Unbelievable....

[mender]

I run a mobile body repair business, with the van parked on the drive, so people often knock the door...

 

Back in the spring, a young guy turned up in a Seat Ibiza on a Sunday afternoon having damaged the offside door and rear panel and having the wing mirror literally hanging off loose.

 

I quoted to put it right, around £350 to spray both panels and sort the mirror, whereby the young lad pleaded poverty and in the end I agreed to improve the damage as much as was possible by flatting and polishing the scratches, touching up and fixing the mirror-all for £50...on a Sunday.

 

The mirror was a right pain, with a concealed allen bolt to tighten up set behind the rubber which had been turned by the damage and the glass was loose too.  After inspecting the mirror, I checked the forums to see where the bolt was located, but no joy and the dealer was closed obviously.

 

To cut a long story short, I polished 95% of the damage away and the car looked ace, with a few minute touch-ups; it was what most clients would call a miracle and worked away for three hours until I finally fixed the mirror and fitted the glass.

From a massively damaged car with the mirror hanging off, it was turned into almost perfect and I kept to the £50 quote even though it turned out better than I thought was possible.

 

So, for three and a half hours on a Sunday (much to my wife's annoyance), without booking, I helped out a young lad to sort his car out and get back on the road.  Crazy, maybe, but I try to help out as I remember getting into scrapes myself at that age.

 

I now have one review on Yell for my business, it is from him:

 

***AVOID***

The man who runs this business doesn't have a clue how to remove a a car door panel nor how to properly polish the car in order to remove scratches. I had a minor road collision and basically one of my side mirrors was damaged during the incident. When I came to the man he removed some of the scratches but after the wash most of them were still visible. This process took him about 30 minutes. Then he started playing with the door panel, calling it a 'stupid design' and etc. because he struggled with it for 3 hours! All he had to do was to fasten the bolt that was in the mirror! 1st cowboy he is! P.S He charged me £50 for this 'fantastic' job (of course he didn't give me a receipt so tax free cash)!

 

Unbelievable.

 

I really don't know why I bother sometimes.  

[Ootohere]

I gave a young guy a mirror once off a car i had because he was crapping himself because it was his Mums car, 

and it would give him time to get me a replacement. 

I asked him a couple of times and he just never bothered getting me one or the money for one.

(Obviously his Mum needed to get one eventually, because i repatriated my one.)

[Rustynuts]

You do take before and after pictures of every job, don't you? Post them up on the review site for all to see.

[Paul007]

Reply. I would. 

[mender]

Reply. I would. 

I did.....

 

Insulting and entirely unfair. I remember his red Seat Ibiza needed the mirror (which was hanging loose) fixing and the driver's door and rear panel respraying at a cost of hundreds of pounds. Trying to be helpful to the "nice young lad" I offered to do my utmost to remove the scratches and mend the mirror for £50 on a Sunday. The mirror was a new design and had a concealed bolt, obscured by the misplaced rubber and even after a forum search (dealers closed) it was not obvious how to repair it. Rather than give up, I kept to my original quote of £50 even though the job turned into a 3 hour pain (as confirmed above) as I worked until the mirror was perfectly fixed and operational again. Some scratches were too deep to remove (explained when quoting respray) but I did all that could be done to remove them, leaving it almost perfect-for £50! The lad paid happily, did not want a receipt and has never suggested any issue. All jobs are entered into accounts-insulting. Make own judgement!

[mender]

You do take before and after pictures of every job, don't you? Post them up on the review site for all to see.

I used to, but I do hundreds of jobs, my web-site guy won't add them any more, plus this was an on-spec turn-up on a Sunday where I just got on with it to help him out....

 

It really is a damn shame as I could have put a link on my Yell reply to the photos somewhere. Damn!

[StevesTruck]

Wait for the phone call saying he'll take the bad review off for £100.

Smartphones are great things, you can leave all your pictures on until you need them, and record phone calls.

Did you get a forum name or a reg number or anything? I'm on a few seat sites.

[mender]

Wait for the phone call saying he'll take the bad review off for £100.

Smartphones are great things, you can leave all your pictures on until you need them, and record phone calls.

Did you get a forum name or a reg number or anything? I'm on a few seat sites.

It was pre-April so in last years accounts, I can get to them at accountants...

 

I've got an iPhone 4S but all space used up and however I try I can't get uploaded to the cloud

[danny4646]

He sounds the kind of person who could have had a full repair, paid a pitence and still moaned, just a shame it then puts a downer on a review site, shows how much nerve he has when a phone call or a face to face chat is possible, key board warriors!!

[FUBAR]

Find car, return to it's original state and leave £50 refund in an envelope under wiper as he wasn't happy with the work. Job done! Take a picture before and after, then use those as reverse before and after pics

[Aspman]

No good dead goes unpunished.

Edited 3 November, 2015 by Aspman

[kevberlin]

Just to give an alternative view:

I had two occasions to use Mender in the last 6 months. Firstly a trolley scrape on the front valance and then a post jumped out at my wife when she was reversing.

I found Mender by searching on the net. I did not know at that time he was a Briskodian. On each occasion a first class repair was done to my car at very sensible money too. Mender is a top fellah, friendly, helpful and knowledgable.

I'd recommend him to anyone.

As for the negative review..................well there is nothing to be said really!

[mender]

Find car, return to it's original state and leave £50 refund in an envelope under wiper as he wasn't happy with the work. Job done! Take a picture before and after, then use those as reverse before and after pics

One of my mates who does bits for me, works in a body shop and the second anyone starts on about anything, the owner fetches the hammer, puts the damage back in and gives them their keys.  Soon shuts them up and they are furious they have not had car for a week and it is still not done!

[mender]

Just to give an alternative view:

I had two occasions to use Mender in the last 6 months. Firstly a trolley scrape on the front valance and then a post jumped out at my wife when she was reversing.

I found Mender by searching on the net. I did not know at that time he was a Briskodian. On each occasion a first class repair was done to my car at very sensible money too. Mender is a top fellah, friendly, helpful and knowledgable.

I'd recommend him to anyone.

As for the negative review..................well there is nothing to be said really!

Thanks Kev

 

Much appreciated; strange how small the world is...!

 

Feeling more positive now, this episode kicked me hard.  I don't get why people are so nasty when I spend so much time trying to help/chat etc.

Maybe seen as a soft target, then, who knows?

 

Saying that, though, I have had loads of others turning up here moaning like hell about other local bodyshops and asking me to quote to put it right; one guy in 10yr old 135k Vectra where the one side had been repainted and paid for by the other party to new standards, the other side beaten to hell from years of use and abuse-and they were asking how much to completely redo the painted side due to a minute, tiny, infinitesimally minor issue.....!  The car had been improved hugely and paid for and they were still arguing.  I told them the job was far better than I'd have ever done to that car given the value of it so be thankful.

[StevesTruck]

One of my mates who does bits for me, works in a body shop and the second anyone starts on about anything, the owner fetches the hammer, puts the damage back in and gives them their keys.  Soon shuts them up and they are furious they have not had car for a week and it is still not done!

My brother used to do waste clearances. Stick all your crap on the drive, he gives you a price, you say yes, he loads it up, you pay, he takes it.

Or he loads it up, you start arguing about the price, he tips it back off in front of your car, on your flowerbed or wherever it lands.

Sometimes, you've just got to take no ****. I've taken fixtures back out of major supermarkets before when the agencies I've worked for have started looking for excuses not to pay.

[Breezy_Pete]

Have him discretely killed.

If you were a bit closer I'd do it for you.

[GentleGiant]

Sounds like his Mum found out about the crash and gave him what-for, so he spread the blame a bit.

 

You could threaten him legally, he has accused you of doing the job off book, that is slander - always assuming you did enter it in the books.

[Aspman]

Sounds like his Mum found out about the crash and gave him what-for, so he spread the blame a bit.

 

You could threaten him legally, he has accused you of doing the job off book, that is slander - always assuming you did enter it in the books.

 

It's in writing, that'd be libel.

 

Which is actually much worse for him.

 

 

The claimant must prove in a case of slander that the effect of the defamation has actually been damaging to them. There is no such requirement in a case of libel.

 

It'd be worth the satisfaction of making him **** his breeks to pay a solicitor to draft a letter alleging defamation.

[DanGum]

I think I've heard of your business based in Leominster not heard any bad things about it! I'm trying to figure out who drives a red seat ibiza I swear I've seen a young lad driving one recently down Merton meadow car park

[sw8296]

It was pre-April so in last years accounts, I can get to them at accountants...

 

I've got an iPhone 4S but all space used up and however I try I can't get uploaded to the cloud

 

Without wishing to de-rail the thread off in to techie stuff... don't bother with iCloud. Try using Dropbox, Google Drive or Amazon Cloud Drive (sign up for an account and then install the app on your iPhone). The apps have photo upload features that will basically copy your photos off to the cloud. You can then view them there, or move them somewhere else or on to your PC etc. You can leave them on your phone still, or delete them, or just keep a few important ones.

[Tilt]

I have done lots of freebies for my neighbour. Little improvements in their kitchen, small plumbing works, worked on both of their cars and lent them a £250 cordless drill when a member of their family locked themselves out of their house, amongst other things.

 

After all of this, she has blamed my dog for using their front lawn as a toilet, because she found a bit of mess one time. She came around ranting and threw it on my front lawn. We are not speaking now.

It wasn't Barney, he won't even go on the grass all along the side of the street, he waits until he gets to the field. He does use our rear lawn if necessary, but has never gone on the front. And no way was it big enough.

She has fallen out with almost everybody with a car on the street, over parking, and I heard her tell her (one) friend that she was "glad some blokes dog bit me".

 

Anyway, Barney still likes her, well he likes bitches.

 

Some people really are unbelievable, as you say.

[Breezy_Pete]

It's in writing, that'd be libel.

 

Which is actually much worse for him.

 

 

It'd be worth the satisfaction of making him **** his breeks to pay a solicitor to draft a letter alleging defamation.

I'd be up for participating in crowd-funding that solicitor's letter. That's even more cunning than killing the lad (which wouldn't actually remove the review...  ).

[bspman]

I honestly don't look at yell reviews. I'd like to say some bad things but I don't want them to come after briskoda.. google searches can do enough.

 

Regardless.. do a good job and regardless of reviews you'll get repeat custom and people will come to you through referral

[Aspman]

I'd be up for participating in crowd-funding that solicitor's letter. That's even more cunning than killing the lad (which wouldn't actually remove the review...  ).

 

Also avoids the messy chore of  'cleaning up' after dispatching said oxygen thief.

[brad1.8T]

It was pre-April so in last years accounts, I can get to them at accountants...

 

I've got an iPhone 4S but all space used up and however I try I can't get uploaded to the cloud

iPhone are a pain but just plug it into a computer & the photos & video (nothing else) will appear as a drive.  cut & paste onto your laptop/desktop PC.