Smart repairs SE London
Discussion
Having had no suggestions , I contacted Chips Away ,wanted to see car in the middle of the day , sorry car used to get to work , they did not want to look at car at work place , about 8 miles away from home address ,reason , "different post code ", so could I send a pic ? ok , then If estimate is ok we can collect car for repair , WHAT!!! a couple of small chips to touch up and they want to take car away , no chance , I could see the price escalating , nope give them a miss , tried another , who said works at home address , no reply to voice mail , or email .
Are these people so much in demand , they can pick and chose who they respond to .
Sigh , is there a reliable smart repairer in the South East that actually wants work ?
Are these people so much in demand , they can pick and chose who they respond to .
Sigh , is there a reliable smart repairer in the South East that actually wants work ?
A repairers point of view:
A repairer doesn't know what your expectations are.
A repairer knows that the 'touching in' of chips isn't an exact science, and no matter how long it takes 'touching in a chip' it can never be guaranteed as a perfect repair and it should be strongly pointed out as being 'an improvement' only repair.
To confuse things further ....
Whilst a repairer knows that almost every paint colour can be sprayed to complete a seamless repair, and that those exact same paints when used for 'touching in' will (for technical reasons) change their colour or hue, and that any paint containg silver/pearl tints in their mix will loose their reflective qualities and appear dull, grey, murky and muddy - customers don't!
Taking all this into consideration and depending on how fussy the customer is the 'touching in' of a couple of chips could take a couple of days ....
Apply paint, allow to dry, wet sand, and repeat, and repeat, and repeat.
Then apply lacquer, allow to dry, wet sand, and repeat, and repeat, and repeat.
Finally machine polish.
Most people won't pay a repairer to paw over their car for a few days work for the sake of a couple of chips with only the words of 'improvement only' ringing in their ears.
As said earlier, it's not a exact science, so each 'chip touch-in' will be a jump into the unknown as to how long it will it take to get it as good as it can be made on that day - so a repairer might get exactly the same 'improvement only' result after 10 mins work
Apply paint, dry, apply lacquer.
If a repairer is running a successful smart repair business repairing minor scuffs, scratches and dents (each of which will be a minimum of about 2.5 hrs work) is he really going to go out of his way to do 10 min's work on a few 'chip touch ins'?
[NB. Mr J Bloggs somehow accepts that a plumber, electrician, etc will charge £50+ as a call out charge and then £30+ per hour for labour ... plus parts/materials ... plus VAT - for working on something that probably cost a fraction of their car. But the same Mr J Bloggs seems to expect a mobile Smart repairer to work on their pride and joy that might have cost £k's at the same hourly rate (or portion of) as a burger flipper at McDonalds?]
In short most repairers that have taken on 'chip touch ins' will have found that:
The customer thinks it too expensive
Or
The repairer makes no money for the time it's taken
Or
One or the other of the above, and either/both the repairer/customer thinks the 'touch in' is unsatisfactory.
Have you thought about buying a chip kit and doing them yourself
A repairer doesn't know what your expectations are.
A repairer knows that the 'touching in' of chips isn't an exact science, and no matter how long it takes 'touching in a chip' it can never be guaranteed as a perfect repair and it should be strongly pointed out as being 'an improvement' only repair.
To confuse things further ....
Whilst a repairer knows that almost every paint colour can be sprayed to complete a seamless repair, and that those exact same paints when used for 'touching in' will (for technical reasons) change their colour or hue, and that any paint containg silver/pearl tints in their mix will loose their reflective qualities and appear dull, grey, murky and muddy - customers don't!
Taking all this into consideration and depending on how fussy the customer is the 'touching in' of a couple of chips could take a couple of days ....
Apply paint, allow to dry, wet sand, and repeat, and repeat, and repeat.
Then apply lacquer, allow to dry, wet sand, and repeat, and repeat, and repeat.
Finally machine polish.
Most people won't pay a repairer to paw over their car for a few days work for the sake of a couple of chips with only the words of 'improvement only' ringing in their ears.
As said earlier, it's not a exact science, so each 'chip touch-in' will be a jump into the unknown as to how long it will it take to get it as good as it can be made on that day - so a repairer might get exactly the same 'improvement only' result after 10 mins work
Apply paint, dry, apply lacquer.
If a repairer is running a successful smart repair business repairing minor scuffs, scratches and dents (each of which will be a minimum of about 2.5 hrs work) is he really going to go out of his way to do 10 min's work on a few 'chip touch ins'?
[NB. Mr J Bloggs somehow accepts that a plumber, electrician, etc will charge £50+ as a call out charge and then £30+ per hour for labour ... plus parts/materials ... plus VAT - for working on something that probably cost a fraction of their car. But the same Mr J Bloggs seems to expect a mobile Smart repairer to work on their pride and joy that might have cost £k's at the same hourly rate (or portion of) as a burger flipper at McDonalds?]
In short most repairers that have taken on 'chip touch ins' will have found that:
The customer thinks it too expensive
Or
The repairer makes no money for the time it's taken
Or
One or the other of the above, and either/both the repairer/customer thinks the 'touch in' is unsatisfactory.
Have you thought about buying a chip kit and doing them yourself
Well that's probably part of the reason why they haven't got back to you .......
I would imagine most people trying to contact someone in a trade because they needed some work done but only managing to get to them by voice mail or email would at least leave some sort of message as to what needed doing
I would imagine most people trying to contact someone in a trade because they needed some work done but only managing to get to them by voice mail or email would at least leave some sort of message as to what needed doing
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