I'm guessing this wont buff out.......

I had exactly the same problem quite a few year's ago, had a brand new MG ZS that was less than a year old that someone kindly decided to smash in the back of, insurance company wanted to take it to one of their body shops but I insisted on taking it to one of my choice for warranty purposes, I foolishly got the car taken to one of Reg Vardy's body shops as they were approved MG repairer's, after about 2 weeks I went to collect the car and was horrified at the state of it, overspray on windows, very poor boot fit, rear lights not fitted correctly and one cracked, ripples in paintwork and overspray on alloys, I too contacted insurance company who informed me that it was my problem as I had requested that body shop to do the work, I spoke to the manager of the body shop and pointed out all the shoddy work, I gave them a chance to rectify their work but after another week I still wasn't happy, insurance company eventually listened to me and got involved and got the car taken to another MG authorised body shop who typed did the work to the correct standard.

Hope yo don't have the same fook on Keith as its a right pain in the arse just trying to get a car the way you want it and the way it should be, hope you get sorted in the end but keep fighting till you are happy with it.

I'm no pushover mate. This will get sorted one way or another. But I might be begging for a co-pilot seat to Ripon if this drags on.

kgt wrote:

I'm no pushover mate. This will get sorted one way or another. But I might be begging for a co-pilot seat to Ripon if this drags on.

You can quite easily jump in with me mate, but hopefully you'll get it sorted before then

not good bud
it sickens me how some people dare show their work, and tell people they done that

So a polite call to the bodyshop resulted in some higher than normal blood pressure this morning. I can appreciate they arent going to say theyve done a shit job but I was staggered when I was informed that the car had been finished to an 'acceptable standard' and that most people wouldnt have had an issue with it. I pointed out that (a) I'm not most people and (b) this isnt a 10yr old Focus but a brand new £30k+ premium product. I just managed to stop short of asking if the inspection team consisted of Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and David Blunkett.

The car will now be reworked this week and sent to a Subaru dealership (not the one that I wanted) but I will have to settle for that I suppose, as its probably a better option than a random assessor.

Will still be calling the insurance co. this morning to voice my displeasure at the "good enough" attitude of their chosen repairer and to reaffirm the fact that this will be their problem until I'm 100% satisfied as I'm currently far from that..............

fookin stand your ground bud insurance company's do nothing but line there own pockets and fook ppl over you gonna name and shame

Hope all get sort it either right or wrong nothing in between we all pay a stupid amount of insurance to start

Good luck and hope all goes well

kgt wrote:

So a polite call to the bodyshop resulted in some higher than normal blood pressure this morning. I can appreciate they arent going to say theyve done a shit job but I was staggered when I was informed that the car had been finished to an 'acceptable standard' and that most people wouldnt have had an issue with it. I pointed out that (a) I'm not most people and (b) this isnt a 10yr old Focus but a brand new £30k+ premium product. I just managed to stop short of asking if the inspection team consisted of Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and David Blunkett.

The car will now be reworked this week and sent to a Subaru dealership (not the one that I wanted) but I will have to settle for that I suppose, as its probably a better option than a random assessor.

Will still be calling the insurance co. this morning to voice my displeasure at the "good enough" attitude of their chosen repairer and to reaffirm the fact that this will be their problem until I'm 100% satisfied as I'm currently far from that..............

Hope you get this sorted to a standard you expect Keith, like I've said before I've been in thus exact situation myself, you could of specified getting it done at a Subaru dealer in the 1st place, you don't just have to accept one of their repairers, you are entitled to select your own.

Cheers chaps. To say this is winding me up is an understatement. I deal with some heavy duty deals at work but this is personal and while the guy today was polite enough I just don't expect anything better next time I see the car and I want to know exactly where I stand. If they've caused issues with poor workmanship I expect my insurers to sort it out as they sent it there in the first place and if they don't them ill be taking things legal as I have that at my disposal.

And my police officer friend is back from her jollies on Wednesday so I look forward to speaking with her about the AWOL 3rd party that was involved in starting this mess with a view to well and truly wiping the floor with her while I'm on.

Mmmmmm raw meat, very tasty.

Just caught up with your story .. makes you sick doesn't it

What happened about the police's visit to the person who tried to run you off the road?

Thing is you're still going to be out of pocket down the line as your car will now be on the VCAR register as it's an insurance claim and thats what makes me laugh .. they don't recover the money you will be out because of someone elses idiosy.

We need a Judge Judy in this Country

Hope it's all fixed soon and to a good standard, ready for the NBO

hope it all gets sorted keith when my scoob got damaged i sorted my own body shop reids at shildon they did a mint job

Carlos - My biggest problem is time. My job is very demanding and I cant just drop things and take a wander over to the garage to keep tabs on things, hence me needing to rely on 'professionals' who know what they are doing. I'll give these guys a chance, but if its not right, I'll be asking for the car to be removed from their care and sorted elsewhere. Just hope the insurance co can sort me out alternative transport as I'm currently bobbing around in a garage courtesy car.

Nic - The copper is back at work on Wednesday, she's been on her holidays too and I want to deal with her as she knows the in's and out's of the story and she interviewed the alleged 3rd party in this instance. Hopefully she's held her hands up and Ive got someone to press a case against. I'm mindful that Ive probably got to pay the bodyshop the £700 excess for a job I'm not happy with, which would really stick in my throat. As for the accident register thing there is not much I can do about that, but I was intending on keeping the car for a long time so hopefully not too much of an issue in the long term.

I hope the copper has made some headway with the person concerned, its just not right that they get away with it - its a miracle you weren't hurt badly in all of this. £700 is a big chunk to have to pull out and adds even more insult to injury, so hopefully things will go your way and you won't have the excess to pay and your insurance company can throw the book at her and recover all of the costs from her insurance.

I know you said you're planning on keeping your car, so won't feel the impact the claim has had yet but just out of curiosity I wonder if theres ever been a test case where someone has taken civil action to recover the propprtion of value lost after a non fault accident. Some hotshot solicitor might have tried to make a case and make a claim

Would be very interesting and can you imagine the floodgates which would then open if they succeeded !!!

Its funny, thats exactly what I was thinking when I read your post. Ive already added it to my list for my legal guy to pick up

Ooh very good .. hope he manages to do it

£700 excess that's a not steep, how come its that high, hope the other person owns up so you don't have to pay it. If the insurance company won't sort any issues you have out, tell them you are going to contact the insurance ombudsman then see if they change their mind.

Just goes to show what you can do when you really try (and the insured lodges a formal written complaint with your biggest customer) Got to admit the job is amazing. The car actually looks better than it did when I picked it up from the dealership first time !!!
Don't know why they didn't do that first time round then we could have avoided all the hassle and unpleasantness.

The car has been fully valeted. They've even repaired a few imperfections that weren't caused in the crash. My wheels have all been touched up and the whole thing has been machine polished to the point of bringing on a headache.

So all in all I'm pretty happy. The only thing I'd like to know now is where the car has been for the last 3 weeks coz when they picked it up it had 3,695 mile on it........and it's returned with 3,969 on the clock. Squeeze me ?

It certainly looks very good now that they've gotten their finger out and I'm glad you've got it back now ..... but ... that is just disgusting that they've added that many miles - they've obviously driven it wherever its had to go and not trailered it there.

Haven't you queried it?

so pleased you have it back keith.looks good. i would be mortified that they have driven it for almost 300miles
ours goes in for front end painted on tuesday.but i know and trust the guy.so hopefully he wont thrash it about
lian

I only just figured it out when I looked at the collection receipt. I thought the mileage was about 3500-ish but they recorded it accurately. I'll certainly pose the question on Monday. Unless of course I'm mistaken AND the driver transposed the figures and should have written 3,965 in which case its done 4 miles, but I don't think that's the case.

They'll just fob you off probably and say that the car was still driveable so they drove it to the destination .. but you wouldn't expect that amount of miles to be added when its being repaired ... hmmm makes you wonder doesn't it?