Dear all,
Wife had a small bump in my Puma (very slow speed). Bent the bonnet. Insurance company said that they would organise a garage to fix. 2-weeks later car 'fixed'. Bonnet sensor light permanently lit. Took car back for a day, managed to fix. One month later, trying to part exchange car...no deal, repair bodged. Taken back to garage, say they missed something (bent metal plate near bumper) and now are going back to our insurance company to authorise repair. Surely it should be them, not the insurance company (and ultimately us) that should be paying for the additional repair? Didn't spot the bodged repair, how can I tell whether it is right this time? Any advice/comments?
Thanks,
Nick
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Davey,
The Ford dealership I was trying to part exchange the Puma with. If you put two Pumas side-by-side the bodge is fairly obvious...otherwise, not so easy to see.
Nick
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From personal experience...all things I was told when going through this myself.
First piece of advice is keep rejecting it til they get it right. There shouldn't be any more costs to you/the insurance co as you/they have already settled the original claim. What matters now is getting it put right and the people who did the work wrong in the first place should meet those costs.
You can request an independent engineer from the insurance company inspects the car before you agree to accept it back, and if you make enough of a fuss you might get your own personal account holder to come out and mediate between you, and make absolutely sure the car is back to the condition it was in before it's little adventure. As it's been bodged, you can also ask that the insurance company moves the car to a different bodyshop for it to be made good, and they will sort out reclaiming the costs from the original place.
I'm sure it wont go that far, as most places aren't as disagreeable as the place that butchered Polo, but stand your ground and don't hand over the courtesy car until yours is perfect.
With regard to knowing it's right, could you talk nicely to someone from the place you were trying to part ex it, as it's in their interests to get it fixed so they can do the deal and have you as a customer?
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As a further update to this story, today we finally got the Puma back again, after 10 days (driving a 1.0 Corsa, which is awful!). My wife took it to the local Ford dealership as PoloGirl suggested and once again they said that the repair wasn't satisfactory. To cap it all off, a colleague of mine was coming to look at buying the car tomorrow, but instead I have had to tell him, it is in the garage.
I am getting towards the end of my teather, as my wife is 38 weeks pregnant and I need to replace the car asap. Any hints for speeding up the process or what course of action may be appropriate?
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You say the garage said the repair wasn't satisfactory, was it the same Ford dealership you took it to last time? Have you noticed the repair is not satisfactory? I was just wondering if it was the same garage are they just being a bit funny so they don't have to give you as much money in the part-ex?
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Daisy1,
My wife took it back to the same Ford garage and they put it up on the ramp and showed her the problem. It is fairly obvious to see if you know what you are looking for (which neither my wife nor I do). I am sure that the Ford garage are being honest, as we have had the head of the bodyshop (not a salesman) look at it each time. The insurance intermediary (an accident management company!!) who placed the work with the garage that has done the poor repair said we can get Ford to repair it, but the garage would have to agree to pay...can't see that happening!
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A work colleague had an insurance repair carried out on his car, which he wasn't happy with. He contacted the insurance company and informed them of this, and they told him to have an AA Vehicle Inspection carried out to verify, or otherwise, this fact. This he would have to pay for, but, if the result of the inspection was that the repair was unsatisfactory, the cost of the inspection would be paid by the insurance company.
This was carried out, the repair was deemed to be unsatisfactory, and arrangements were made to transport the vehicle to another repaired for the necessary repairs to the repairs to be carried out.
All of this was paid for by the insurance company.
I'm quite sure that you own insurance company are responsible for this if the car isn't now in the condition that it was in previous to the accident. I think they are trying to fob you off! Are you a member of a motoring organisation? If you are I suggest you get in contact with them PDQ.
Good Luck
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Or invite the guvnor of the body shop into your car for a trip to the ford place where he and the ford engineer can converse in person.
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Thanks for your help, it is good to hear people's opinions and has made me slightly less miserable about the situation.
The Accident Management company have put the bodyshop owner in touch with the Ford bodyshop manager and hopefully they might come to some arrangement. Unfortunately they will not be able to meet as the garages are about 30 miles apart.
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It will be the insurance company making the repairer do a botched job, nowadays they usually pursuade you to go to a large McDonalds of bodyshop for a cheesburger-style repair. Usually the insurance company tell the repairer to bend things straight and repair plastic bumpers and such like. Best to go to your own VBRA repairer and hire a car yourself and claim the cost back if against a third party.
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Unfortunately this story (if you can stomach reading it all!) is still unresolved and I would welcome once more any help to make things progress.
An independent assessor came and looked at the car and said that the repair was unsatisfactory. He detailed a report and told my wife that basically the wings would have to be taken off to get to the area of the structure that needed straightening and this was quite a large (time-consuming) job.
The accident management company then organised for another approved supplier to look at the car. I had to drive the car the 40 mile round trip (taking a half day holiday from work) to the other garage. There was no option for them to pick it up.
They looked at the car and said that quite a substantial amount of work needed doing and it would take a week in their shop to fix.
Today I have spoken to the management company and they have said that they are querying the quote from the new garage and want another independent assessor to look at the car at the new garage's premises (another 40 mile round trip and holiday from work!). Now 4 different people have looked at the car: two Ford bodyshop people, an independent assessor and another bodyshop assessor and they have all said that substantial work needs doing. Is it reasonable that the process be delayed again to get another engineer in? They said that I shouldn't expect to hear anything until next week. I have spoken to the insurance company directly and whilst being very helpful have not managed to speed things up. The original 'botched' repair cost £2000, the new repair is quoted at £2000, with courtesy car charges for a month, surely this is getting close to writing the car off!
Do I have any rights and should I be billing someone for the journeys/time off work? Any ideas for resolving this will naturally be most appreciated.
Nick
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Check out:
www.gisc.co.uk/Home/default.asp
Your insurer is almost certainly a member, and the code of conduct is pretty clear. You're being very messed about! Write a polite but firm letter to your insurance company, cc-ing it to the MD of the company at head office. Outline point by point why you're unhappy and how they've failed to comply with the code. The Supply of Goods and Services Act (1984?) is also on your side. You need write as if you were as a solicitor, amking your points objectively and quoting from legislation / industry code to support what you say. Propose what you would see as a reasonable solution, and be reasonable. This worked for me, very quickly. Cheque by return of post.
The Citizen's Advice Bureau might also be useful, but I think they'd probably tell you the same as the above.
Hope this helps!
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What would appear to be happening is that they have all agreed there is a problem but there is a difference of opinion between the independant assessors report and the other approved repairers report. What the management company are going to try to do is to get the car, an independant assessor and the other approved repairers estimator all together at the same time so they can look at the damage and come to some agreement about exactly what work is required to fix the car properly. The obvious place to do this is at the new approved repairers bodyshop. This doesn't help you I know but it is logical. Once they have all agreed what needs doing, how many hours it will take and the cost of parts etc, they should arrange for your car to be booked in and fixed finally.
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