TroubleShooters: Car wash gone wrong

WILMINGTON -- Marshall Mansolillo went to Buff Masters car wash at the corner of Wrightsville Avenue and College Road in Wilmington. But while his car was being washed it was rear-ended by the unattended car on the conveyor belt behind it. Now, both car owners want the car wash to pay for damages, but say they're getting the runaround from store managers. Mansolillo said, "The car came off the ramp, and it went right into my car." It's been a month since Marshall Mansolillo took his car to be cleaned at buff masters car wash. Before he left the car had $1,700 dollars in damages. Mr. Mansolillo still isn't sure exactly what went wrong, but he thinks that car wash attendants left another customer's car in drive instead of neutral when it was put on the car wash's conveyor belt. That customer, Antonio Bradford, had even worse damage to his vehicle. Mansolillo says the owner of the car wash, Mark Johnson, left his customers to fend for themselves. Mansolillo said, "He said, 'Well, I'm not going to do anything to help you, the only thing I'm going to do is to help you get Mr. Bradford to pay.' I said, 'Why should he have to pay, he didn't do anything, he left the car in your hands, just like I did.' And he said, 'Well, I'm not going to do anything,' and then he hung up on me." When we called Mr. Johnson to find out the details about the accident at his car wash he hung up on us too. But not before telling us he had forwarded the investigation on to his insurance company, Ohio Casualty. Attorneys tell NewsChannel 3 they think the customers have a great case for small claims court. "It's called bailment, and the person who takes your car is supposed to be careful, and not be negligent," Attorney Thom Goolsby said. "It sounds like a pretty simple cut-and-dry case to me. They have to be responsible for the cars they take in, particularly if their employees are the ones who are controlling them, and if damage happens, they're responsible" These customers have their own car insurance, but don't want to pay the deductible or watch their premiums go up when they say the accident is not their fault. We'll let you know what happens.