I went for shopping to Wal-****. I was inside Wal-**** when the incident took place. After shopping, I saw that the shopping cart hit the rear of my car and damaged rear bumper cover. I talked to store manager and was confirmed from the parking lot video that the Wal-**** shopping cart hit and damage rear bumper.The shopping cart came rolling by wind.The cart was not parked and was freely rolling in the parking lot. I was told that they will process the claim through their insurance company. I called Wal**** Insurance company and they denied the claim saying that it is not possible to maintain the parking lot,especially on windy days. I have insurance and my insurance company told me to pay deductible and of course estimate given my insurance is less than deductible. Since the insurance do not have to pay anything, they will not go behind wal**** to collect the money.

This happened in Massachusetts.

Do I have any options? Please advise.

Call the store manager who you spoke to the day of the incident. If their insurance will not pay then they can pay directly. The fact that insurance denies the claim doesn't let them off the hook.

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Originally Posted by nabrika

I went for shopping to Wal-****. I was inside Wal-**** when the incident took place. After shopping, I saw that the shopping cart hit the rear of my car and damaged rear bumper cover. I talked to store manager and was confirmed from the parking lot video that the Wal-**** shopping cart hit and damage rear bumper.The shopping cart came rolling by wind.The cart was not parked and was freely rolling in the parking lot. I was told that they will process the claim through their insurance company. I called Wal**** Insurance company and they denied the claim saying that it is not possible to maintain the parking lot,especially on windy days. I have insurance and my insurance company told me to pay deductible and of course estimate given my insurance is less than deductible. Since the insurance do not have to pay anything, they will not go behind wal**** to collect the money.

This happened in Massachussets.

Do I have any options? Please advise.

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I called the store manager and was told that they cannot do anything at store level. He said that we have insurance companies and they are supposed to take care of these issues. If they are rejecting the claim, then he cannot help.

Then explain to him you mat have no option but to sue the store in small claims, they will pay. You have to be persistent. Ever see the small card in the coat room of a restaurant that says they are not responsible for lost or stolen articles? Guess what, they are. The card is just there in hope you will just walk away. They may have insurance companies but insurance does not cover ever single liability the store has. They are liable since they failed to secure their cart in windy conditions.

If walmart has plenty of parking areas and if they on a regular basis send out employees to pick carts up, they may not be liable. If a customer just leaves the cart wrong, it is not the stores fault.

If you can prove that they don't send employees out on a regular basis, prove by photos that they don't have parking areas where you car was for carts, then you may have a case.

But if an customer just left a cart and within a few minutes wind blew it, the store would not have any liablity.

Seldom will claims for cart damage get paid, you will have the burden of proof that the store was not doing all needed to pick carts up on a timely manner

I had parked very close to cart parking area. Insurance company told me that they were doing all needed to pick up carts up on a regular basis but they cannot control if customer does not return the carts to cart park area.

I am just sad that I am getting penalize for nothing. Have to pay $500 deductible. My insurance company is not helping me. I am paying insurance premium for past 4 years with no claim at all. My assumption was that they will at least talk to Walmart.

Not really since as I noted, unless it can be proved that the store is lack in picking up carts, or don't have enough places for buggies, stores are not held liable for run away carts.

And not wanting to sound mean, but you are not being penalized, you choice the deductable for your comp imsurance, 500 or 250 or even 0 on some policies.
Assume this is being paid under comp not collission coverage.

If you could figure out who or what other customer did not put the cart away, one may try and make a case against them. Since they are the real cause of the problem.

And if they do "talk to walmart" it will be after you have the car fixed and they pay, to see about being paid back, but unless you can provide them evidence to prove walmart did something impropper, again why is Walmart at fault ?

What did they do improper,

Thanks all for quick replies. I appreciate it.

Same thing happened to me in the FreshNEasy/Dollar Tree parking lot in California, a month ago. We came out and my friend/passenger yelled for me to look on her side.. there was a FreshNEasy cart in my right fender, with a large dent (est. was $1300). I was on a slight hill, so it must have rolled down and bashed my car's fender.I went right into the store and gave a report... he took pictures, etc. Liberty Mutual insurance just told me today that they've denied the claim, cause no one saw who did it! It's still going to cost me $500 for deductible, I think.