Bloody Bodyshop (Still not ready 5/1)

[JBOB 0]

Sorry for this really long post but ive got to get a few thing off my chest :oops:

 

My car went into the bodyshop on Monday 14th November for a few little dings and a full respray as my 15 year old paint wasn’t looking its

best 8) The bodyshop quoted me the price and said it’ll be about 7-10 days as ive already stripped the car for them so its just a rolling shell with a dash and drivers seat.

 

Well its been 4 weeks yesterday that the car was dropped off with them and they’ve done nearly jack shit on the car :x :x The first week they told me that the car in front of mine had held them up and that it would be started on the Thursday. So the Friday I went to look and the place was shut, I later found out that the Manager want feeling well and sent everyone home early.

Week two and the car was in the main bodyshop and they started sorting the bodywork and got everything sorted at a great speed of knots and now every panel looks spot on.

Week 3 and my car was pushed to the back of the shop and two other cars were being worked on, mine wasn’t touched all week. I was told that the extra work had come in and so they had to pull people off my car to get the others sorted. Mine was there first and im a paying customer so not really an excuse for me !!!

Week 4 and the car was put into the paint booth and they called me wanting me to go in URGENTLY and choose the exact colour that I wanted as the car was about the be painted. I went in chose the colour and was told that it would all go smoothly now and ill have it back in no time.

So yesterday was the start of week 5 and I popped round to see what has happed (as id not had a call from them) I got there to find that my car has been taken out of the booth and put in the main warehouse 10’ in the air on a car lift. No sign of any paint and a new car in the paint booth.

 

Ive held my tongue with the bodyshop as I know that their work is A1 but to only work on my car for 1 week out of 5 is really pissing me off so I had a little word with the manager. He looked like a scared rabbit when he saw me coming lol He’s promised that its going back into the booth today and they are gonna paint it this week. Im going to go back on Thursday and check but don’t hold your breath.

 

The thing is that if they told me that it was going to take 5-6 weeks to do then that would have been fine but to tell me 10 days and then make excuses and false promises without even a phone call to say sorry its running late is not on. Its not like I can go and get my car as its got no doors boot or bonnet on it so they have me over a barrel. Ive spoken to the guys who work there and they are really excited about getting my car done as they are also Dub nuts so I know they are going to do a good job its just the manager who gets them to move from job to job without finishing.

 

This work on my car is a xmas present from my G/f and she wants to go over and speak to the manager but I know that he probably wont be alive after a verbal assault from her :lol: :lol: she’s even more pissed off than me lol

 

I miss my car…………… :(

[chrishill 0]

sucks mate, bodyshops ALWAYS take longer than they quote, but thats taking the micky big-time! I'd let your g/f loose on the manager and make sure you get it back quick-sharp!

[billinjah 0]

that really sucks dude, mine is in at the minute and the guy said it would be ready when i got back from the states which was last monday! needless to say i still dont have it back in his defence he has rung me every few days saying things like do you think it would look good if we smoothed so and so. so it sounds like he is into it and getting the job done properly at the end of the day last time i had a respray done quickly i ended up in court refusing to pay and it wrote my car off as the job was so bad! i'd hang fire the last thing you want them to do is rush the final,most important part of the job the paint application.

[catch_twotwo 0]

I'm in the same boat... Although not as long I hope.

 

Dropped it off and they said 7 days... called on day 6 to arrange pickup on the 7th day and they'd still not touched it.

[veeDuB_Rado 0]

No bloody way! They had your car there first so why the hell do they go and do another one then?

 

That seriously needs explaining

[GIXXERUK 0]

always the same mate , i went to france with work for a week and was promised it would be ready on my return, it eventually took 3 weeks

[CaiosG60 PWR 0]

It’s probably because they let insurance work take priority over your car. They’ve got to keep the insurance companies happy!

[GIXXERUK 0]

CaiosG60 PWR, youre probably right mate , the contract stuff comes first end yours get done inbetween

[chrishill 0]

makes sense in a way, if they dont do the insurance work they lose the contracts where as they know you cant do anything once your cars stripped and jacked 10ft in the air... its a sh*t trick to pull all the same

[JBOB 0]

Just found this on the website "Insurance approved accident repair centre" :roll: Looks like your right :lol: http://www.clarkesautos.co.uk

 

I was told that id have a courtesy car but when i dropped my car off I was told that it was busy so im driving around in my G/F's diesel Saxo :oops:

[g60greeny 0]

i worked in a autobodyshop repair place for about.................6wks :) the bloke i worked for used to have a contract with carnells,they always got the special treatment!!!oh yeah and so did the good lookin ladies,well thats what i noticed in my 6wks

[A20 LEE 0]

never rush a bodyshop is my advice.

[JBOB 0]

never rush a bodyshop is my advice.

 

I dont want to rush them it just I really hate it when people say one thing and do another.

Neil the painter @ Clarke’s told me today that he wants to get it just right before he lets me have it back. Then he asked if id want to sell after getting it done :D so im sure its in good hands its the manager that needs a kicking :lol: I wouldn’t run a business like this :roll:

[CaiosG60 PWR 0]

The thing with insurance work is that the insurance company are probably paying for a rental car while the repair work is being carried out.

 

Also, insurance work is probably most body shops bread and butter. Without it they wouldn’t survive.

 

 

EDIT*

 

CaiosG60 PWR, youre probably right mate , the contract stuff comes first and yours get done inbetween

 

 

Off course I am, arent I always! :lol:

[billinjah 0]

i get mine back tomorrow woo hoo! im taking my rs centres and caps to him at the same time as picking it up as i want them the same colour, he said they will be ready saturday yeah right!!!

[dazzyvr6 0]

well 4 weeks is a piss take,just hope the paint job is spot on first time for you mate

[PhatVR6 0]

been there...it's the sh1ts....I feel for you.

 

Had my first mk2 butchered by a certain well know leeds bodyshop. then got messed about by another dick in middlesbrough. I have no idea why I kept going back, but I reckon it took him about 4 months to paint my car. And when it went back in 2 years later for a new rear panel and wing and bonnet (after all the filler started blistering up left by the first tw4t) it took him a total of.......6 months......cheers mate...And then he just rushed it to get it done it he last 2 weeks he had it and made a complete bodge of it all.

 

when I eventually stripped the car down to do a load of work on it, I decided to investigate a blister that was appearing under the rear light......I ended up putting a screwdriver behind the filler and chisellling it off, it was 5mm thick in places, and went right down the side of the rear quarter to the top of the wheelarch.

 

I ended up pulling the rear panel, literlly, it was held on by about 6 tack welds, and it had NO paint on the inside, just the etch primer it comes fromt he factory with. I pulled it off, only to find the spare wheel well was completely rotten. The tw4t would have seen this when he fittted the rear panel but never even bothered to tell me. ....nice that, just took my money instead.

 

I found out why, the boot floor was full of filler too. it'd been in a rear end shut so hard that it's kinked the rear chassis leg and split it open under the boot floor, and kinked the passenger side sill.....this car was HPI clear.....

 

I eventually cut the whole boot floor out, straightened the chassis leg out (had to put a bottle jack in the wheel arch and jack it back an inch!) and that's when I decided to do the syncro conversion. It was either that or scrap the car.

 

I never did get round to finishing it off, and I lost heart with it so much I sold the shell last week for £300..

 

I reckon I'd spend at least £4000 in bodywork over the years on that car, and another £10,000 on everything else I did to it. A sad loss.

 

Luckily I've found a decent guy who now deals with my cars. Ian Ellis at MotorBody Cosmetics in Elvington. the guy is brilliant, cheap(ish) and sticks to the realistic timescales he quotes. 01904 608861 worth a call if you want a decent job doing. once you find a decent body shop it's working making friends with them as they are few and far between...

[vr6storm 0]

to be fair to the bodyshop manager,although it must annoy the p1$$ out of you all the excuses etc,as others have said the insurance work takes priority even if you are paying full whack and were in the Q first,afterall these bodyshops go out of their way to keep the Insurance ppl happy to ensure they always get approved status........it sucks but at the end of the day supposing yer paintjob comes out at £1k.........the insurance companies will be paying the bodyshop more than that over the course of their contract,so all he's doing is protecting his work current and future.......it sucks but thats the nature of the beast so to speak

[Phil K 0]

I've had similar problems with garages... my car was in one for over a year having the running problems sorted out and it still isn't right :roll:

[Ka` 0]

I've had similar problems with garages... my car was in one for over a year having the running problems sorted out and it still isn't right :roll:

 

I am in that limbo at the moment.

 

Cheers,

Rica

[catch_twotwo 0]

Well I have new reasons to hate my Bodyshop...

 

Dropped my car off 2 weeks ago as agreed... would take a week to do. Called a week later, and they'd not started, but it would be done for Wednesday this week. Called today to get the car pickup arranged for tommorrow at 9am and it won't be done till 12....

 

I have arranged appointments throught the day starting at 10am to get things sorted on the car.... new ICE, new wheels, new suspension.... All of them carefully timed to get it sorted in 1 day. All of them totalled screwed up by my bodyshop being annoying gits....

 

[/anger venting]

[JBOB 0]

Ive been down to the bodyshop today and found that they haven’t done anything to the car :roll: My g/f was with me and she went mental shouting at the manager :twisted: Then the owner turned up who we’ve never met and she shouted at him. Ive never seen her like that and she scared the **** out of them and me :lol:

 

The owner agreed that its taken to long and was actually a really nice guy. He went through all that need doing to the car and checked how much my quote was then says he’d take £200 off for our inconvenience which im obviously very happy about. He then told the manager that he’s working overtime this weekend to get the car ready for Wed/thurs next week and that he’s going to personally check it before calling me to come and collect 8)

 

So it looks like im going to get the car back before xmas :D 8) :D

[g60greeny 0]

ya should have let your g/f loose on them earlier by the sounds of it :lol: if i ever have any probs i'll send you a pm and you can fetch her round to sort things out :lol:

[billinjah 0]

jus been to see mine very very happy as it will be finished tomorrow he was just fitting the skirts, the paint looks amazing and the smoothing he has done looks spot on!

[g60greeny 0]

billinjahg60,what you had done?good price?