Woman’s GMC Falls Off Lift At Dealership Overnight, And Now They’re Quoting Her $12K To Fix Their Own Mistake

A couple from North Georgia is dealing with a terrible situation after they dropped off their 2020 GMC Sierra for regular warranty work. What should have been a simple service visit turned into a disaster when their truck fell off the lift overnight at a South Carolina Chevrolet dealership. The vehicle is now in pieces, and instead of taking responsibility, the dealership wants them to pay $12,000 to fix it.

Lindsey, who posts on TikTok as @lindsetmommaof4, shared videos of the damaged truck that have gotten over 5 million views. The videos show her Sierra lying in pieces inside the repair shop, clearly badly damaged from the fall. The couple had brought the truck in to fix a wiring problem that kept coming back, which was covered under their extended warranty. They got a loaner car while the work was being done.

Then they got the phone call no car owner wants to hear. The service manager at the dealership told them that the truck had fallen off the lift overnight and might be totaled. To make things worse, Lindsey says the dealership told them their security cameras “didn’t catch it on video.” In another TikTok video, she talked about how frustrated she was with how the dealership handled things. She said that even if they fix the vehicle, “we’re getting back, like, this damaged truck, and who knows what issues we’re gonna have with it after we get it back.”

Things Got Even Messier After That

The couple had a hard time getting any updates or photos from the service department. When Lindsey went to the dealership in person to talk to the owner, she says he didn’t seem to care and refused to give them information about the insurance policy or offer them fair payment. The dealership, which she later said was Valley River Chevrolet in Murphy, North Carolina, keeps insisting they want to repair the truck instead of declaring it a total loss.

Legally speaking, this kind of situation usually falls under something called garagekeepers’ liability insurance. Most repair shops and dealerships have this insurance to protect customer cars while they’re being worked on. When a car gets damaged while it’s in a shop’s care, the shop and their insurance company are supposed to pay for it, not the customer. 

The dealership should have insurance that covers things like lift failures, damage from tools, or accidents while handling vehicles. Just like a man who rented out his Toyota RAV4 and got a different vehicle back, this case shows how quickly things can go wrong when your car is in someone else’s hands.

But insurance companies sometimes try to pay out less money by arguing about whose fault it was or by offering to fix the car instead of calling it totaled. People who help consumers say that owners in these situations should ask for their own independent inspector and not agree to any repairs without getting a complete written estimate first. Car owners might also be able to take legal action if the shop didn’t properly secure the lift or was using broken equipment.

The situation gets more complicated because of the extended warranty deal and because the dealership is in a different state from where the couple lives. Lindsey talked about how much this will cost them, saying “It’s gonna be a huge financial burden on our family to go out and buy another new truck.” The couple is still waiting to see how this gets resolved.