69L71

Yesterday I spoke on the phone with Hagerty and explained the situation with my car and the lift. It took a couple of explanations for her to understand what happend but the insurance rep was receptive. I need to get her pictures of the damage and an estimate. Sadly I won't be able to get the damage estimate until the first week in April.

Today I spoke with both Scott and Mitch at Lifts Unlimited. They were very aware of the incident from my posts here. In fact, I happen to know that several other lift manufacturers are already using the incident in negative advertising campaigns against the Perfect Park 7000. That is unfortununate. Anyway, Mitch was very anxious to work with me to make things right. I suspect the car will be covered by insurance but the damage to my garage, and the total loss of the lift is something I'd prefer not to discuss with my homeowners insurance if I can avoid it. Mitch offerered to send a truck to my house, pick up the old lift, install a new one, cover the costs of my garage cabinets, and even offered to weld me up a new workbench. Its unclear right now how well my marital harmony will survive installation of another lift, and I told Mitch that. He understood and hoped that I was successful in convincing my wife to let me install another, but offered a complete refund if that didn't happen. I consider this a great first step in the manufacturer stepping up to back their product. It's still unclear what the safety-lock failure mode was and they didn't offer any possibilities. Supposedly this is anything but a common occurance.

There's still a long road ahead for dealing with getting back to my pre-Friday condition, but I'm on my way.

Stay tuned for more.....

compuvette

Wow, the vultures already are coming out of the woodwork! Negative add campains against them already! Man, that sucks about your cars! But, it is cool that they are going to help you.

topless68

Chris,

I hope everything will work out, and it sounds like it is. I think that all people (consumers) ask for is for companies to be accountable for theier product. It sounds as if they are wanting to make everything right. Who knows, this whole thing could have been a laundry list of possible errors, none of which could be the company's fault...weld failure, metallurgical failure, their is so much unknown.

Bottom line...noone was hurt in an incident that could have taken several lives. :cheers:

lyonsh

Wow, I just looked at the pics in your other post :eek: . Those pictures just made me feel sick to my stomach :cry (even my wife felt bad for you, and she thinks Vettes are frivolous) - like the rest, I'm glad you weren't hurt. I'm also happy to see that it's looking like you at least won't have to fight the insurance co./manufacturer on top of having to deal with your Vettes being "wounded."

I hope it all turns out for the best for you. :cheers:

I also think we should post the names of those other vultures, er, manufacturers who are using this incident for their own gain, and avoid their products. :mad

67HEAVEN

It's good to see the mnaufacturer entering into this situation with a positive point of view.

Good customer relations and a serious desire to get to the bottom of it all goes a long way in forming my judgment on a comapny's operations.

So far...so good!

All the best.

Rubyred

Kudos to Scott and Mitch at Lifts Unlimited. Let's face it, these things are machines and something can always happen. It is nice to see someone who will stand behind his (her to be PC) product.

Juliet

That's encouraging news Chris. :) ~Juliet

C3 Shark Tank

Glad to hear things are looking up, I've been considering a lift for some time now, other projects first though. Scott and Mitch should be commended, that's what I call outstanding customer relations. Now if they could teach those skills to other vendors the world (and me) would be a happy place. Hope the wife see things your way soon.

0Mike69@ECS

Sounds good so far Chris! I hope and I trust it will all work out. I've seen that lift and it was a very nice heavy duty piece. Screw the guys who are using it for negative advertising. It could have happened to thier product too. See if they try to steal one of your photos... then you can really put the screws to them... BTW... they should all read the forum copywright material... they can't use anything written here for commerical reasons without the consent of Troy. (that means good or bad) If they use the information gained here in negative ads they are leaving themselves wide open for a lawsuit. :yesnod:

It's good to hear that the mfg is standing behind the product. Fact is accidents can happen - any time any place. Unfortunately... lady luck bit you in the...er...car!

I have my fingers crossed for you... and again, if you need any help let me know!!!! :cheers:

DaBo

Thanks for the update,. Sounds like things are working out so far.

I also have Hagerty ins. and will be VERY interested in their response.

Give a big thumbs up to the lift mfgr. who seems to be taking care of you.
:cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

Give the finger to the vultures turning this incident into press for their own benefit. :mad :mad

Tex71BB

Yeah, what he said. And if you need any advice in this area, just check with the good Dr. :D :D :D :D :D :D

paso

Good to see the manufacturer standing behind his product. It is a freak accident I'm sure your wife will come around to see that. :)

MasterDave

I also have Haggarty and await their action on this one. Seems to me that if the lift fellas are so willing to give you a new lift, repair your garage, etc., the ins co. may say that the lift co. is also responsible for your cars. Dunno, the right thing to do, is for the ins. co. to pay and then chase the lift co. We'll see if they are as 'no hassle' as they say. Hang in there (no pun intended). :)

Jeff73454

I am worried now :bb I have had a Perfect Park 7000 now for almost 3 years. I park both of my Vettes ( One on, one under) on this lift. Should I look for some kind of defect or something to keep this from happening to me?

I think it is the best Lift I have used and I have no problems whatsoever with it. I would like to know the exact details of what happend :confused:

I will be watching this post carefully







[Modified by Jeff73454, 9:56 AM 3/20/2002]

Monkeywrench

First I'm glad to hear that things are working out nicely.

However I am concerned that the lift company is simply looking to give you a new lift and some restitution. I'd be asking them..

1) why did it fail? poor design? bad materials? etc..
2) what are you going to do to your product to ensure that this will not happen again
3) are you going to retrofit all of the existing lifts you have sold to make sure no one else get's hurt

I'm a mechanical engineer who builds industrial equipment. We have to take safety as our top priority. If you had been injured they could have very well been put out of business.

If they will not cooperate with answers to these questions you may want to consult a lawyer. You may have a product liability case on your hands. A company cannot knowingly sell defective or substandard equipment in the US.

If you want some help from the engineering aspect send me an email and I'll be glad to help.

Don't let them sweep this under the rug!!! You were very lucky to not have been hurt!!!


[Modified by Monkeywrench, 1:38 PM 3/20/2002]

verskel

Just saw your orginal photos..... -ouch- :cry
...poor vettes, that's really sad.

Good luck with getting everything back in order !
We're with ya, man. :chevy

SmokedTires

Couldn't have said it any better myself. :smash:

Glad to see positive things happening for you.

69L71

Jeff73454 & Monkeywrench:

I don't know if there will ever be a final determination on the cause. I feel that I understand the pulley failure pretty well but not the lock. I've inspected the post pretty carefully to see if there was any deformation in the track and I don't see any. I haven't had the time or inclimation to jump into FMECA gyrations (yes, I'm an Mechanical Engineer too) because I've been trying to get the recovery effort underway, but I'll look some more. So far I haven't seen anything to suggest that there was a total failure of the locking mechanism, and in fact when I went to move the lift around a bit after getting the car down (so I could put both cars back in the garage), and I jacked the crossbar up and the suspect post locked. Go figure...

I wouldn't be overly concerned, Jeff. The PP2000 is a quality unit. MUCH better than most out there. I've heard rumors (unsubstanciated) that there have been one or two other PP7000 problems, but I've also heard about at least 3 other failures (not neccesarily catastrophic) of lifts I won't name so as to avoid potential liability.

Again, lifts are mechanical machines. Failures can occur. Use your lift carefully, never get under it when its unlocked, and if it gets asymmetrically loaded because one (or more) post(s) don't lock, don't keep monkeying with it.

I will certainly pass on anything I learn.

Paul Borowski

Chris-Sure Scott and Mitch are going to make things right!!! Their business, livelyhood and reputation ARE ON THE LINE. If you owned a major corporation, would you have Arthur Anderson do your accounting???

No Bumping!!!

Monkeywrench

Another gearhead... cool! :cool:

FMECA.... :lol: that brings back memories..

I didn't want to sound like I was talking down to you. It just bothers me when the redundant safety system fails at the same time as the primary. Let's hope they don't build nuclear reactors the same way :D

When everything settles down I'd love to see some pics of the failed pulley and the lock mechanism. I did a lot of work in failure analysis early on.

Good lucka nd keep us updated.