Insurance Repair

The insurance company will send an inspector to have a look at the car. If my experience is anything to go by he will tell you that the repairs are up to standard and that the insurance company wont do anything more to help you! The best tack is to refuse to sign for the repairs untill youve had a chance to examine the car properly in daylight! Mine went back 5 times and the Ford Bodyshop had it for a total of 11 weeks! They still couldnt manage to get good colour matches or even an unblemished surface finish! They also couldnt line the exhausts up straight despite a mechanic friend doing it in about 30 mins! The insurance company did make the Ford lot pay £75 to have the exhaust fitted properly though! Keep taking it back and be a real pain in the butt and you should get a result! DONT rely on your insurance company to help you though! They dont care what your car looks like as long as they get your money!

wifes old focus went in for a repair at a local bodyshop "now this car was immaculate for its age "went to pick car up and refused it there and then .
they got funny stateing its a quality repair so i handed the keys back to wifes car went out aand drove off in there courtesy car despite them saying i cant use there car as the repair was good ,spoke to insurance company who sent a guy down to check it and he basically said "its a four year old car why are you being so fussy !!
i then pointed out the front scuttle tray had not a single clip on as theyd broken them putting the new one back on so its just sitting there ,the fact that the windscreen had been cracked whilst the car was in the body shop and the overspray all over the front of the car .
i had a battle with him to agree that this was not acceptable ...so they sort it out i go to get the car again all done ,just check the scuttle tray .....not a single clip left on it broke again !!
car left there again ,this happend four times with the tray ,on one ocasion they tryd melting the clips theyd broke back on !!
if i pay good insurance premiums i expect a quality repair at least up to the standard the car was originally made in .
just shows you that you have to stand your ground at times as they will try to fob you off .
got the car back and cancelled the insurance and went elswhere .

i did sign for the repairs on thursday but it was dark and rainging so could not tell . anyway took it back today in the day light and pointed it all out and they said they would address the problems to the front end but as for the exhaust heat shield and the rear panle they said it was like that when it got here and they just tuched it up as a good will jester, if so i said they should of rung me about it wot a cop out i know it was not there.so i must of them off as they gave me old ford ka full of bird so i handed them the list drove off so i phoned the insurance broker to let them now ive given the garage the chance to sort it all out first and it's on record
o yes they put 9 miles on it and the average fuel was 6.5 mpg ive never got it to that

The repair should be guarantied, whether you signed or not, did they do a pre check of any damage to your car?
I refused my people carrier 5 times and norwich union had the car 9 weeks. If your not 100% happy complain and don't take no for an answer.

Ive been in the same boat...I had some light damage on my Ford Puma and the repair work was shocking, I rejected the work twice and in the end the insurance company sent out an independent inspector who agreed with my findings and said the work should be re done, again the work was sub standard so I refused to take the car back and in the end it went to my local Ford dealer who did a worse job than the original repairers...it ended up ok after I took it to another garage but this took nearly 3 months in total...I did get a grand compensation though

One thing to remember NEVER EVER pick your car up in the dark or if its been raining as the rain will hide everything and never sign if your not happy with the work, not really sure where you stand once youve signed.

Good luck mate.

Nick

This is all something I learnt bout 15 years ago, I had been barred from about 5 bodyshops due to poor workmanship.

The difficulty you have is that it only has to be repaired to a reasonable standard, that could go as far as the paint not matching etc.

The only anwer to this is find yourself a decent bodyshop and use them everytime regarless of how hard your insurer pushes you.

When I crashed my Elise I had just had it painted in a 7 way flip gosting £6K, it had a special twist to it to make the effect even better. Anyway the insurers tried to ge tme to send it 150 miles awy to their recomended repairer who deals in standox paint (the manufactuer of the paint) Thye could not guarantee a match but if they can not match it (which they wouldn't due to the extra twist) they will just repaint the car how standox recomended and thus give me a diffeent colour.

The argument went on for 10 months!!!

I eventually got the car repaired where I wanted (It did change colour though.....to a 21 way flip)

The simple answer is Do not use an insurance approved repairer, they are working for the insurer not you (they rely on the insurer for the majority of their business) and don't use a manufacturer aproved repairer s they are not bothered as they are guranteed a flow of work from people who think they have to use them for warrenty etc.

Get an independant specialist/customer painter who you know works to YOUR expctations

Back to your difficulties, forget asking the insurer for help, get your own report (search under assessor on yell.com) it will cost you about £80-£100, send this to your insurer, advise them you have a contact with them to repair your car, they have failed and you look to them to retify the car by doing X, Y an Z etc. Make sure you state it is a formal complaint as this forcesit through the complaints proceedure, rather than being classed as a notice of disatisfaction

QUOTE(Dennis @ 19 Nov 2009, 11:14 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>The difficulty you have is that it only has to be repaired to a reasonable standard, that could go as far as the paint not matching etc.

The only anwer to this is find yourself a decent bodyshop and use them everytime regarless of how hard your insurer pushes you.

The simple answer is Do not use an insurance approved repairer, they are working for the insurer not you (they rely on the insurer for the majority of their business) and don't use a manufacturer aproved repairer s they are not bothered as they are guranteed a flow of work from people who think they have to use them for warrenty etc.

Get an independant specialist/customer painter who you know works to YOUR expctations

Agree 110% on all points mention above. If you find a good, proven paintshop, most of them will be happy to handle your claim also. When someone hit my Impreza, I waived off the insurance companies pleas to use their approved shop and went to a local repairer. I saiod if they were happy to chase the other guys insurance company etc for payment, they could have the work. They agreed, rang me when they had cleared it with the guys insurers, and my car was done and dusted. No hassling my insurance, no excess to pay/claim back, and the job was spot on.

If your that unhappy, my first suggestion would be to ring trading standards. By law you have to give them the chance to rectify and problems, but if your still not happy, I'm pretty sure the law is on the consumers side in most cases

QUOTE(chrisd @ 22 Nov 2009, 06:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>If your that unhappy, my first suggestion would be to ring trading standards. By law you have to give them the chance to rectify and problems, but if your still not happy, I'm pretty sure the law is on the consumers side in most cases

If the insurance company settle direct with the body shop I am not sure that there is a relationship at law between the owner of the car and the body shop. The relationship is between the insurer and the body shop in just about anything other than negligence causing damages.The relationship in regard to the repair would be between the insured and the insurer, though I guess if you began an action against the insurer they would add the body shop on a Part 20

QUOTE(alanfo @ 25 Nov 2009, 04:59 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>well a inspector came out to look at the car but all the could say was it the characteristics of the paint because it's a flip paint . looks like i will have to pay for one that will look at the paint properly

What a load of tosh, this guy obviously knows what hes talking about...not!

Cant believe he wasnt willing to help, Im certain this isnt an independant inspector like the one I had.
Mine was hired by my insurers and was totally independant...if you know the work is **** then it obviously is!

Dont take no .

Nick