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Waivers, do you use them? I need to draft one!
Ok, this mornings little job has just turned into a nightmare. As arranged mr B Racer turned up in his 07 VXR to have a black sunstrip fitted to the top of the screen, nice easy £70 sat am job I thought.. I went about it in the usual fashion, cleaned all the glass thouroughly several times, laid over an oversized strip of black, applied and trimmed. When I removed the excess that was just laying on the front few inches of roof, it tooks of several areas of laquer.
Despite the vehicle detailer next door taking a look and agreeing that the failure is a fault with the paint, not the vinyl / me, the customer was understandably pissed off at me and reckoned it to be my fault. He got a price there and then to to have it repainted – £150 (how poor will that be?!) and wanted me to contribute to what – upon further inspection, was a poorly laquered roof. He just couldn’t understand that in my job I fit and remove vinyl from hudrds of vehicles a year and that this only happens on maybe 1/200 and it is always down to the paint.
Reluctantly out of good will I said I’d waive the cost of the visor and that’s half his costs met, he wasn’t having it and hinted at bad-mouthing me on facebook and among his peers.. I don’t care about not doing this kind of job for his mates but I don’t need to see my company generally dragged through the crap.
Long story short I gave him the job & £20, telling him that if I see or hear of any bad-mouthing I’ll take the matter to court for slander.
This isn’t the first time this has happened on vehicles, I’ve had it happen on vehicles anything from 15yrs old to 6 months old, I’m sure we’ve all experienced it..
So, What I need here is to draft some kind of waiver, something signed by the customer before I put even a cleaning rag to the vehicle, saying that we’re not responsible for any failure of paint during the application period, nor when the vinyl is removed in the future..
Does anyone have something like this as a template they would share? Obviously I’m not looking to wriggle out of anything such as physical damage caused by myself, but this kind of thing just isn’t our fault.
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4 Replies
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Have had same problem but luckily for me it was on my sons car so no big issue. It did however make me look at how I was doing it & I now always put low tack masking tape around the edges which helps avoid the problem.
I do think some sort of written waiver along with a couple of quick photos before commencing work is definitely a good idea though as u also had an issue once doing a visor of a cracked screen & customer trying to blame it on me when I know for a fact It was cracked before I went near it. It never occurred to me to take pics etc.
Fortunately as you say these things are pretty rare but it’s certainly worth at least being aware & at the very least checking over a vehicle with the customer 1st before commencing work. -
Just do like hire places do.
Just print out a basic document with all vehicle details handwritten at the top. Time and date it arrived. Then walk round it quickly with the customer point out any bad bits, dents, cracks etc.. right them down and get them to sign it. Stick in a wee line about paint. All good I would say.If the customer is dropping the keys through the letterbox out of hours just put in a email to them that you will have to take any photos of damage to the car before starting work.
I just take them on my phone. I get them to sign when is it picked up also and that they are happy. I think this makes it look professional and that we are taking care.
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Thanks Chris,
Myles, the vinyl was just resting on the affected area, it hadn’t been applied, even masking tape would’ve pulled it off I reckon. I could flake bits off with my fingernail and no pressure!
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live and learn. Even with a waiver they will argue and slag you online.
But a waiver will make sure your not out of pocket like this again
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