Shopping cart hit and walk-caught on Sentry cam

[wolfwill23]

So, tonight I was stocking up on my doomsday prepper supplies at Costco and a lady let a cart go that hit the side of my (formerly perfect) MR M3. It did leave a dent. Not a huge dent, but, the car was dent free before this and this will prob be a $500-$1000 repair.

I caught the incident on camera. You can see she even asked a cart-retrieving, Costco employee where to put the cart and he points to a cart corral which was on the other side of a raised sidewalk in front of my car. So, instead of her heaving the cart over the sidewalk (which I can understand), she simply places it by the curb and said cart then rolled into my (formerly perfect) Tesla. As she was leaving, I caught her car and back plate (no front) on cam.

I'm wondering if I should try and uprez the back plate (don't think that's possible) or go after Costco to pay for the repair because the employee was literally taking carts in and instead of him grabbing this cart, he told her to put it in the corral - on the other side of the raised sidewalk.

Videos in the link. Let me know what you think. Thanks

 

[Revelation]

Costco is not responsible at all in this scenario. If you want to waste money and time go ahead - you will lose.

You can try and reach out to Costco with the video as proof to see if they have cameras that have a clear image of her plate. You can also try reaching out to tech communities to see if someone can enhance the image to see the plate as well. They will need the original video for that to have any chance of success.

 

[NedH]

You don't stand a chance going after Costco.

 

[The Lorax]

They’ll have surveillance videos available to you but they only come in packs of ten and you’ll never use the other nine.

 

[BikerPeaBody]

You can try and reach out to Costco with the video as proof to see if they have cameras that have a clear image of her plate. You can also try reaching out to tech communities to see if someone can enhance the image to see the plate as well. They will need the original video for that to have any chance of success.

So what crime has been committed here, negligent parking of a shopping cart? Clearly there was no intent to hit the car

You don't stand a chance going after Costco.

Yes curious as to how costco would be responsible. Employee told her where to put it. Unless theres some policy requiring him to take the cart to the corral himself

 

[rdcisneros3]

Rookie mistake parking anywhere near a cart corral. Still, sorry this happened to you. As everyone else suggests, you have no legal recourse against Costco and may get laughed at if you try to go that route.

 

[BikerPeaBody]

Rookie mistake parking anywhere near a cart corral. Still, sorry this happened to you. As everyone else suggests, you have no legal recourse against Costco and may get laughed at if you try to go that route.

I mean there was a median between his parking spot and the corral,so not that bad of a spot
And I guess when you park at any of those stores that have carts its park-at-your-own-risk?

 

[I<3URANUS]

I mean there was a median between his parking spot and the corral,so not that bad of a spot
And I guess when you park at any of those stores that have carts its park-at-your-own-risk?

That's life for you, not just parking.

 

[jkoya]

Sorry to see this happen to you. Any pics of the damage ?

 

[jjrandorin]

I mean there was a median between his parking spot and the corral,so not that bad of a spot
And I guess when you park at any of those stores that have carts its park-at-your-own-risk?

I was typing out a post to reply on what I look for when I am parking, and realized that I am fairly particular when it comes to parking, lol. Lets just say a couple of the things I do is never park next to a cart return, and try to park next to cars that look like someone cares about them (no rust, large dents, etc). I dont search out higher end cars to park next to like some do, I just want to park next to a car that looks like the person cares somewhat about it, entry level hyundai or high end porsche or anything in between,

I dont mind walking, so normally head to the farther out parking spots, as well.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

I have to imagine this is a $100 paintless dent removal repair and not a $1000 body shop repair. Surprised you were able to get that nice video put together but unable to post pics of the damaged area.

Yes, don't park near shopping cart corrals. That's just nuts to do that considering how many carts are coming and going from there. A very rookie mistake.

 

[wolfwill23]

Thanks for all the replies. I’m thinking that since she asked the cart guy where to put the cart and he told her to go put it i the corral instead of stopping and taking it himself, I may be able to get Costco to cover it. Why didn’t he just stop and take the cart himself? That is literally his job. Anyways, I’m going to give this a try and I’ll report back.

And yeah, I shouldn’t have parked ANYWHERE near the corral. I thought I’d be good with the raised sidewalk between us. Nope.

Stay tuned...

 

[PJFW8]

Call your insurance company. Before that I would see a paintledd dent specialist. They are really cheap. Probably far less than your deductible. You don’t necessarily want to report an accident. It may diminish the value of your car.

 

[PJFW8]

Call your insurance company. Before that I would see a paintledd dent specialist. They are really cheap. Probably far less than your deductible. You don’t necessarily want to report an accident. It may diminish the value of your car.

Forget Costco. The employee may have shown poor judgment but that has very little causal connection to your damage. Waste of time.

 

[wolfwill23]

I have to imagine this is a $100 paintless dent removal repair and not a $1000 body shop repair. Surprised you were able to get that nice video put together but unable to post pics of the damaged area.

Yes, don't park near shopping cart corrals. That's just nuts to do that considering how many carts are coming and going from there. A very rookie mistake.

I had a lady roll into the back of the car at a stop light which produced a small scrape. $695 to fix.

The dent is small but if they have to pull the fender off etc, it will be over $500. Hope I’m wrong.

 

[wolfwill23]

Forget Costco. The employee may have shown poor judgment but that has very little causal connection to your damage. Waste of time.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[wolfwill23]

Call your insurance company. Before that I would see a paintledd dent specialist. They are really cheap. Probably far less than your deductible. You don’t necessarily want to report an accident. It may diminish the value of your car.

I will look into a dent specialist. I’ve never used one before but def worth a shot. Thank you

 

[OCR1]

Really nice video though, great sound effects. Well done.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

I had a lady roll into the back of the car at a stop light which produced a small scrape. $695 to fix.

The dent is small but if they have to pull the fender off etc, it will be over $500. Hope I’m wrong.

What does a scrape have to do with a dent? A scrape automatically means paint work, which automatically means a lot of money. A dent often means the paint is ok, so the repair with paintless dent removal will keep you out of the paint booth and not cost anywhere near the same as a scrape.

 

[jjrandorin]

Thanks for all the replies. I’m thinking that since she asked the cart guy where to put the cart and he told her to go put it i the corral instead of stopping and taking it himself, I may be able to get Costco to cover it. Why didn’t he just stop and take the cart himself? That is literally his job. Anyways, I’m going to give this a try and I’ll report back.

And yeah, I shouldn’t have parked ANYWHERE near the corral. I thought I’d be good with the raised sidewalk between us. Nope.

Stay tuned...

Since I dont believe in marking "disagree" without an explanation (unless the explanation is 100% crystal clear)...

I marked disagree because, no matter how you try to spin this, there is NO liability to costco on this. You are not going to "get costco to cover it" because the person did not take the basket from the customer. There are normally signs around that you are basically parking at your own risk.

if the costco employee personally rammed the cart into your car, you might have a small case, but failing that, you are wasting your time and their time by even bothering to pursue costco.

Also, I only looked at the first 10 seconds of the video, but its obvious you have video production skills. Put me in the same camp as @TLLMRRJ in wondering, if you could spend that much time / have that much skill in putting together that video, why have you not taken a picture of the damage and shared that as well? You obviously dont have an issue sharing online. Is it because "it doesnt show up very well in pictures"?