Legal Question in Consumer Law in California

A detail shop damaged the paint on my car by putting swirl marks on it�a really BAD wax job as well. He also damaged the upholstery and didn't clean the dirt off as he said he would. To be kind to the owner I wrote him a letter asking to settle this issue between the two of us and asked him to return the $190.00 I paid him so I could get the paint and upholstery fixed. He didn't answer my letter so two weeks later I called him and asked if he was going to give me back my money. His response was an angry rant --yelling at me saying "Absolutely Not" he would not give me back my money, he also said he had talked to an attorney, had letters of proof from other detailers that he couldn�t have done it, he accused me of harassing him and said he would see me in small claims court.

After hearing his angry rant I decided I had better start protecting myself. I did "a lot" of research on what is involved in detailing cars on the Internet and by talking to other detailers who confirmed that he did a very poor detail job on my car, and found that it will cost me much more to get the paint and the upholstery back to where it was before he detailed my car than the $190.00 I paid him to detail it.

MY QUESTION: I am considering taking him to small claims court but would like to change the settlement from $190.00, which I originally asked for, to $519.00 that would actually repair the paint and get it back to where it was before he detailed it. This amount of money would also pay for having the upholstery detailed again.

I have informed him of that I have changed the amount of the damages but have not filed a claim for small claims court. The $519.00 amount for settlement for the damages was also included in the complaint letters I sent to the Better Business Bureau and the SLO Chamber. They have communicated with Grisanti's Detail Shop but he didn't respond to the Chamber's letter. He did send a response to the BBB but he has refussed to respond to my rebuttle. As of now the BBB complaint remains incomplete.

Thank you

Wanda Friesen

[email protected]


Asked on 7/22/11, 11:27 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

I'm afraid I don't see a question in your "question." Are you asking whether you can file in small claims for your total damages rather than your original request for your money back? You don't actually ask that, but if that is what you are asking, the answer is "of course you can." In fact, you should ask for the $190 back, because you got no value for it, plus the $519 cost of repairing his damage to your car, plus the rental value of your car while it is repaired, and any other out of pocket expenses you incur, as long as they are directly and necessarily caused by him messing up your car.

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Answered on 7/22/11, 11:52 am


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