Sideview mirror crack?

So we had '06 Tahoe oil changed and car washed. We are full service car wash with oil change.

Customer called me few hours after she left saying that she noticed that her driver-side mirror now has a crack right down the middle. I asked if there was a spot where you can see a "point-of-impact", but she said no.

We send all of our cars with mirros folded. I am doubtful that such crack could have happened through tunnel. I checked our surveilance camera to see if our lube tech might have hit the mirror to crack it but no evidence of that either. I don't think it's by someone hitting it as if you did hit it, you would see a "point-of-impact" mark. But according to the customer, there is no such mark and just a crack right down the middle.

Now, I have seen some cars with similar cracks before. I've always wondered how you get such crack.

Do you think that this is something that car wash tunnel can cause? If so, what force would create such damage?

I'm still trying to decide if this is something that we may have done. I have explained to the customer that I would do some research and get back to her.

Between the lube, tunnel, and wash finish area, I'm trying to see how such crack could happen. What do you think? Is there reasonable amount of doubt that we "could have" caused such damage?

Thank you,

-tom

Its a pissing contest. Win or lose you come out stinking. I would say that it is reasonable on your part to not bear responsibility, but its the age old claim, "I know it wasn't there when I came in." If I had a nickel for everytime I heard that one, I could retire today. Ask your crew again, especially your lube and tunnel drivers again. Maybe they are afraid they will lose their job or have to pay for it if the fess up. Make it clear to them that won't happen if they did do it, that you simply need to know the truth before you go and piss off a customer. If no one takes the blame then you have to decide how badly you want to keep the customer and have them go around telling people (rightly or wrongly) how you broke her mirror.

You can also try to lay a guilt trip on the customer and try to get her to confess to hitting it on the side of the garage when she backed out.

Good luck, been there done that.

I was afraid you'd say something like that. Darn it!

Well, I looked up online and there is a web site that sells just the mirror. Have you ever reaplced just the mirror? It's definitely hack of lot cheaper than buying the entire mirror casing.

Make sure you order the correct mirror, I believe many of the Tahoes were offered with different mirror configurations. I would order the mirror using the vehicle's vin #. The mirror is also fairly easy to change. Just make sure you push the center of the mirror with the palm of your hand until it snaps into place. If you try to push on the edges it will crack.

look for a local "Mr Auto Glass" cost about $25