Advice after poor 'Approved' bodyshop repairs

Advice after poor 'Approved' bodyshop repairs

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will-w

Original Poster:

250 posts

200 months

Monday 31st December 2012
quotequote all
Good afternoon all

I'll say sorry in advance for this stupidly long post; if you get chance to read it all and can offer and advice then it'd be greatly appreciated. Mods: If this is in the wrong place feel free to move

In October a 3rd party reversed out of a parking space into the side of my (at the time less than 3 month old) car, while I was stationary.

I informed my insurance company almost instantly and the car was booked in for repairs the next day.

As I insure my car with the manufacturers 'branded' insurance company it was sent to my closest dealership to be repaired by a manufacturer 'Approved Bodyshop'.

10 days later I got a call saying that my car was ready for collection. I ran down to the dealership to collect it and made a point of inspecting it before I went in to see the bodyshop guys.
Upon inspection I noticed that the rear arch hadn't been repaired correctly (did not line up with the rear bumper) and that the rear bumper itself had been 'burnt' through to the plastic in two places, where what I can only assume a work experience kid had got trigger happy with a rotary polisher.

I went straight into the dealership, protested at the state of repairs and arranged for the car to be booked in to be repaired again.

3 weeks pass until the car could be booked in again.

They had the car for 8 days this time. I get a call to collect and make my way to the dealership after work, I arrive around 5:30 (it was dark).
I do a quick visual inspection of the car and note that the arch had been repaired properly this time and that the rear bumper appeared to have been resprayed.
I collect the car and head home.

Over the next two days I had a huge amount of work to do (34.5 hours to be exact) so I did not leave the house.

On the Sunday after I had finished work, I took my partner to lay some flowers on her grandparent's grave as it was a beautiful sunny autumn day.
Walking back to the car we both noticed that not only the entire side of the car was covered with holograms and scratches but the rear bumper had been resprayed a different shade of blue and no attempt had been made to blend it in.
I immediately called the dealership on the way home and was told that as it is a Sunday they have no management in and that someone would call me first thing on the Monday.

I hadn’t heard anything by 11 the following day so I thought I’d take a drive up to the dealership and confront them face to face.
When I got there I was greeted by the Bodyshop Supervisor, I showed him the pictures I had taken the previous day and invited him to come have a look at the car himself (to which he declined).

He suggested that the car was booked in again for them to make good – I expressed my unwillingness to let them have the car for a third time knowing the problems that it came back with before but I let them have it anyway.

At this point I thought I would contact the Dealer Principal to see what he would say. Well lets say he did his job and perswaded me to book my car in.

Nearly a week later I got my car back. This time it had not been back to the bodyshop, instead they decided that a quick hand polish and a cursory ‘mop over’ would fix the problems and magically make the rear bumper match the rest of the car, which it obviously didn’t do.

On the way home I took the car into my local friendly detailer for him to inspect the damage. After we had wiped off some of the polish that had been applied we noticed that there was no difference at all to the holograms and scratches, just that they had been covered over slightly with said polish.
Even the newly painted rear bumper was covered with scratches from the last ‘attempt’ at polishing, and of course there was no difference to its colour or how it had been blended.

The detailer has given me a quote of £500 to remove them and attempt to restore to as-new condition, this of course won’t rectify the colour difference.

Since then I have spoken to the Dealer Principal, stated that I do not feel safe letting them have the car back and requested some form of compensation for the frankly shocking job done on my still not 6 month old car.
The best offer he could come back with was a cheque for £200 payable to the dealer on completion of the work. This offer has been made verbally and there is nothing in writing from them.

Now as this is an insurance job I have contacted them and requested that they send an Engineer to assess the damage. This is booked in for the 3rd Jan and I’m waiting to see what happens.
I have also contacted the manufacturer but they frankly could not be bothered as it is an issue between a dealership and myself, even though the bodyshop is an ‘Approved’ bodyshop.

I’ve tried working this out amicably and got nothing but resistence in return. All I want is my less than 6 month old car to be returned to the condition that it was before the accident.

I guess my question is what should be my next step? Where do I stand legally? Am I making a fuss over nothing?

YouTube video of holograms: http://youtu.be/PzttfnDo_Ko








Thanks
Will

tercelgold

969 posts

156 months

Monday 31st December 2012
quotequote all
That is atrocious, can you get someone to measure the clearcoat left on that car.

3 Months old and 18 days in repairs followed by 20 years of wear in a car wash.

Edited by tercelgold on Monday 31st December 14:24

rb5er

11,657 posts

171 months

Monday 31st December 2012
quotequote all
Bodyshops suck in my experience.

I have never had one that has managed to finish a car to the standard I expect.

Good luck getting it sorted but I imagine you are fighting a losing battle. Idiots.

huwp

833 posts

174 months

Monday 31st December 2012
quotequote all
Looks like more than £500 to get put right.

You have a contract with your insurer. Your recourse is against them. They have to be given a reasonable opportunity to put the defects right. Arguably they had had that already.

That said, as you have the assessor booked to see the car on the 3rd I would see what they say. I would want the car to go to a different body shop.

If that isn't what they agree to you would be wise to get a proper independent inspection and a couple of quotes for the remedial work (you have a duty to mitigate your loss). Then demand the cost from your insurer (either before or after you have the work done) and then sue the insurer for breach of contract.

If others tell you to persue the bodyshop rather than your insurer they are wrong.

If in doubt take legal advice (from the CAB if cost is an issue).


dai1983

2,900 posts

148 months

Monday 31st December 2012
quotequote all
They dont happen to be in Abergavenny, Wales do they? I crashed my blue Octavia Vrs in some snow a few years ago. Every panel on the drivers side, front and rear bumpers plus the spoiler were replaced. It cost the insurance company £5k. When I picked the car up I noticed a wheel was still scratched, drivers door didnt line up, marks to interior trim where it was prised open with screw drivers, overspray on boot glass and parcel shelf, washer bottle US from crash and seats were stained from where it was kept outside in winter with no divers side glass. I had it inspected by an independent engineer and they denied the problems existed until they paid for their own inspector who said it was shocking.

In the end they retofied the faults but my car was never the same and still had marks and the stains that were not present beforehand. I got rid of it soon after and I even noticerust coming through on the drivers door when I give it its final wash.

TIGERSIX

969 posts

230 months

Monday 31st December 2012
quotequote all
That is a shocking repair the sander marks are bad enough but the burnishing to the paint is eye watering .Given the age of the car and being the innocent party leaves a bad taste.The people we use up here would weep if they saw this .

Jasandjules

69,787 posts

228 months

Monday 31st December 2012
quotequote all
Contact your insurer. Get them to rectify the faults.

tbc

3,017 posts

174 months

Monday 31st December 2012
quotequote all
Take it up with the insurance company it's there responsibility that they use a bodyshop that is competent

There is a body shop / accident repair place near me and I would rather have a go at fixing damage myself than use them

They begin with W and it rhymes with 'stes'

I have seen £40k Porsches with shocking bumper resprays


DrTre

12,955 posts

231 months

Monday 31st December 2012
quotequote all
Are you making a fuss over nothing? Absolutely not.
Have you done everything correctly, allowing the dealership more than one attempt to make good their obvious errors which you spotted immediately? Yep.
What should you do next, speak to your insurers as you are due you car back to you in the same condition it was before the accident.

JuniorD

8,613 posts

222 months

Monday 31st December 2012
quotequote all
I feel your anguish, but in my experience this is par for the course. Dealer body shops are dreadful and I would expect nothing but disappointment. See this matter as a long term project and don't relent (as I have done after losing my will on more than one occasion) but push the insurer until you reach satisfaction.

aka_kerrly

12,415 posts

209 months

Monday 31st December 2012
quotequote all
rb5er said:
Bodyshops suck in my experience.

I have never had one that has managed to finish a car to the standard I expect.

Good luck getting it sorted but I imagine you are fighting a losing battle. Idiots.
frown

Sadly this is my experience. The best paint work I have seen has all come from bodyshops where only a small fraction of their work comes from insurance work.

snotrag

14,441 posts

210 months

Monday 31st December 2012
quotequote all
Wow, the pictures were much worse than I expected, sorry!

As above - I think you need to try and find (on reccomendation, try the relevant regional forum of PH?) a decent, independent, bodyshop, that does proper work not just insurance repairs. Then you also need to get onto your insurance company and try and get through to them that there going to be paying for it.

Monty Python

4,812 posts

196 months

Monday 31st December 2012
quotequote all
Did they offer you a choice of bodyshop? When this happened to me I was given the choice of a local Ford one or a BMW one 20 miles away. It was a difficult choice, but after about 0.4 seconds of thought, I settled on the BMW one. They collected the car and returned it a few weeks later in prefect condition - the repair job they did was superb.

SmoothCriminal

5,041 posts

198 months

Monday 31st December 2012
quotequote all
This is why I don't know why people insist on a manufacturer repair when they get their car fixed.

You can put as much glitter and silver stars on st as you want but the fact of the matter is it will always be st.

Go on recommendations rather than oh it's a dealer so must be good.

(Not implying the OP did this but his car just goes to show clowns are everywhere even if they have a manufacturers badge.)

crossy67

1,570 posts

178 months

Monday 31st December 2012
quotequote all
Oooh dear me.

I have worked in and around body shops most of my working life, I have seen good and bad. I have also seen customers that are impossible to please, some obviously just don't want the car back and are trying to find every little fault to knock the car back in the hope someone will get fed up trying to appease them and give in.

As I was reading your post I was a bit suspicious but after seeing the photos, Jesus I really feel sorry for you. Whilst the photos aren't of the worst standard of work I have ever seen they sure are bad enough to warrant a big complaint.

Best advice I could give is speak to your insurance company and tell them you are not returning the car to the body shop again. Tell them you want to choose your own body shop for the rectification work. Then get a body shop that is recommended.

The way the insurance industry works is they will choose an "approved" body shop based on how little they can pay them, never on the quality of their work. The decent body shops will charge more than the £23-26/h the insurance companies want to pay. Why? Because they have decent staff that are good at their job and know they are worth more than the £7.50/h the "approved" body sops can afford to pay.

This all boils down to how much we pay for insurance but I'm not getting on that soap box!


Good luck with it, you really do have grounds for complaint. The swirly marks on the trim 2nd photo are DA sander marks btw.

jeff666

2,306 posts

190 months

Monday 31st December 2012
quotequote all
The bodyshop is working "down to a price" and not up to a standard, hourly rates are being squeezed by the ins companies more and more now days, hope you can get it sorted op.

will-w

Original Poster:

250 posts

200 months

Monday 31st December 2012
quotequote all
Thanks for the replies chaps, I thought I was going completely mad with this one frown

I know of a very reputable detailer in the area who also does paintwork so I think this might be a good avenue to go down.

I have told my insurance company that my car will never be going back to that dealership or bodyshop and that I will be wanting it to go elsewhere.

I have already suggested another dealership for it to go to but I am sceptical about the finish. I trust them to do a good job (paint wise) but as we all know, bodyshops aren't experts at paint finish and I worry that the finish is already past what a bodyshop can restore.

IATM

3,774 posts

146 months

Monday 31st December 2012
quotequote all
will-w said:
Thanks for the replies chaps, I thought I was going completely mad with this one frown

I know of a very reputable detailer in the area who also does paintwork so I think this might be a good avenue to go down.

I have told my insurance company that my car will never be going back to that dealership or bodyshop and that I will be wanting it to go elsewhere.

I have already suggested another dealership for it to go to but I am sceptical about the finish. I trust them to do a good job (paint wise) but as we all know, bodyshops aren't experts at paint finish and I worry that the finish is already past what a bodyshop can restore.
I would imagine you do know a thing or two if you know about detailing but I would make sure paint correction is completed and not a cover with polish as they will in time wear off and the marks will show again.

I would do as other people have said and get back onto the phone to the insurance company. You have actually done a lot of the work for them going back and forth with BMW I would have really taken my problems to the insurance company. Your service is with them and it is their responsiblity to make sure the car is repaired back to its condition as per the policy you have taken out.


crossy67

1,570 posts

178 months

Monday 31st December 2012
quotequote all
Those holographic type marks you mentioned look like that could be where someone has tac raged the base coat. As the fault is on the base coat and covered with lacquer there is no option but to repaint.

Colour matching plastic bumpers is not as easy as you might think. The paint lays down differently on plastic than it does on metal, it's very common to paint a car with the same paint and to have the bumpers look a totally different colour.

will-w

Original Poster:

250 posts

200 months

Monday 31st December 2012
quotequote all
crossy67 said:
Those holographic type marks you mentioned look like that could be where someone has tac raged the base coat. As the fault is on the base coat and covered with lacquer there is no option but to repaint.

Colour matching plastic bumpers is not as easy as you might think. The paint lays down differently on plastic than it does on metal, it's very common to paint a car with the same paint and to have the bumpers look a totally different colour.
As the holograms are all over the car, on areas that haven't been repaired I sincerely hope that's not the case!

As for the bumper match, I know of this first hand. I used to do an evening course in vehicle restoration; I've sprayed a number of cars including bumpers and it's always hard to match, I understand that. But, I have personally sprayed the rear of an 18 year old car with water based paint and got the match 90% better than this, and I was a 2nd year student, not a professional.

My car is less than 6 months old, had immaculate paintwork and was not even remotely faded. The finish should be perfect, just as it was before it went in.

Sorry if this seams like a rant, it honestly is not intended to be, I'm just a bit tired after 10 weeks of chasing something that wasn't even my fault to start with frown