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Why do why do some people think main dear body shops are any better than An insurance approved bodyshop,

They pretty much are thats why in my opinion. Robinsons in Norwich Tended to my car after 5 days of ownership after an accident with a police car (Not my fault)

Spot on repair, Faultless throughout. On the flipside ive used nationwide crash repair and what a **** job complete load of ******s

I would INSIST on going through insurers! By the time you come up with a quote, from a reputable repairer, (Main dealer for me)! Then chuck in a quote for the use of another vehicle (Despite the fact the dealer may offer you a complimentay car for the duration of the work) And then add up any out of pocket expenses, it will almost certainy be a few thousand quid claim. How many people will stump up for that, rather then lose some of their no claims bonus? They will almost without fail, try to change their minds or not reply to your calls/messages, etc! Hoping you will just go away!

In addition, if they have no insurance, your own company will pay and try to re-claim from them any costs, perhaps even taking legal action against them!

Sorry if this sounds sceptical but this is one of the oldest tricks in the book... Admit blame, offer to pay, then ignore you!

Well... I can see an update to this thread over the next few days, but will provide a mini-update for now

We went through the route recommended by the insurer (mainly due to us not having cash around to do otherwise) and to be honest, the car finally came back a couple of days ago (yes, we were without it for a month), and i'm absolutely fuming!!!

There are a couple of things you should know before reading on.

1) the car has covered less than 3000 miles

2) it gets cleaned on a weekly basis without fail, and we utilise the autoglym stuff that came with my cars lifeshine cover

3) the car was bought brand new in April

First of all, the state the car was in was disgusting:

- filthy inside and out (so much so that my wife found it difficult to inspect the repair, or any other aspect of the car)

- car had been covered in stickers, mainly on drivers door and around rear door frame (inside) - had to use boiling water and took around 10 minutes of rubbing to remove from door - not doing the door trim as well (as there's loads more there)

- inside rear door feels 'rough'

- wheel arch trim has tiny paint bubbles on it

- wheel arch trim doesnt seem properly stuck on

- wheel arch trim seems to have unpainted part

- where bodywork meets wheel arch trim, colour matching seems strange / noticiable

- dirty water marks inside the car, around the gear stick, dashboard, door trims (drivers AND passengers!)

- dust in the car, so much so we moved the rear seatbelt and you can see the original colour of the cloth!

- white spots covering the inside of the boot plastic boot trim

- SCRATCHES on drivers window trim (between edge of door and window)

- wax (or other white substance) on areas of the bodywork in crevasses

- rear boot carpet has white patches on it

All in all, absolutely fuming and if this isn't resolved, i'll be naming and shaming the (forum sponsoring) insurer as I genuinely think its been an awful experience throughout! :( :( :( :(

(and don't even get me started on the attitude of some of the people the wife has had to deal with on this one, as well as the incompetence of the people that were collecting / dropping off the car!)

The complaints department should be ringing me back in the morning and no-way is someone having this car for 4 weeks again and returning it in the same condition!

*argh* - *angry*!

Well... I can see an update to this thread over the next few days, but will provide a mini-update for now

We went through the route recommended by the insurer (mainly due to us not having cash around to do otherwise) and to be honest, the car finally came back a couple of days ago (yes, we were without it for a month), and i'm absolutely fuming!!!

There are a couple of things you should know before reading on.

1) the car has covered less than 3000 miles

2) it gets cleaned on a weekly basis without fail, and we utilise the autoglym stuff that came with my cars lifeshine cover

3) the car was bought brand new in April

First of all, the state the car was in was disgusting:

- filthy inside and out (so much so that my wife found it difficult to inspect the repair, or any other aspect of the car)

- car had been covered in stickers, mainly on drivers door and around rear door frame (inside) - had to use boiling water and took around 10 minutes of rubbing to remove from door - not doing the door trim as well (as there's loads more there)

- inside rear door feels 'rough'

- wheel arch trim has tiny paint bubbles on it

- wheel arch trim doesnt seem properly stuck on

- wheel arch trim seems to have unpainted part

- where bodywork meets wheel arch trim, colour matching seems strange / noticiable

- dirty water marks inside the car, around the gear stick, dashboard, door trims (drivers AND passengers!)

- dust in the car, so much so we moved the rear seatbelt and you can see the original colour of the cloth!

- white spots covering the inside of the boot plastic boot trim

- SCRATCHES on drivers window trim (between edge of door and window)

- wax (or other white substance) on areas of the bodywork in crevasses

- rear boot carpet has white patches on it

All in all, absolutely fuming and if this isn't resolved, i'll be naming and shaming the (forum sponsoring) insurer as I genuinely think its been an awful experience throughout! :( :( :( :(

(and don't even get me started on the attitude of some of the people the wife has had to deal with on this one, as well as the incompetence of the people that were collecting / dropping off the car!)

The complaints department should be ringing me back in the morning and no-way is someone having this car for 4 weeks again and returning it in the same condition!

*argh* - *angry*!

without being disrespectful, I told you so, as did others.

Vag approved all the way and chances are you wouldn't have had to pay excess.

Hope it gets sorted. Who was the bodyshop again?

without being disrespectful, I told you so, as did others.

Vag approved all the way and chances are you wouldn't have had to pay excess.

Hope it gets sorted. Who was the bodyshop again?

the option was to pay £250 to use a different bodyshop... i'll start leaving a spare £250 lying around in my bank account in future to avoid any further 'told you so' comments :(

edit: apologies, my response perhaps seems a little ratty, however I'm disappointed that the saga still isn't over for us on this one and to be honest, I have enough stress in my life at the moment without added complications --- made worse by the fact that all this has come about through something where we were at no fault, yet have been inconvenienced massively for. I genuinely thought one of the selling points of insurance was supposed to be the 'peace of mind' it offered, where this has just been a PITA :(

I had a bad experience with an insurance approved bodyshop in the past (over 15 years ago) and have never used any such thing since, nore will i ever. I either use a dealers bodyshop, but remember they have to have their own ! Not farm it out to some indy one, then they are just brokers, or i will use one that has come highly recommended by a trusted friend who has the same OCD tendancies as myself about their vehicles.

The approved shops are simply the paint shop version of a McDonalds, stack up high and sell cheap, they want to get your '' order '' in and out as quick as possible as the insurance companies have screwed them down on price so much they can not devote any time to it...... it really was waiting to happen, sorry.

The best advice I can give is get solicitors involved...

A close friend of mine had a similar experience and a very much bodged repair on a 4 month old car... She did the above and insisted on it going to Vauxhall for repair...

All sorted now and to the highest quality...

Oh and the body shop that bodged it has lost its "insurance approved" status

the option was to pay £250 to use a different bodyshop... i'll start leaving a spare £250 lying around in my bank account in future to avoid any further 'told you so' comments :(

edit: apologies, my response perhaps seems a little ratty, however I'm disappointed that the saga still isn't over for us on this one and to be honest, I have enough stress in my life at the moment without added complications --- made worse by the fact that all this has come about through something where we were at no fault, yet have been inconvenienced massively for. I genuinely thought one of the selling points of insurance was supposed to be the 'peace of mind' it offered, where this has just been a PITA :(

I was trying not to be smug in my response but can see it was a bit.

If they force you to pay the excess which any bodyshop worth its salt wouldn't with it being clear cut not your fault you should get a credit card for emergencies such as this. Even if you don't get the money back before the bill date, a few weeks of interest is worth its weight to avoid hassle of insurance approved bodyshops.

Myself, I have a credit card and always have a contingency fund for repairs on the car or house, then if its left at the end of the year it turns into the holiday fund!