Murphy Brothers Damaged My Car - ArielM
I first visited Murphy Brothers on June 21, 2019, when he repaired the air conditioner on my car. He did good work, so I agreed to have him do further maintenance the following week to prepare the car for my impending move to Florida. On June 26, he replaced some belts and gave the vehicle its regular service appointment and a full inspection. I had asked him to fix the hood latch, but he ran out of time. He asked me to return the following week, saying that he would "need to lift it" to get to the latch. The car worked fine afterwards, and I was pleased with his repairs.
However, on Wednesday, July 17 I had contracted a truck to transport my car to Florida. During the pre-loading inspection, we noticed damage to the car's body on the driver's side fender. On closer inspection, I realized that there were cracks and dents in all four corners where it would have been lifted. This must have happened at Murphy Brothers, as I haven't been to any other mechanic since then.
I immediately contacted Murphy Brothers Wednesday afternoon, using the email contact form on their website. I shared pictures of the damage from before the car was loaded for shipping and included those photos via a Dropbox link in my communication with Murphy Brothers on July 17. Unfortunately, I couldn't bring the car by, because we couldn't delay the shipment and we already had flights to Florida booked for that evening.
When I didn't receive a prompt response, I filed a claim with the Better Business Bureau, and later with the MA Attorney General's Office. Murphy Brothers' response was to claim that they didn't cause the damage and therefore would offer me no help. However, the car was in their possession three different times, including at least once where he had to lift the car and once where he gave the car a complete inspection. If the car had been damaged prior to arriving in his shop as he claims, I find it hard to believe that he never noticed this damage and/or didn't think it necessary to point it out to me before I left the shop.
The car now has more than $2000 in damages.
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