insurance claim - repair issue......

[chancha]

Guys, I need some advice here.........

About 8 weeks ago I was involved in an accident where a van ran into the back of my stationary Audi. Contacted my insurance company and everything was fine except I was not happy with their "approved repaairer list" and asked instead to send the car to my local Audi garage for repair. No problems so far. The car was sent there and the estimate for the car taken care of, rear bumper, boot lid, rear lights, exhaust, alloy wheel and tyre.
Went to pick the car up today and noticed that on one side of the car there is a distinct difference in "shine" where the car has been laquered 9not painted) on the rear panel. The other side of the car is fine because all of the driver sdie was laquered. The insurance company dont want to know because the side that requires laquering was not damaged in the first place and the paintshop dont want to laquer it because they will not be getting paid for it........ so I would like to know, after an accident how are you meant to get your car back to its original condition if obstacles like this are thrown in front of you?
Is the insurance company being reasonable or is the paintshop pulling a fast one...........the car is still sitting in their garage because I would not accept the car.....

[TPS]

The car has to be finished to the original condition and standard.Im confused though what colour is the car as metalics are the only colour we use to laquer.If one side has been laqured then why?

[chancha]

yup, the car is silver.........

[mark69sheer]

will it polish up with T cut?

have they actually inadvertantly oversprayed lacquer causing the dull finish.


By the way you are still better off than I was.

I used an approved repairer because the insurance company blackmailed me into it.

Car in a heap at side of road Saturday Night. Er we will take it to an approved repairer.

Don't want to.

Then get three estimates then..

oh and you'll have to drag your car round them all yourself.

have a nice weekend


The approved repairer turned out to be complete sharks.

bodging my car repair horrendously .

I tried to get my insurer to put pressure on the repair shop but they just said its between you and them.

Well it was till I collected the car and they hadn't fixed it properly causing more damage. There was no air in two tyres and no oil in the auto gearbox.
I then spotted that the repairers had claimed for things that weren't even damaged in the original crash.
Then and only then did the insurer back me up and the car went back 5 times till both myself and the insurers head engineer were happy.

4 months to sort out

I have never used Norwich Union since

[chancha]

no, the laquered finish is brighter than the original. Good stuff if you laquer the whole side of the car (which they have done on the drivers side but not on the other), but when you stop on the rear quarter panel and leave the rest it is bloody obvious.

[chancha]

mark69sheer said:

will it polish up with T cut?

have they actually inadvertantly oversprayed lacquer causing the dull finish.


By the way you are still better off than I was.

I used an approved repairer because the insurance company blackmailed me into it.

Car in a heap at side of road Saturday Night. Er we will take it to an approved repairer.

Don't want to.

Then get three estimates then..

oh and you'll have to drag your car round them all yourself.

have a nice weekend


The approved repairer turned out to be complete sharks.

bodging my car repair horrendously .

I tried to get my insurer to put pressure on the repair shop but they just said its between you and them.

Well it was till I collected the car and they hadn't fixed it properly causing more damage. There was no air in two tyres and no oil in the auto gearbox.
I then spotted that the repairers had claimed for things that weren't even damaged in the original crash.
Then and only then did the insurer back me up and the car went back 5 times till both myself and the insurers head engineer were happy.

4 months to sort out

I have never used Norwich Union since

Mark, sounds like I've been lucky right enough. Makes you wonder though when you phone the insurance and you just know that no matter what you say to them they are just going to give you the old "sorry can't help because you didn't take it to one of our approved repairers"..... low and behold that's exactly what she said to me this afternoon....... I said she should have been a lawyer with some of the answers she was giving me..........

[TPS]

Well they have to refinish to the original condition and most repairs should be guaranteed for 3 years.Take it back and start shouting is my advise.

[chancha]

will do............

[hondafanatic]

Just a couple of things for people reading this...I used to be a body repair manager for a Lotus and Subaru dealership.

This info may be out of date as it was five years ago...however, all insurance companies want you to use an approved repairer. However, you don't have to no matter what they say and the only thing you might forfeit by doing so is a courtesy car. Not a problem if it's a no fault accident as you're entitled to a like for like anyway. And if you going to a main dealer then they will probably have one for you.

Also, don't believe the three quotes thing...you should be able to get away just the two. One from the garage you want to use, and the other from the insurance companies assessor. So you only need to get the car recovered to your garage of choice as the assessor will come out to it.

The insurance company cannot give up responsibility for botched repairs just because you don't use an approved repairer either. Don't let them fob you off.

Another thing to bear in mind, most new cars come with a paint/bodywork guarantee, typically 10 years or so. This will become invalid the minute you have repairs done by anyone other than the dealership networked approved repairer. So, by taking it to an insurance approved repairer, you may just invalidate your paint/bodywork guarantee...and believe me, while working at lotus, this was a huge headache to sort out.

Disclaimer: All the above is based on my experience and I'm not saying it's perfect and cannot be updated/improved, I have no high horse or lofty sense of righteousness. I'm also not anti-insurance company in general, I just hate the way they don't play an open game when it comes to them having to cough up.

[jwo]

i recently had the misfortunate to get car repairer after some scrotes nicked it - tracker thank you. anyhow, got quote from main dealer body shop while car still in recovery yard and told insurer who was fixing it. not even a yelp of complaint from them - this was norwich union - who i will never use again due to outrageous attitude of girl on phone!

[Noger]

hondafanatic said:

However, you don't have to no matter what they say and the only thing you might forfeit by doing so is a courtesy car.

And also their guarantee of the work. But it does go deeper than just that. Bodyshops fix cars all day everyday. Main Dealers change sparkplugs and do all sorts of "non bent metal" stuff as well. Bodyshops are usually set up to connect to the various systems (Audatex, CAPS) to keep the customer informed. Main dealers are not always.

Note the above may well not apply to Lotus, as anything special like that will probably flag to go to the dealer anyway.

hondafanatic said:

Also, don't believe the three quotes thing...you should be able to get away just the two. One from the garage you want to use, and the other from the insurance companies assessor. So you only need to get the car recovered to your garage of choice as the assessor will come out to it.

This only works if you are taking the insurer's repair offer. If you are getting quotes yourself then you will probably need 2. Your "local" garage will probably have a mate down the road who can produce a quote for £10 more without having seen the vehicle anyway !

hondafanatic said:

The insurance company cannot give up responsibility for botched repairs just because you don't use an approved repairer either. Don't let them fob you off.

Well, actually they can, quite easily. If you refuse indemnification (in this case repair) and get the work done yourself, then what does it have to do with the insurer ?

hondafanatic said:

Another thing to bear in mind, most new cars come with a paint/bodywork guarantee, typically 10 years or so. This will become invalid the minute you have repairs done by anyone other than the dealership networked approved repairer. So, by taking it to an insurance approved repairer, you may just invalidate your paint/bodywork guarantee...and believe me, while working at lotus, this was a huge headache to sort out. <snip>

vs

I'm also not anti-insurance company in general, I just hate the way they don't play an open game when it comes to them having to cough up.

Hmmm, are you not just doing exactly what
the insurers are doing there ? Trying to "get out of" your own insurance claims ?

hondafanatic said:

Disclaimer: All the above is based on my experience and I'm not saying it's perfect and cannot be updated/improved, I have no high horse or lofty sense of righteousness. I'm also not anti-insurance company in general, I just hate the way they don't play an open game when it comes to them having to cough up.

Likewise. Just different views of the same thing. The trouble with these sorts of conversations are that complaining party often neglects the fact that they themselves are companies trying to make money. Some Main Dealer bodyshop rates are often ridiculous, and the work not as good. The "nice" people who help yuou out with your claim are making stacks of money off the back of you etc etc.

Edited by Noger on Tuesday 16th October 13:01

[hondafanatic]

Noger said:

hondafanatic said:

However, you don't have to no matter what they say and the only thing you might forfeit by doing so is a courtesy car.

And also their guarantee of the work. But it does go deeper than just that. Bodyshops fix cars all day everyday. Main Dealers change sparkplugs and do all sorts of "non bent metal" stuff as well. Bodyshops are usually set up to connect to the various systems (Audatex, CAPS) to keep the customer informed. Main dealers are not always.

Note the above may well not apply to Lotus, as anything special like that will probably flag to go to the dealer anyway.

hondafanatic said:

Also, don't believe the three quotes thing...you should be able to get away just the two. One from the garage you want to use, and the other from the insurance companies assessor. So you only need to get the car recovered to your garage of choice as the assessor will come out to it.

This only works if you are taking the insurer's repair offer. If you are getting quotes yourself then you will probably need 2. Your "local" garage will probably have a mate down the road who can produce a quote for £10 more without having seen the vehicle anyway !

hondafanatic said:

The insurance company cannot give up responsibility for botched repairs just because you don't use an approved repairer either. Don't let them fob you off.

Well, actually they can, quite easily. If you refuse indemnification (in this case repair) and get the work done yourself, then what does it have to do with the insurer ?

hondafanatic said:

Another thing to bear in mind, most new cars come with a paint/bodywork guarantee, typically 10 years or so. This will become invalid the minute you have repairs done by anyone other than the dealership networked approved repairer. So, by taking it to an insurance approved repairer, you may just invalidate your paint/bodywork guarantee...and believe me, while working at lotus, this was a huge headache to sort out. <snip>

vs

I'm also not anti-insurance company in general, I just hate the way they don't play an open game when it comes to them having to cough up.

Hmmm, are you not just doing exactly what
the insurers are doing there ? Trying to "get out of" your own insurance claims ?

hondafanatic said:

Disclaimer: All the above is based on my experience and I'm not saying it's perfect and cannot be updated/improved, I have no high horse or lofty sense of righteousness. I'm also not anti-insurance company in general, I just hate the way they don't play an open game when it comes to them having to cough up.

Likewise. Just different views of the same thing. The trouble with these sorts of conversations are that complaining party often neglects the fact that they themselves are companies trying to make money. Some Main Dealer bodyshop rates are often ridiculous, and the work not as good. The "nice" people who help yuou out with your claim are making stacks of money off the back of you etc etc.

Edited by Noger on Tuesday 16th October 13:01

Super...thanks for all that.