Jeese, had the unfortunate pleasure of the muppets called chips away, to do a couple of very minor scratches on my wifes celica.

1. very fine scratch on n/s wing about 6" long
2.Slight parking scuff on o/s front bumper
3. Slight scuff on o/s rear arch.

All very minor stuff, but i thought get it done so it looks good when it goes in the trader. Guy was supposed to come last monday, i took a days hol,he phones up at 10 oclock in the morning... i can't make it, but i will get someone else today. 3 pm some muppet phones up i can't make it today it will have to be thursday... By now the car is in the trader for friday. Took thursday off lost a days pay.Chips away turns up at 11am, does the job, goes at 2pm. Tells me when the laquer dries it will all look superb, give him the £240 and away he goes. Next day the laquer is dry.. the job is an abortion, phone him up and he says use some t-cut and it will be ok.. i tell him get your arse around here or you will not be ok... He turns up saturday and says there was areaction because it is an import...WHAT? Monkey boy then takes it to a garage to have it done... Comes back on saturday late evening, and drops off the car minus 3/4 of a tank of petrol. In the light of the next morning, guess what??? yep another pony job.... Ring him no answer, so i ring c*nts away office and leave a message. Monday morn they ring me back, i tell them whats going on... hey presto monkey phones me up.. i will take it wednesday and make sure it is done properley, by now i have told him all about himself and he says it is the garages fault who he paid to do the repair???? WHAT.Wednes night brings it back and drops it off to the wife, i come home and guess what... you guessed right the ponys are back..
1.Piss poor paint match
2.Yellow primer can be seen through the paint
3. Over spray everywhere
4.Paint finish very poor

So far he has cost me
£240 in his fee
one and a half tanks of petrol
£48 Advertisment fee
£400 in two days lost wages
and the car is worse than before the repair.

Apart from ripping this cu*ts head off, where do i stand, i dont want him or any chips away muppet near the car again, but i need the car sorting.

Id consider 'Littleknocks' to make it good and then Id write to the fool demanding that he compenstae you. He wont of course, so give him seven days and then take action against him using the Small Claims track in the County Court; Id be looking for lost income due to his broken appointments and the cost of making good his piss-poor workmanship. You need to give him the opportunity to make good but as youve already done that Id collect the forms when you post the first letter.....

Simon

Effin ell that guy sounds like a right tool! if tou go to someone who is good you could've had it done for half that and with a much bettrr job to boot. Just that you unfortunately only find these things through experence.

p.s where you based?

Webby

Sorry to hear that cuz my car was damaged by some kid throwing a stone at it yesterday (1 dent and 3 scratches down to metal :mad: )

Manager at work spent 5 mins of our time trying to talk me in to using Chips Away. I got to the point that i told him NO fockin way.

Im currently getting a quote from Little Knocks in Middlesex but I think it will be worth the drive down :)

I will keep you informed on how it goes.

Ray

BTW: Where do I send my CV for £200 a day? :D

Effin ell that guy sounds like a right tool! if tou go to someone who is good you could've had it done for half that and with a much bettrr job to boot. Just that you unfortunately only find these things through experence.

p.s where you based?

Webby and I are based in birmingham

Sounds like a whole load of ****e!

Unless I am mistaken, is "chipsaway" franchise based? If so, a letter to the head office *should* get some action, if they care about their franchise / brand name.

Buck

**** have a guy coming round tom. Am based in West Sussex and he lives in same village so he better do a mega job. To be fair sounds like a top guy, could actually have a conversation with him as opposed to a series of ill mannered grunts 'know what a mean geez!!'
Will let you know he says fingers crossed!!

There are quite a few chipsaway blokes covering different areas of Brum I was told.

I used them on my scoob; front splitter respray and scratch out of rear bumper - I was very happy with the results. But even he admitted that the training they get is cr@p and it's only because he worked as a sprayer for a number of years before that he knew a lot more.

If they are going to do it again for you (which I know you don't want, but if all else fails) send me a PM and I'll give you the blokes name and mobile number and you can always try insisting on him doing it :)

Thanks for the advice, i will speak to the head office today, they are in telford, and let you know what they say, webby.

Am I glad I decided not to use them!!!! :rolleyes:

sorry to hear they have fcuked your car up mate

Chips Away is a franchise operation, so just because you have a bad experience with one operator doesn't mean there's anything wrong with others.

I've heard good stories about chips away and dent devils etc. I think that you can have good and bad staff in these companies, which the finished job will be dependant on :( Pot luck?

F

hi mate,

sorry to hear about that,i used them 2 months ago but i took the car to their workshop,not a mobile guy,the results were excellent.

best line of attack if i were u would be to take it to one of THEIR workshops yourself to put it right,

goodluk mate

He should NEVER have told use to use T-Cut...they are only supposed to use 'Chips-Away' products and do it themselves. I would phone Chips-Away H/O and talk to them...he didn`t give you the proper information and he should have rectified it.

We had our car done...and he done an excellent job and we have recommended him to a few others. No complaints from us...the guy was brilliant!!! :)

To be honest, if you phoned Chips Away after the first abortion and they got the same guy out again I'm very surprised. It's normal for them to send a second guy out at the cost of the first guy who messed up. To be fair to the guys doing the work, they have to do about 6 or 7 cars a day to make a respectable living at it.

I once made some enquiries about getting a franchise but decided it was too much work for too little reward with too much risk.

Webby

Sorry to hear that cuz my car was damaged by some kid throwing a stone at it yesterday (1 dent and 3 scratches down to metal :mad: )

Manager at work spent 5 mins of our time trying to talk me in to using Chips Away. I got to the point that i told him NO fockin way.

Im currently getting a quote from Little Knocks in Middlesex but I think it will be worth the drive down :)

I will keep you informed on how it goes.

Ray

BTW: Where do I send my CV for £200 a day? :D
You'll not be dissapointed with Little Knocks. Fantastic bunch. Chris will not let you leave until he's sure you're happy with the car!!

Address for CV posting for me too, please!! :D

NS04

Real sorry about the car , I need some work doing on the Focus and guess who I wont be ringing , But we have a local independant guy who did an excellent job on a Golf we had , I think these are the lads to ring as they have more at stake if they do a bad job etc
real funny post BTW made me chuckle :)

My local Chips Away screwed my repair up and after 4 attempts to correct it, I gave in and wanted a refund, suggest you give Rachel at Chips Away HQ a call, she deals with customer service, but as they are franchises she can not organise refunds etc, but can mediate between you and the guy who did the job... in the end I got my bumper re-painted at a local body shop and it cost no more than Chips Away had charged in the first place! good luck.

these guys are a franchise, so you probably do get a bit of a lottery, the guy that covers Horsham was superb, he put right what the misses did with the rear n/s bumper corner (argument with car park post - lost) and it is a stunning job - black mica paint and all.... he really blew me away with the quality of the job.

So the chips away dude in horsham is ok.

Perhaps we should start a notional thread to have maybe a map with green areas for good guys to use and red for duffers..... depends... perhaps I'll just shut up now.... :D

Mikey

I used the Chips Away guy in Swindon and he did an excellent job removing about 5 scratches from my 04STI, in fact they came out better than he originally said, and as it took him less time, he actually asked for less money than originally quoted.

Guess as its a franchise, the guy in your area in cr*p.

My local Chips Away screwed my repair up and after 4 attempts to correct it, I gave in and wanted a refund, suggest you give Rachel at Chips Away HQ a call, she deals with customer service, but as they are franchises she can not organise refunds etc, but can mediate between you and the guy who did the job... in the end I got my bumper re-painted at a local body shop and it cost no more than Chips Away had charged in the first place! good luck.Have spoken to rachael and she said they would send out a specialist to look at it..he's cancelled twice already??? The car was taken to a bodyshop by chips away, but i think they must have had a power failure and did the job in the dark,TWICE.It has cost me a total of £685 for this balls up by them. I asked for a new guy to do the work after the first time, but they sent the same guy twice, three times in total.

Have spoken to rachael and she said they would send out a specialist to look at it..he's cancelled twice already??? The car was taken to a bodyshop by chips away, but i think they must have had a power failure and did the job in the dark,TWICE.It has cost me a total of £685 for this balls up by them. I asked for a new guy to do the work after the first time, but they sent the same guy twice, three times in total.
*In Forrest Gump voice*

Franchises are like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get. :)

NS04

*In Forrest Gump voice*

Franchises are like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get. :)

NS04Your'e right there,it is like a box of chocolates, and i got the coffee cream one.

Chips Away is a franchise operation, so just because you have a bad experience with one operator doesn't mean there's anything wrong with others.
agreed

your on your own unless you can see previous work, or know the bloke who is doing the repair

ive seen sum gash jobs in my time, when i worked at various dealerships as a young sprog

one bloke, used to work in the sprayshop and actually setup his own chips/smart service, does a top job, saw him off and on for years as i worked around diffrent dealerships

who did i call a few months back when i dented my car and needed it tweaked?
you guessed it, the same bloke i had watched for years, and he turned down my work as he said he could not make it perfect (and thats to sumbody he knows!)

people like that are far to rare in the smart repair buisness IMO

I have used them in the past. They were fine.

Your'e right there,it is like a box of chocolates, and i got the coffee cream one.
:mad: coffee cream ones are my favourite :mad:

:mad: coffee cream ones are my favourite :mad:YUK

YUK
got your gist (sp) though webby...but had to defend the coffee creams!

Chips away, sent out there specialist today. He looked all around the car, i didn't have to point anything out to him...........It was obvious to see he said. He said that he will report back to head ffice and tell them about the very poor state of my wifes car, and apologised on behalf of C/A as his living depends on the reputation of the company; even though it is a franchise. So now to wait and see.

sounds much more promiseing

2 many people would have sat back and let this cowboy get away with it