Am I being unreasonable? Shoddy smart repair by BMW

Am I being unreasonable? Shoddy smart repair by BMW

Author
Discussion

Doodlebug87

Original Poster:

188 posts

113 months

Friday 29th May 2015
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Picked up a 59 plate 335d M Sport last week from a BMW main dealer, 33k on the clock and in very good nick. Before purchasing, they pointed out a few bits on the car which were going to be fixed, these being the wheels and a couple of scuffs on the front and rear bumper. No great damage whatsoever, just minor bits where the old boy who owned it clearly didn't listen to the parking sensors.... When I picked the car up, they had refurbed the wheels but mentioned they forgot to repair the scuffs. They picked it up a few days later, put it in for smart repair with their usual repairer and delivered it back to me. After examining the repairs, this is what I have found..... Hope the pictures are clear enough - these imperfections are not reflections or tricks of the eye, it is essentially where each repair has been carried out to such a poor standard that the colour match is massively out, nothing has been blended and also looks like filler hasn't been properly sanded....

Exhibit's A, B, C & D - arrows added to make it clear what you are looking at, although they really aren't needed on the full res pics and to be honest aren't needed on these either.









I have emailed them with the evidence and made it clear that I am not happy, haven't received a response as yet but I am hoping and assuming they will fix it. I could have done a better job with a touch up pen, cannot believe what a crap job has been done! Understand it is a used car which will have imperfections but they have made it look a lot worse than before their "repair". Fair enough if Dave up the road had a go on a smashed up Rover 25, but this is a BMW main dealer!

HTP99

22,546 posts

140 months

Friday 29th May 2015
quotequote all
It is a 6 year old car, it wont be perfect, if the smart repair had been done on the car before you had looked at and bought it, would you have noticed.....probably not.

daytona365

1,773 posts

164 months

Friday 29th May 2015
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A truly harrowing tale. Maybe some sort of online appeal could help right this gross injustice ?

northwest monkey

6,370 posts

189 months

Friday 29th May 2015
quotequote all
daytona365 said:
A truly harrowing tale. Maybe some sort of online appeal could help right this gross injustice ?
I've notified Bob Geldof & he's writing a song.

OP - what colour do you want the wristbands?

Doodlebug87

Original Poster:

188 posts

113 months

Friday 29th May 2015
quotequote all
I'm not expecting it to be perfect, but surely it is not hard to do a proper smart repair? It looks worse in person than in the pictures, also these have been resized to fit on here. It is a very poor job. Having spent 17k on a car, used or otherwise, and have a bodge like this carried out is not in the realms of being reasonable in my view.

knitware

1,473 posts

193 months

Friday 29th May 2015
quotequote all
daytona365 said:
A truly harrowing tale. Maybe some sort of online appeal could help right this gross injustice ?
Nice troll but boring, I can't believe you actually took the time to bother.

OP, request the BMW re-do the work, ring and say you're not happy I'm sure they will re do the work for you.


anothernameitist

1,500 posts

135 months

Friday 29th May 2015
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Oh dear if the old boy did that I bet the transmission is done in too.

Ah well you live and learn

ChasW

2,135 posts

202 months

Friday 29th May 2015
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If I had paid for that repair I'd reject it. I have used the local smart repair guys quite often but twice I have had to get them do the job again. There was no quibble.

northwest monkey

6,370 posts

189 months

Friday 29th May 2015
quotequote all
Take the pictures from 10' away.

zedstar

1,736 posts

176 months

Friday 29th May 2015
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I wouldn't be happy with that - I would however ask that the parts be resprayed properly with a contribution by the dealership. I had one of my bumpers smart repaired by BMW on a silver 3 series and it was perfect, you couldn't tell where the original scratch had been.

Shaoxter

4,075 posts

124 months

Friday 29th May 2015
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In the time you've taken to make the pictures with the arrows and post them up, you could have called them up or gone there to get them to redo it...

daniel1920

310 posts

118 months

Friday 29th May 2015
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A quick remap should cover up the imperfections

lord trumpton

7,392 posts

126 months

Friday 29th May 2015
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Smart repairs are always detectable to a keen eye. They are a quick fix that 95% of buyers are hsppy with.

Its about what i would expect from a smart repair. If you are not happy then insist it be removed and repainted fully.

t400ble

1,804 posts

121 months

Friday 29th May 2015
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Didn't notice at time of collection?

Doodlebug87

Original Poster:

188 posts

113 months

Friday 29th May 2015
quotequote all
Haha I love PH, clearly it's Friday and people are bored judging by some of the comments! As said, I have already emailed them - the reasoning for the email rather than a call is that it was after opening hours by the time I'd checked it over. It's not an urgent matter so I will wait for them to contact me.... Wasn't attempting to gain some kind of internet support for the injustice, more just about showing the shoddy work by the painter! As mentioned above, a remap should help buff them out.

anothernameitist

1,500 posts

135 months

Friday 29th May 2015
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If that fails Tcut put on with a Brillo pad might be your solution

berlintaxi

8,535 posts

173 months

Friday 29th May 2015
quotequote all
northwest monkey said:
OP - what colour do you want the wristbands?
2 shades of silver obviously.

anothernameitist

1,500 posts

135 months

Friday 29th May 2015
quotequote all
berlintaxi said:
2 shades of silver obviously.
50 shades of Grey

Squiggs

1,520 posts

155 months

Friday 29th May 2015
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Unfortunately (most) Smart repairers that do trade work cut corners.
The traders nail them down on price and the repairer has to work double quick to make money, which results in 'not so good' repairs.
In the main it's not usually problem as the buyer didn't know it was damaged in the first place and the work done is enough that the buyer wouldn't notice the repair.
Would you have noticed the 'poor' repairs if you didn't know it had been repaired????? Even if you had noticed the dealer could have said it was nothing to do with them and the previous owner must have got it repaired.

Obviously there are smart repairers out there that can perform seamless repairs - and ideally that is the standard you would like the repairs to be carried out to.

What you have to ask yourself is - is it worth asking the dealer to get the repairs done to a better standard when the chances are they'll tell the same repairer to do the repairs again?
Obviously the repairer didn't get paid enough/have the time or simply doesn't have that much pride in his work the first time round and the chances are if the dealer does take up your case he'll demand the same repairer re-works the repairs - but this time without payment!
I could be completely wrong but I can't imagine the repairs being greatly improved under those circumstances.

Doodlebug87

Original Poster:

188 posts

113 months

Friday 29th May 2015
quotequote all
The main point is the car was purchased at an agreed price on the basis I was told the damage would be fixed. If it had been in this condition before I purchased then I would have asked them to reduce the price to cover a respray! There's not much point in a smart repair if it ends up looking worse then the scuff it was meant to be repairing :-)