Insurers Prefered Body Shops - or mine...

[Ca11um]

Last week my car was hit by another vehicle. The driver of the other vehicle was very apologetic and was accepted full responsibility. Both my insurance and the other drivers insurance company wanted quotes from their preferred repair shops. Both repair companies have since said it’s repairable and please book the car in even though the car is old and not worth a great deal.

I called my insurance company to see if I was obliged to use either body shop and it appears it’s my choice. But… my insurer strongly advised me to use the other drivers body shop. Does anyone know why this might be?

Up until now I had wanted to use my insurers body shop as I thought if there were any problems with the repair my insurer would give me better backing to get things sorted (and they wanted to replace door skins rather than just pulling dents out and re-spraying). Could there be problems with my insurer recovering costs if I don’t take my car to the other insurers preferred body shop?

[kazman]

When i had a small bump my insurer warned be that they would only guarantee the work if i went with their approved people. Obiviously any bodyshop should guarantee their own work but you would have to take it up with them personally if there was a problem. I also only got a hire car for free if used their recommended one. In the end i went with it for the releative peace of mind and they did a very good job.
You certainly have the option though as you say.

[aka_kerrly]

If you already know of a good bodyshop then I suggest you use it, I had no end of trouble from my insurance companies "approved" shop who couldn't give a toss about my car and just wanted to get it in/out as quick as possible. The standard of work was pretty poor resulting in me refusing to accept the car on two occasions before I gave up took the car and finished it myself.

[andye30m3]

their body shops are only approved because they work for really quite low rates and on top of that are required to provide a courtesy car, this means in order to make a profit some (not all) will offer bonus schemes for workers and then encourage the work to be rushed through without the attention to detail, obviously there will always be exceptions to this.

I would always take it to my preferred place as I know they'll do a decent job, if it's not right they'll do it again not hope I don't notice.