Anders_WR1

iTrader: (8)

Sometime before Christmas, some plonker crashed in to my Scoob while it was parked in its own parking bay. He drove out of the bay next to me turned left too early and side-swiped the front wing, damaged the headlight and scrapping the front bumper.

He owned up to the damage (thanks for that) and the claim went through on his insurance. I picked up the car today, front wing looks spot on tbh - but not happy with the front bumper.

They have re-sprayed the offside side if the bumper leaving the nearside in its original condition - 7 years old and stone chipped. I wasn't expecting them to fill in the stone chips, but I was expecting the whole front bumper to be re-sprayed to keep it looking right. After all a crash repair is supposed to make the car look like it hasn't had a crash!

I wrote this dispute on the sign off form at the body shop, they say they were authorised to spray only the offside where the damage was. So I've e-mailed my claims handler with complaint.

Does my complaint seem reasonable?

Anders

muttleyturbo

iTrader: (5)

That's ridiculous they didn't spray the whole bumper, so yes I think your complaint is very reasonable

gpssti4

iTrader: (6)

Yes, it should look acceptable, not like there has been an obvious repair.

Anders_WR1

iTrader: (8)

Nice one that's reassuring

cuprajake

iTrader: (11)

to be fair the insurance engineer would not go for a full bumper, esp if they were blending it, so really the garage are doing what they were paid to do, its only certain places who will go the extra mile and do the full bumper at their own cost like we do,

subzerokent

iTrader: (1)

They have done what was required. You have said the front bumper is stone chipped by painting the whole bumper they would be repairing it to better then Pre accident condition. I'm sorry to say what they have done is correct

Anders_WR1

iTrader: (8)

The garage have done what they were authorised to do, so my complaint is with the insurance handler. Pre-crash damage both sides of the front bumper looked the same, stone chipped and 7-years wear and tear.

Post repair, both sides should still look the same - if that means they have to pay to cover the nearside paint/labour so be it.

That's my opinion

Anders

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

Why not ask the garage to add some stone chips to the newly painted side to make it match and bring it back to the pre-crash condition


......or give them a few quid to spray the other side

Shaun

Anders_WR1

iTrader: (8)

Had they called me with the front bumper hanging in the spray shop 'you want us to spray the whole bumper for an extra £50' I would have gone for it, rather than waste time sending e-mails to insurance handler.

Anders

JonMc

iTrader: (51)

I had a similar issue with an old car of mine some years back, they only painted one corner of the tailgate and it looked sh!te with the mix of old and new, I complained and the insurers had it taken back and the whole tailgate was properly painted to get it all to match

chopperman

If the paint doesn't match the job has not been done to a reasonable standard. Complaint is valid imo.

Tomwrx

iTrader: (54)

same happend to me,neighbour reversed out and clipped ma passenger wing and bumper,
when i put it in to s@s subaru to get sorted after the initial quote i get a call telling me they couldnt match the bumper due to stone chips etc and if i paid 60 quid the would do the other side,

was more than happy to pay that,some places just dont care and others pride themselves on customer service,

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I think there is a case of betterment here.

If the adjacent panel is damaged or stone chipped from wear and tear, the insurance company aren't oblidged to repair that. If they did, thats putting you in a better position than before...Betterment!

This is another reason why you should not use repairers appointed by your insurer...they are on very tight time/price limits and will only do what is nessercery. With a non-affiliated indy they may have been able to swing it in your favour or at least offer to do it for a bit of extra cash depending on work involved.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Down to the repairer: they would have known it wouldn't look right.

If they had anything about them, they should have asked for a contribution...

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

This is the whole issue with insurance appointed repairers...the insurer is their customer, not the client! The insurer has the repairer by the ***** in order to keep them sweet and be able to keep their insurance refferals. This can give a poor deal for the car owner.

With a high standard non-affitiated bodyshop, the car owner is the customer NOT the insurer. This difference means they are on your side.

scud8

iTrader: (1)

If they haven't matched the paint then I would say you have a good case. If the paint matches but the old side just looks tired then I you probably don't have much chance of getting them to sort it out.

Anders_WR1

iTrader: (8)

The body repair shop was appointed by me. I asked my stealer (who I get on with) and they made the recommendation. Claim handler accepted the body shop no problem.

I can see your point on the betterment, but it's irrelevant IMO. I wanted my car to remain uncrashed and we wouldn't be discussing it now if he'd given my car a wider birth.

Anders

tubbytommy

iTrader: (20)

post a picture, im interested to see the repair.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Ahh, In that case the bodyshop should have pointed it out and dicussed the options with you prior to repair.

The whole point of using the bodyshop of your own choice is to get better customer service.

Anders_WR1

iTrader: (8)

Will do when the cars dry and some decent light.

You're right, if this is a common issue/grey area they could have warned me they were only authorised to spray half a bumper.

I'll post an update when I hear back from the claims handler.

Anders

subzerokent

iTrader: (1)

What colour I the car ? As if it's a metallic especially a light one if they were to have painted the whole front bumper they would of then had to of blended the other front wing or there would be a nasty colour match and the insurance company wouldn't pay that. This is the problem with modern water Bourne paints now. I'd be amazed if you get any were with the insurance company I've seen this complaint many a time and we never once had the insurance company's back down as repair is then better then Pre repair

Anders_WR1

iTrader: (8)

The paint is ice blue metallic. The match looked decent tbh, the front offside wing looked good against the drivers door paint.

subzerokent

iTrader: (1)

That's because they will of blended it in the wind. If they had painted the whole front bumper to other wing without blending the other wing for colour match it would look awalfull

littlebit

Ur in your rights mate they should have painted bonnet and grill too along with other wing in order to blend it all in

Neil..

iTrader: (35)

The bodyshop have done exactly what they will get paid for doing, nothing more nothing less.

If the work they have done is to a satisfactory standard, which it sounds like they did, then really you can't expect anything else TBH.

Although a phone call to up-sell the extra paintwork job to yourself, would have been beneficial to them and to you.

I doubt the insurance will pay for extra work to be carried out, but good luck in trying.

Anders_WR1

iTrader: (8)

I had a look on the docs that came through from the claims handler and the independant assors. It says 'the total cost of repair was an estimated £2K and would allow a reserve cost of £2.2K which should cover and minor additional sundry items.'

I think the £2.2K reserve would cover spraying half a bumper and doing a proper job to make the car look right.

Anders

subzerokent

iTrader: (1)

Exactly that. The clames handler will just request an Enginer to inspect the repair. And in all fairness will be checking the crash repair has been done to a good standard which it sounds as it Stone chips he simply won't be intrested in as they wernt caused by the other party
I've done 17 years watching this sort of thing all the time.

If they paint a wing they will never blend a bonnet

terzoscooby

Give it a real good going over mate Make sure you get it under an orange sodium street light. They give out polarised light which shows up any flaws in the blending or dents left in it. Run your hands round the panel edges to check for rough edges and look for over spray. Write it all down if you find anything and ask them if they would be happy if it was their car. Also they usually don't like you complaining to insurance company. You shouldn't be able to tell its been repaired.

scixer6r

Had the same thing happen to me,so when i asked bodyshop about it they said it was a 50/50 repair to keep costs down.This is what you get with the aviva deal,the fact i had a £750 excess made it even more unbelievable.Needless to say couldn't wait to change to another insurer.

zayd

iTrader: (1)

That's why insurance is such a big sham. It was never invented to protect the consumer, rather its purpose is to make money out of risk. Just think how many of us have years of no claims bonuses. This means that each and every year, you've been paying a large sum of money. Now forget all the legal wranglings for a moment and consider what you've actually received in return for those costly premiums.

The answer, nothing!