Advice after poor 'Approved' bodyshop repairs
Discussion
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
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
Thanks for the replies chaps, I thought I was going completely mad with this one 
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 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.
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!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 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
crossy67 said:
You rant away mate. You have every right. You work hard to buy your self nice things, something bad happens to it then an insurance company makes you think they have the right to force you into accepting a sub standard repair. I would have driven it through their doors by now.
The thought had crossed my mind...
Well the Insurance Assessor came on Thursday, he took a brief look and agreed that it was not acceptable. He has advised me to take it to the only BMW dealership in the South East to have its own in-house Approved Bodyshop (Barretts group if anyone is interested?).
I went to see them yesterday, they advised that it is their policy not to do remedial work but as I purchased my car from them they would 'look into it', but couldn't promise anything.
The man there also said that they have the man from BMW UK HQ visiting on the 17th and has suggested that I meet up with him, which sounds promising.
I've also got a quote from a 3rd party (KDS in Gillingham) for the work, so we'll see how it compares.
Also an interesting one; On the original bill & estimate the original bodyshop quoted time and materials to respray the rear bumper and fuel filler cap - both of which had not been touched with any paint until it went back the second time... Tut tut tut!!
I went to see them yesterday, they advised that it is their policy not to do remedial work but as I purchased my car from them they would 'look into it', but couldn't promise anything.
The man there also said that they have the man from BMW UK HQ visiting on the 17th and has suggested that I meet up with him, which sounds promising.
I've also got a quote from a 3rd party (KDS in Gillingham) for the work, so we'll see how it compares.
Also an interesting one; On the original bill & estimate the original bodyshop quoted time and materials to respray the rear bumper and fuel filler cap - both of which had not been touched with any paint until it went back the second time... Tut tut tut!!
Sump said:
Tell BMW not to do remidial work. Tell them to repair everything and repaint etc. Not to only try and polish etc, but to actually repair the car.
Well the arch has been repaired ok (it's full of filler) it's just the bumper that is the wrong colour and the whole car needs a correction.The Bodyshop I went to yesterday will (if they agree to do it) respray the bumper and do a "Stage 3" polish all over, which takes around a day to do apparently.
Edited by will-w on Saturday 5th January 16:49
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