Bodyshop trying to have me over *UPDATED - Finally got THEM!!*

If thats the case, keep me in mind for the alloys

 

Bugger, the bonnets gone already.



Really hope you get it sorted either way dude.

 

So so so so unlucky mate!
just read through all this and remember my Dads Passat ending up at the same place years ago,
that had to go back again because of paint defects and bits of trim missing.
Shoddy bastages.
ya live and learn.

Try these guys - straight as fook, do a good jobscrote free zone)

Southalls Motor Bodies
Pennine View, Shepley Lane, Marple, Stockport, Cheshire SK6 7JW
Tel: 0161 427 7272

 

Ah so this is not the first time this place and done shoddy work then. Good to hear i'm not alone with my feelings for this place..

Thanks for the heads up with the garage, I might have a pop round as they are only round the corner and see what kind of quote they will give me on the rectification work.

 

Update time yet again..

Now nearly 3 weeks on from having the complaint inspection carried out, I have been on the phone to CIS nearly every other day. And as you can expect i've had nothing but the run around. All I kept getting was "we'll ring Hoopers now and get the report and we'll ring you back"

So today, now sick and tired of the running around, I manage to get hold of a compotent advisor who finally gets the ball rolling. He tells me CIS have been trying to get hold of Hoopers for 3 weeks, and can't get an answer. So finding that hard to believe I ring them myself and get through first time. So the advisor rings them again, and I get a phone call back 10minutes later asking for some more information. I pass this on and then 30mins later, I get a call from the claim handler dealing with the claim.

Now in all my time I have never had the displeasure of speaking to a more arrogant jumped up little **** (pardon my french) as him. Thus ensues a very lengthy 30min argument on the phone, with me slowly losing my patience.

The long and short of it is and missing loads out...

CIS are not interested and will be doing nothing about the extra damage caused to the car. I am to take the car back to the bodyshop and have them put it right or take the bodyshop through the courts and pay for the repairs myself and recover the costs. "Have you given them chance to repair the car" Yes twice I reply, you didn't tell us that I was told (grrr told them this about a month ago)

So upon me refusing to take it back to them for a third time, to have the repair attempting to be put right again he says "what do you expect us to do about it? You either take it back there or you foot the bill yourself and recover the costs"

He then made out that it was my choice the car went to that shop, where upon I told him I was never given the choice as I should of done. His reponse "Not my position to say why that has happened" I tell him I had 3 choices of bodyshops, and my main choice was clearly marked where I wanted it doing was a bloke I know who is ex VW, someone I could trust.

"Then why did you submit a quote from this bodyshop" "

"Because I had to submit 3 as you asked!!!! And never having an accident before I do not know trust worthy bodyshops in my area apart from one, so that one was there from recomendation and to make your numbers up"

"well you choosed that bodyshop, so it's your problem not ours"

"No, I didn't have a choice you authorized the repair there and didn't ask me"

"Not my position to comment I'm afraid, it's your legal teams fault, they only sent us one, which was Lightfoots"

"No I submitted 3, 3 were faxed and crossed in the post also to make sure you had all 3!!"

"Not prepared to comment"

I'm then told he just rang the bodyshop and they have told him the repairs and the damage they have done has been put right. To which I reply laughing that if they call that repairs put right then they need their eyes testing.

I then bring up the fact they have thus far dragged this out for 6months, where I begin to get quite medievil on them, again greeted with "Not my position to comment on reasons for this"

So I get arssy with him saying it was only a threat of legal action that got your company moving, and that my legal team had to get an admission of liability from their client and was told CIS had not even contacted him.

"I cannot comment on this"

"So do i have to threaten you with legal action again to get this sorted out"

"Sir i would advise you not to talk this way"

That situation diffused, with him repeating himself. I'm then told they will pay out no more than 1500 as per the original quote on the repairs, so won't be paying out twice to Lightfoots and another shop. So I drop them bombshell on them that the repairs are not even done proper and the shop has done a fiddle on them with the door. "I'm refusing to comment until we have the engineers report, and you are basically saying that whole needs redoing again?"

"well yes I have been telling you that for 3 weeks now"

"Well I will not comment until I have the report, I cannot speculate for legal reasons"

So i ask them why after 3 weeks they still don't have the report "I don't know" was the reply. "Not my position to say so" So I told them for 3 weeks they have so called been trying to get hold of the report. Again "not my position to comment on other members of staff within the company" So i explain to them that every time I get through to Hoopers it's first time every time.

So then it gets on to writing off the car. Too late for that now I was told, we won't be writing it off unless the repairs exceed 1000. So I put it to them after being told the with the original inspection the car value as per the engineer was 2000. So I said why approve a 1500 repair then say you will not pay out more than 1000 now for it to be put right because of value of car. So he begins to get very arssy with me and tells me again they won't get involved, and will have to pay myself and pursue lightfoots through the courts for compensation. They are refusing to pay or even offset the cost of another bodyshop to put the damage right.

25minutes later of me going mental with this claim handler, he says "I am not prepared to have this conversation with you anymore as it is going no where"

"From now I will be dealing with Hoopers and the bodyshop and the other legal depts involved. I will ring you back when I hear more from the engineers and we'll take it from there."

So basically I have to either take the car back to that *****e shop and have them do yet another shoddy job on the car, or pay for the repairs to be done again elsewhere by myself which I can not afford, and recover the whole costs back through the courts (again have no money for a court battle)

I'm just completely have utterly p!ssed off now with this whole claim, have lost my patience and at the end of my tether with it all. And as I said to him "I am now left with a car that is worthless and a complete bag of ****e thanks to your client and the bodyshop you entrusted with the repair and you are not prepared to do anything about it"

"I am ending this conversation now sir, we will contact you when we know more, thank you."

YES THANKS FOR NOTHING

So now i've had it with them, with it all, sick and tired now. Just want my car back to pre accident condition or a replacement of equal quality etc. But I guess that's just too much to ask from CIS.

I will no know let you know what is said next, in a months time knowing CIS's track record (sarcasm)

 

That's pretty ****.

I'm sure there's a couple of people on here that worked in insurance so may be able to help you out and get you talking to someone that doesn't sound like an aggrevating little tit.

 

Hit the nail on the head first time!!

Tried everything on them today, and answer was always you will have to take them to court, we will not get involved! Not our problem basically was the answer every time from this ****

 

I feel for you buddy, can't be a good time. Buy a mk1 to burn around in for your troubles

 

Already been contemplating that idea, as a project as I'm about to enrol in a 2 year night class course in classic car restoration. Gives me a chance to work on it as part of the course

I actually said to him a very, very stern voice without really thinking about it...

"Just give me my car back, write the sodding thing off, and give me the 1500.."

Could get the ball rolling on a project. But I'd expect a wee bit more than 1500 after everything they have put me through with this claim.

 

this situation is realy ****in me off and im not even in it, i feel bad for ya. have you contacted the insrance regulation authority people and the imi yet, could even go to that watchdog lot on telly.

 

As with others, i really feel for you. The bumh0le you spoke to seems to have been assigned to take your case, maybe cos hes trained for difficult situations, any chance of speaking to a manager of the company? if he says things like "I am not prepared to have this conversation with you anymore as it is going no where" thats fine! He can f**k off and you can speak to someone else if he doesn't feel upto it.

Admiral got me by the balls by taking two policies out on my car at the same time charging me 2 deposits and 2 first payments, then they didn't process the refund after 3 phonecalls reminding them, so i had to wait 1 whole month (400 down) for it. A talk to the manager sorted it out.

Good luck with the fight.

edit: I'm doing an apprenticeship on IMI, it is only a recent thing. a long time garage wont beIMI accredited unless theyve sent all thier monkeys on the course

 

yep dude do it, only way to get it done by the sounds of it. keep us all posted as we want a happy ending

 

Believe me, these 'monkeys' have never seen a course or an accreditation in their lifetime. Workforce made up of staff ranging from 16-19 with not a braincell between them from the looks of it.

I'll keep you all posted don't worry, as for a happy ending.. doesn't seem to be one anytime soon. I can try and ring Admiral tomorrow and ask for advice, but I already their legal team and they can't and won't get involved as they have closed their case file they said. They can only reopen it to recover to costs.

 

i would speak to some one who coudl answer your questions, no point in hanging about,

i know the pain of ringing them though, half arsed story every time.....

 

Indeed that is the case Jon, it's always excuse after excuse with them. Not being able to get hold of Hoopers, or the report etc

I was told that the claim handler I spoke with today was the one assigned to the case from the very start of the process. So I'm guessing only other people to speak to above him will be management, and try and push them to give me what I want without them coming up with the same excuse of "we'll not be getting involved or paying out"

 

if all else fails start a massive slur campaign against the bodyshop and ya insurance, go round and torch there bodyshop/cars, report them to health and safety exec for something as they are bound to have summet they dont want them to know about or do what a fella did who lives in wilmslow who owned an aston martin, he got shoddy work aparantly and parked outside aston showroom with a sign tellin everyone who went into that shop about his troubles. good luck.

or a paper article local to them, if theyd be interested in that story

 

I actually read about that in the local paper.

I drive past the bodyshop pretty much every day and my thoughts about torching it grow ever stronger, but I'll just bring them down the legal way I think Because they are getting a bit cocksure about their work by telling CIS that it left their shop all repaired and with no faults.

 

you might want to remove those comments

when speaking to the insurance company, take names, make a diary/note of when and whom you spoke to, sounds sad but it really does help to be able to pinpoint where you are getting duff info/no cooperation from them if you then take it higher,
learnt to do this a long time ago and it has helped ever since when dealing with companies, doesnt' need to be insurance stuff over the phone.

did this with vodafone a few years ago, couldn't be more apologetic when given the facts.

 

Just found and read this thread - my blood pressure is up just reading it. I'm so sorry for you.

I had a similar thing a while back in my (then) pride-and-joy. (Not a VW so I won't name it ) Someone went into the back, admitted liability at the time and never changed her story. Could not have been nicer about the whole thing.

Body shop TOTALLY botched the repair. Second-hand parts, parts not replaced, caused damage to previously perfect bits, made a gorgeous gorgeous car look just "naff" at best and downright terrible in places. Went back FIVE times and I found out, as you have, that they were just incapable of doing it properly. It was at its best after about the third return, but still nothing like as good as it was before the accident, and on the next two trips back it just went downhill more.

I got the same old fob-offs: "you always have to slam the boot to close it", "that panel was dented before, nothing to do with us", "you are being too fussy", "come on, it's a seven year old , you're not saying it was showroom before we funked it up, are you?", and so on. I KNEW them to be lies, but I couldn't prove it! Seriously, I could write pages about the ridiculous bodges they made. This was five years ago and I'm still angry about it.

Insurance company withheld payment, but the cost of a proper repair (+fixing bodges) was now more than they were willing to pay. Assessor's helpfulness wore off quite quickly and he started lowering his standards to get shot of the job, I think.

Oh, also I work 45 miles from home. Body shop was 20 miles from home in a different direction. It was winter - gets dark at 4pm. I had to take days off work to go and look at it in the light. EVERY TIME I did there were obvious faults, and I'm not an expert. Manager said he'd look over it himself and it was perfect. Manager apparently on drugs or not wearing his glasses.

Most people don't love their cars, and will get them back minus the huge dent and be happy. They are not accounting for peope like us who LOVE them, and know every inch of them.

Like you, I fell out of love with the car. LOTS more to the story but eventually i gave up hope, had it written off, got a poor settlement for the car (probably represented its book value now that it looked tatty and tired, but definitely NOT before when it had been practially showroom condition) and bought a virtually identical car - but I've never been able to fall in love with it so much. I like it, it's a good car, but... I just don't love it.

The point I was going to make was that, like you, I wanted to hammer this garage into the ground. They had quoted for a new boot, new lights, new this, new that, and replaced almost none of it. That's fraud, surely! The insurance company will want to prosecute for that, stop it happening again! WRONG. They could not have cared less.

Trading standards! They'll care!! Work carried out without reasonable skill. Lying about what they'd done. WRONG. They sounded like they cared, to be fair, but ultimately didn't do anything despite me sending them written proof of fraud. I reported the garage for using factually incorrect statements in their advertising twice after this. They still do it now. Owner, I suspect, gets on quite well with Trading Standards. (That's being polite.) Garage is "trading standards approved", and therefore T.S. will not hear that they could possibly do wrong. "But they're in our approval scheme!". "Yes and they're hiding behind it because they know you won't investigate." "Yes... but... but.. they're in our approval scheme."

It's heartbreaking, but I think you'll end up doing what I did: getting rid of the car, getting a new one which you ought to love as much, but just don't. I just can't get back to that state any more...

:-(