They hurt my baby
 

Last week I took my 1982 300D to Sam's Club for a new set of tires. All went well, or so I thought...

Yesterday I was doing some spring cleaning of my interior and noticed a "bulge on the floor in the backseat. I pulled up the carpet and found the floor bulging up big time. I immediately looked underneath and saw I nice indentation where something square had pushed in. I then went to the other side and same thing. Also, my car is virtually rust free and they also mangled the rubberized undercoating. Obviously some idiot lifted my car by the floor pans.

Needless to day I was a little upset. :mad: So now I have to figure out how I am going to handle the situation. Any ideas?

That is too sad, I'm so sorry. Atleast they didn't raise it on the gas tank which I have seen. Glad your tank is out of the way.

I really don't know how to fix that. I'd get Sams to figure it out.

Good luck. Report back.

Take it back, show them what they did and ask them to file an insurance claim.

those guys at sams lifted my 77 vw westy by the bottom of the engine years ago. They seem to be one of the few shops left that still use jacks rather than lifts for tires.

Mercedes did not do a good job of providing an easy way to properly lift their cars...
There are specific directions in the FSM with pictures....
It might help to take copies of those pages to any shop which is going to work on your car...
On my wagon a guy locally started to use a normal floor jack on it without even a block of wood in the cradle.... any of those four nibs around the edge that touched the car would be applying Thousands of pounds per square inch of pressure where it was not built to take that....
I am still trying to locate some of those jigs used to jack up the car which use the regular jack holes... as shown in the FSM...

They are called "jack pads" by MBZ. They have them, but bloody expensive.

Almost every car I've ever owned has had floor damage due to unskilled monkey's putting jacks under the floor pan.
I take off my wheels and bring the wheels/tires to the tire place for a switch out on all my cars.
Lets face it in today's society we don't value a job well done anymore, its all about cutting corners, cutting costs and making the most money....

All of my 126's have 4 jack pads located just inside of the jack holes. I make double Da4m sure that they are used if the shop is using floor jacks. I use them myself to jack the car when I work on them. The MB jack is for changing tires. IMHO

I lift the front with two jacks on the jack pads underneath and behind the jack holes. I'll use a block of wood there if I can't square the jack up on the rubberized pad thing without getting up into the plastic trim - this is a function of how shredded the pad I'm working with is. One of them has about fallen off.

I just pick the back up from the center differential.

I would go to a reputable body shop and get a quote, then take the quote to sams and have them pay for the damage.

This same thing happened with an indi tire shop on my mothers nissan maxima. The idiots put the car on the lift without properly locating the pads on one of the jack points, it crushed the rocker panel pretty badly. We got a quote from a couple body shops and had it fixed. The tire shop picked up the tab.

My dad caught a reputable shop around here getting ready to lift his W126 up by the trailing arms in back with a floor jack. :eek: He zoomed out there and was all over them. All those shops are full of trained monkeys.....I always watch like a hawk when I have to take my car for tires. They always forget to glow the engine when starting it too, so they sit there cranking for 6-10 seconds. I have now made a big sheet with instructions how to start it that I put on the steering wheel.

that's why i remove my wheels and send to any tire shop...execpt dealer.

The previous owner of my car let somebody do the same thing to my baby. I was thinking of taking a brute force method to fix the bulge behind my passenger seat, a sledge hammer. But it is still there because I have a hard time bringing me to hit fine ladies like that.

Yeah I think I might do that too next time.....I have a rotation coming up, I'll probably just do it myself....don't want the crazy monkeys messing with it.

In my FSM they call them "support point (hard rubber buffer)"

I went in to Sam's today. Before which I stopped at a body shop and got a quote for $600 to pound out both sides. Which would involve removing the front seats and reapplying the undercoating in that area.

Anyway, a couple managers came out and took pictures of the damage after I explained what happened and showed them the estimate from the body shop. They said I should hear from them by the end of the week. I can only assume that means they are going to cut me a check.

I learned my lesson though, next time bring the tires in alone.

I brought my 240d to a local goodyear a few months ago to have them install two used tires I had purchased - one on the spare, and one on front PS.

1. They began jacking up the car (with a floor jack on the frame rail, which ripped the undercoat, though didn't dent anything) and removing the wrong wheel until I pointed it out to them. Twice.

2. Left my hubcap laying face down on the ground and stepped on it accidentally, scratching the paint.

3. Left greasy fingerprints all over hubcaps.

4. I discovered later that they left one lug nut off of one wheel.

5. Tightened other lug nuts so tight that I can not get them off with a 16" wrench, even if I stand on it and jump.

Well, it is Sam's and they are owned by WalMart, so I hope they do cut you a check for the repairs! But, don't be surprised if the amount they give you is about $250, they love to lowball! If they don't budge on the amount, call your local television station this has caused Sam's to up their offer! Best of luck, and keep us posted on the outcome!:D

This is why no one has ever mounted, much less torqued, a wheel /tire on either of my cars other than myself since I have owned them.

I'd like to know exactly what kind of new car can be lifted this way without some serious damage.

they ought to cut you check for thier screw up or you can sue them.

Umm...what's the problem? It's a nice thick piece of metal. Where do you think all the force from the wheel goes?

Where else would they jack it up from? The trailing arms are the best place to do it.

I can get around the tire shop monkeys easily because I take them loose wheels.

But in my state cars have to go in for safety inspection once a year, and they always lift them up to inspect the brakes and exhaust.

My W126 has the square beams under the front floor pans crushed a bit due to a lift. That was done before I got the car.

The W124 and W126 has the hard rubber lift pads which I can point out. What do I tell them regarding a W123?

Ken300D

They did eventually cut me a check
 

Just wanted to update that Sams club did finally pay me for the damage, although it took weeks of my calling and harassing their insurance claims person.

Whatever you do, do it right away
 

Don't linger, because then their next thing will be "Well if we did it, why did you wait so long to tell us".

Good luck with it.

Maybe the poor kid doing it was just ignorant on how to jack the car up. :(

I went in and actually showed my old shop where to jack the car up when I needed to do an inspection. I just straight up asked if he

1. Knew how to turn the car on
2. Knew where the jack points were.

and of course number 2 was "no" so I showed him the points on the under carriage.

Ignorance is only bad when it hurts you :(

When any place besides the stealership takes any of my cars into the shop, they have me there, and they follow my instructions...
The local tire shop is ok if the owner is there, he owns a few fancy cars, and knows them inside and out... He restores old bimmers as a hobby...