told me that the next person would be able to fix the problem, and she did. Hearing that name must have put the fear of God in him.

 

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Update- I called yesterday and after hearing the same "I'll be out of the office 12/4-1/8..." message, I pressed 0 and spoke with someone who told me they have set the 24th as the date for coming up with a settlement.

 

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Just to make you feel better, you should look on the net and look at the truck frames bending, from slide in campers. Mostly Ford and Dodge. So far, in all cases, people "mis read" the gvwr, or "assume", because they saw it on the net, and the campers were way too heavy!!!! Needless to say, dealers did not pay, ends up being a customer created issue. But,the pictures are funny, if I run across one, will post.

I saw one on YouTube, where the guy put a big camper top on his pickup- shouldn't have had the crew cab.

When I told the counter guy it should be lifted using the frame, he told the tech not to do that because the van would fall forward off of the lift. That tells me this guy has no idea what he's dealing with. I might worry if he used the frame at the front and the body at the rear because it would be positioned on a downward angle, but if the frame is used, it can't fall forward.

 

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WRT frames bending with a camper top- most people don't know or ignore weight distribution, too. It's much easier to load their stuff into the low end at the back than to concentrate the heaviest over the rear axle and move lighter things to the front. I would bet that if the weight were to be analyzed, the curve would look like the inverse of the bottom of the camper, with little at the front, more over the bed and a lot behind the tailgate.

 

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You can say it, we do- "people are stupid",lol.
The majority I have seen actually bend down in the middle, not up. This is also seen in the snow plow industry, people buy a 4 door, diesel, 4x4, then find out they don't have enough capacity to even carry a normal plow, much less with a sander in the bed. "Many trucks of today are nice cars"

I would imagine a lot of the plow trucks were used to ram what the driver thought was just a soft, fluffy pile of snow.

Have you seen this?

Looks like it was a Silver Maple.