Christopher Neil (not) repairing cars :(

[onedsla]

Hi - a brief history of my situation:

Jan 31 - went for a 'spin' in the ice in my 1000 mile S2 111S. Outcome was damage to front bumper, side skirt and chassis at side.

Feb 01 - Car taken to Christopher Neil

Feb 02 - Incident reported to insurance (Tesco)

Feb 03 - Christopher Neil working on estimate, estimated 6 weeks for repair.

Feb 10ish - heard nothing, phoned CN who claim to have faxed insurance.
Called insurance who received nothing.

Feb 15ish - Insurance confirmed received estimate

Feb 16 - 23 - chasing insurance just about every day to get an engineer out.

Feb 24 - Engineer approves repair.
Assume everything is in hand.

Today - Call CN who say the parts have arrived, but suddenly 2 cars have appeared in the queue and they're estimating 6 - 8 weeks from NOW! Apparently 'It's a big job'

All this time I've been without my own car, making do with hire cars, taxis and a borrowed one from a friend. I'm feeling powerless and seriously pissed about being without my car for so long.

Has anybody got any suggestions on how to get CN to fix car quickly?

Edited dates

>>> Edited by onedsla on Tuesday 25th March 11:50

[Ye Olde Esprit]

Sorry to hear about your troubles.

Do CN not offer courtesy cars? I mean for such a long time without your car, most good garages do provide them.

I assume now that the insurance has approved them, it is too late to tell them that you will take it to another dealer if they cannot do better?

Regards,
Nicholas

[alunr]

Problem is is it was your fault so you won't get a courtesy car from the Insurance Company (unless you've paid for one in your insurance).

Speak to the Insurance co and see if they can organise one.

Its probably not CN's fault really - Faxes have a habit of going missing at Direct Line (Tesco is part of RBOS group as well). I know because I've been there when the estimate was faxed to DL from my accident and they claimed not to have recieved it.

[spining-v-grid]

CN do have courtesy cars as they own the Toyota dealership next door. I had the pleasure of blasting around in a 1.0 Yaris for a few days

As you maybe aware I have recently written off my car with no 3rd party involved and the repairing garage was more than happy to supply a vehicle..........well until it was written off.

My advice is to give them a call.

SVG

[onedsla]

I've asked CN every time about a temporary car but they don't want to know.

I had some sort of corsa from tesco for the first 14 days as part of some insurance deal, but that's long gone.

I'm thinking of going there in person tomorrow and kicking off in the showroom to see how they react. Maybe the sales team can put pressure on them if the body shop won't budge?

[Ye Olde Esprit]

I haven't dealt with CN, but I know from dealing with other Lotus dealers that they do take ages to get things done. 'Kicking off' always helps them to start returning calls and messages as well as keeping you up to date. Basically doing what they should anyway!

Worth a try, but make it very clear to them that they need to up their game as you are not impressed, and mentioning that you won't be recommending them to your 'many' Lotus owning friends can help too!

Regards,
Nicholas

[Stevef]

I don't know if you can opt to take it somewhere else if they haven't started repairs. Peter Smiths rechassied my S1 in 6 working days, so tell them to get off their fat arses or you will take it somewhere else.

[DanH]

The problem with insurance repairs like this, is that garages like to keep them in to work on as filler between other jobs that come in. This allows them to keep everyone busy, but still take in cars for normal work etc. Thus your car will keep being bumped for other stuff that comes up.

You just have to keep riding them. If they haven't started the work, its still probably quicker to lean on them to do it than take it elsewhere. If you ring them enough, they'll probably push the work through to get you out their hair

Remember when you collect it to be bloody anal inspecting it to check the job is good enough. Check the quality of the spraying etc, as you can reject bad repairs and make them put them right.

[onedsla]

I know they've ordered and receieved the parts - is there still time to take it elsewhere?

[DanH]

Dunno about moving it, why not ring another Lotus dealer nearby and ask them about it?

Got a feeling it may be too late if they have all the parts now.

[onedsla]

Further to this post, in my latest conversation, they're now denying ever saying to me that it would take 6 weeks to have it fixed.

Apparently it's better to imply their customers are lying than admit to being wrong.

I'm obviously furious and going to take this up with Lotus customer services.

[Felix7]

I know just how you feel, having had similar problems with Strattons with my 111S, I made sure that Landrover Customer Services were copied into my e-mails to H R Owen in Colchester when I had a problem with my Freeloader.

To their credit, their help has resolved the issues I had with the Landie (under warranty) so I would keep Lotus CS in the loop.

Good luck and I hope you get the car fixed sooner rather than later.

PC

>> Edited by Felix7 on Tuesday 25th March 12:49

[DanH]

Lotus customer services 01953 608932

[PetrolTed]

You've had some good advice here. As it sounds like it's starting to get a bit messy I'd take the matter to Lotus as suggested and it's probably best not to further the discussion on an open forum until its resolved.

In future I'd appreciate it names weren't mentioned in disputes like this as it makes life difficult for us. If people want to know names they can always request details via your profile.