Complaint Review: Wal Mart Automotive - Nevada Missouri

My college age daughter found that her car battery had died, again.  My husband told her she needed a new battery.  My husband jump started the car and drove it to the automotive center at Wal Mart with my daughter.  When they arrived at the automotive center, 3 cars were in line to be serviced.  The employee told him to park the car in line.  My husband advised him that if he turned off the car it would not start again, since the battery was bad.  The Wal Mart employee told him that was fine and to turn off the car.  He did the paper work, paid for the battery and installation of the battery, and left the keys with the attendant.  My daughter and I shopped in the store until the work was done.  It took 2 hours.  When we were finally alerted that the car was complete I went to the automotive department to get the keys and finish any necessary additional paperwork.  When we tried to depart the automotive door the employee told us we were the last customers, that department was closed and we would have to exit the main Wal Mart store doors, and go around to pick up the vehicle. I told my daughter since it was dark out, and the automotive parking was remote, for safety reasons I would drive her in my car to pick up her car.  When I got to her car the whole right side of the vehicle was crushed in!  We did not move the vehicle, immediately contacted a manager in the store. (The automotive employee had already hastily left after finishing with us when he gave us the keys). She took down my information, looked at the damage of the vehicle, and I also called the local police department and they came out and looked at the damage also took a report.

 The vehicle still ran, and we drove it home.  Later I took the vehicle to my local Ford dealership and the body department gave me an estimate of repairs. The damage was $1,800.00 dollars.  I gave all this information to the Wal Mart manager, and was informed that the main office in Bentonville would contact me. They did inform me that they do not have cameras in the tire parking area to view, but did view cameras of our entrance and noted the damage was not there when we arrived. When I was contacted several weeks later from Bentonville the man I spoke with told me that since the damage occurred in the parking lot, that Wal Mart was not responsible for the repairs. I reminded him that it was not actually the parking lot, but the area they park cars after auto work.  He told me the policy remains the same. They refused to pay for the damage.  I took pictures of the damage; I took pictures of the automotive parking, and garage area. I noticed that in the garage was a large red tire rack.  This was interesting because my car had red paint at the damage area at about the same height as the rack.  An employee would have to drive next to that rack to pull in or out of the garage.

I tired to bring Wal Mart to small claims, but you must have the Agent of Record name, and despite hours of research that name is not readily available (I think on purpose) and I was never able to obtain that information.  I was told I could not file small claims without that information.  This happened about 3 years ago.  I felt I had no other place to turn and gave up.