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What are your rights if a repair shop damages your car?

Posted at 8:32 PM, Dec 14, 2017
and last updated 2017-12-15 07:15:49-05

John Gaunce took his car to Honda of Fort Myers in May to have them fix a wheel stud. He claimed that when he went to pick it up, there were grease marks all over the car - but wasn't all.

"On the grease spot on the front of the car, there was a dent on the hood of my car where you shut it," Gaunce said.

The dent is hard to see in photos, but he got a quote of $562 from a collision repair shop.

"The whole hood has to be painted in order to do correctly," Gaunce said.

But in an email from Honda dealership, Gaunce was told they could not find the dent, and declined to cover the cost to fix it.

"They refused to fix it," he said.

Attorney Mike Chionopoulos says that when a car - or any property - is left with someone for a price, they have a legal duty to protect it.

"To the extent that it is damaged through their neglect while in their possession, they have the absolute duty to put you back in the same position you would have been in," Chionopoulos said.

To complicate Gaunce's case, he said that Honda of Fort Myers claims he verbally abused some of their employees, which he denies.

"Now they don't want to work with me," he said. "They kicked me out of their dealership."

Fox 4 reached out to the Honda of Fort Myers for comment, but have yet to hear back.