Garage crashed my car. What to do?

[stuttgartmetal]

I don't agree.
I'd want some compo.

You all forget how money grabbing dealers are.
F ck em
You're inconvenience because of there incompetence.
Dosh
£250 John Lewis voucher would cover it.
Write the letter.

[bad company]

stuttgartmetal said:

I don't agree.
I'd want some compo.

You all forget how money grabbing dealers are.
F ck em
You're inconvenience because of there incompetence.
Dosh
£250 John Lewis voucher would cover it.
Write the letter.

You sound like one of the whiplash claimants.

Op, please ignore this and just make sure the garage do a good job on your car.

[Tyre Tread]

stuttgartmetal said:

I don't agree.
I'd want some compo.

You all forget how money grabbing dealers are.
F ck em
You're inconvenience because of there incompetence.
Dosh
£250 John Lewis voucher would cover it.
Write the letter.

Not sure if serious!

[northwest monkey]

It happened to me a couple of years ago while the car was in for a service. Once the service had been done, it was being reversed out of the workshop & the top of the hatch where the spoiler was crunched into a tool shelf fastened to a lift. The parking sensors hadn't picked it up as it was 3' in the air.

I had a courtesy car for a week and when I picked the car up they'd put half a tank of petrol in and bought some flowers for the Mrs. It was an accident & it was resolved without any kicking off or sausages being involved.

Could be worse OP. A few years back I was picking up a car from a BMW dealer & they showed me a convertible M3 that had come in for a 1500 mile service. Somehow, it had rolled forward off the ramp whilst up in the air

[anonymous-user]

As others have said, damage happens all the time at dealerships.

My bodyshop has repaired loads of cars that have been crashed by valeters, mechanics and salesmen. Some of them brand new and not even had their first set of plates on.

At least the garage has told you... I repaired a car for a main dealer recently where the valeters had reversed another car into it and stoved the rear quarter and part of the rear door right in. Proper mess. The dealer just phoned the customer and said the mechanics were having trouble finding the fault and it would be a few more days! Then told me I had 3 days to fix it!

The only thing you need to do is make sure the repair is completely perfect, so that you can't tell it's been repaired. If you can tell it's been repaired in any way, tell them to sort it right away. If they use a competent bodyshop then it should be fine.

[Nickbrapp]

Surely you should be putting the dash cam footage on YouTube, sending a letter to the daily mail, rejecting the car and demanding a brand new one and a live TV apology from the CEO of Volvo worldwide?

[fatandwheezing]

I have written to my MP, put an advert in the Telegraph, and told Chris Evans if he insists on continuing with top gear, he might as well keep people up to date with current affairs.

Meanwhile, I have a 10yr old Astra with knackered air-con for the next few days. It's strangely enjoyable.

The garage do accident repair work, and are a long established outfit, so I'm reasonably happy for them to go ahead.

[Helicopter123]

hedgefinder said:

tarnished said:

Depends on the quality of repair. I've walked away from cars which didn't look quite straight and sometimes they've confessed it had been damaged and repaired.

this times 1000 ! iI have seen some hideous repairs done by back street garages and small time dealers.

I'm with this. If this is a newish car being repaired professionally by a main dealer then all could be well. Otherwise, I would be very wary of a repair being done cheaply. As per above, any sign of accident damage is the main reason I will walk away from a purchase. I always ask sellers if a car has been repaired, and if it were yours, you would be morally obliged to confirm.

[Magic919]

A Ford main dealer crashed our newish car. They made three poor attempts to fix it and we traded it in at the nearest other Ford dealer in the end. It's not a given that it will go well all the time.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

So what if it is. It's no different from me lending my car to my brother, he insures it, and he crashes it. He claims on his insurance to fix it. End of story, nothing to do with me or my insurers.

Do you think lease firms, when their own insurance for their own cars they drive comes up for renewal, say to their insurer "by the way, we need to tell you about the 7000 claims that have occurred on our cars that we lease out are are insured by the person leasing the car."

[Old Merc]

Why do some people want to make a huge song and dance about something small? The garage made a mistake and will sort it,end of.
Many years ago I had a lift in my workshop collapse and my customer`s car landed on its side!!! All the owner was worried about was my mechanic and I.He was so relieved that no one was injured,the condition of his car was of little concern.

[fatandwheezing]

Just to close this thread off. Picked up the car this morning, had a thorough look round it, seemed like new. They had even done the scrape on the opposite side that had been there for a couple of months.

Fully valeted, full tank of fuel, a lot of apologies, and the fee for the service waived - I actually got to the point of arguing that one but he wouldn't accept anything.

So all good in the end, and the garage have dealt with it better than I I imagined.

[Glasgowrob]

great to hear, always say its how a company reacts when they screw up which gives you a true measure of them.

they've been honest and open with you from the start, put right their mistake and made a goodwill gesture for your trouble.

sounds like you've found a good un.

[geeks]

Good result for you and they probably now have a customer for life!

[Old Merc]

There you go,perfect customer service,a great result.
Are we allowed to know the name of the garage?

[Buster73]

fatandwheezing said:

Just to close this thread off. Picked up the car this morning, had a thorough look round it, seemed like new. They had even done the scrape on the opposite side that had been there for a couple of months.

Fully valeted, full tank of fuel, a lot of apologies, and the fee for the service waived - I actually got to the point of arguing that one but he wouldn't accept anything.

So all good in the end, and the garage have dealt with it better than I I imagined.

Great stuff , bit of a bummer but all sorted plus more in the end .

Now go and spoil it all by asking for a voucher from JL like broken brains suggested.

[snorky782]

Helicopter123 said:

I'm with this. If this is a newish car being repaired professionally by a main dealer then all could be well. Otherwise, I would be very wary of a repair being done cheaply. As per above, any sign of accident damage is the main reason I will walk away from a purchase. I always ask sellers if a car has been repaired, and if it were yours, you would be morally obliged to confirm.

I'm glad all has gone well for the OP. However, I struggle with the quoted position. Quite often these are the same people extolling the virtues of a small independent over a large dealer when it come to service work.

I wonder how much of that is down to who's paying the bill?

[SpeedMattersNot]

I'm surprised at how many of you are saying you can't notice when a car has been repaired. Perhaps, if it was a micro-dent or a tiny scratch, but anything larger where bumpers have to be removed and new clips used, always stick out like sore thumb in my experience.

Also, it may look good initially but after a couple of years imperfections will become a bit more obvious...a bit like plastic surgery. I know a girl who had a nose job and she looked great...now when she smiles one eye doesn't squint the same as the other side. Looks a right mess.

[4rephill]

SpeedMattersNot said:

I'm surprised at how many of you are saying you can't notice when a car has been repaired. Perhaps, if it was a micro-dent or a tiny scratch, but anything larger where bumpers have to be removed and new clips used, always stick out like sore thumb in my experience.

Also, it may look good initially but after a couple of years imperfections will become a bit more obvious...a bit like plastic surgery. I know a girl who had a nose job and she looked great...now when she smiles one eye doesn't squint the same as the other side. Looks a right mess.

Sounds to Me as though you need to find some better quality body shops!

[Old Merc]

4rephill said:

SpeedMattersNot said:

I'm surprised at how many of you are saying you can't notice when a car has been repaired. Perhaps, if it was a micro-dent or a tiny scratch, but anything larger where bumpers have to be removed and new clips used, always stick out like sore thumb in my experience.

Also, it may look good initially but after a couple of years imperfections will become a bit more obvious...a bit like plastic surgery. I know a girl who had a nose job and she looked great...now when she smiles one eye doesn't squint the same as the other side. Looks a right mess.

Sounds to Me as though you need to find some better quality body shops!

Quite right,why do people think any repair will go wrong or be carried out poorly.
Seven years ago my pride and joy Merc SL was rear end shunted.I demanded that it was repaired by a local Mercedes restoration specialist who replaced most of the rear end.Today I have just given it a polish for a show,I gaurantee you there is not a blemish in that seven year old paint job and I bet you could not find any evidence of a repair.