Crap repairs through insurance claim - what next?

[philshort]

I have had my Audi A8 repaired after crash damage, but now its been returned its a mess. The doors are completely misaligned, with at least quarter of an inch of misalignment between the front and rear doors in places. Like this. (Apologies for the ugly thumbnail, smacked it with a hammer putting a fence up!)

I will be contacting the insurers on Monday to let them know I am not satisfied with the standard of repair.

Would you beleive the repairers actually crashed the car again while delivering it earlier in the week, kerbing it badly, and wrecking a front tyre. I sent them packing, and they have replaced the tyre. I'd hope they've checked the suspension etc (the tyre had a bleb the size of a grapefruit, and they are low profile tyres on 18 rims so you can imagine the impact force required for that). I'm also left with a chunk out of the wheel, oddly not exactly at the rim. Can't see how it happened, but it wasn't there before.

This is turning into a nightmare. I had an immaculate A8. I've seen cut and shut jobs that looked straighter than what I have now.


>>> Edited by philshort on Saturday 31st August 15:07

[jwelby]

Know what you mean. I had a small run-in with my insurance company on a repair on me Chimera.

After some BD took a knife to the hood I called the insurance company. After going though a lot of questions (took hours for them to understand there was no other car involved!) they informed me that 'BODGET AND SCARPER' crash repairs were there approved repairer and would collect my TVR and drop off the hire car.

Now I have a small thing about who works on the Car and after a hour of arguing I gave in….'BODGET AND SCARPER' would do the work. So the next week a spotty kid comes to collect my TVR, followed by the comment ‘I’ve never driven one of these before’ and yes I had to show him how top open the Door!!!!

During the week the insurance company tried to get out of the clam by saying it was only wear and tear.. (Stanley knife tear) A week later it is returned and guess what the Hood was fitted incorrectly. Wrinkles, slack and well it leaked (never did that before)

So I refused to accept the work!, to cut a long story short I sent the car back 3 times, then with help from my Solicitor I got my local TVR dealer to do the work. If only the insurance company had listened to me in the first place. Would have saved so much. 3 attempts by 'BODGET AND SCARPER' to fix the hood 4 weeks, 1 Fix by the Dealer 1 week Hire car for 5 weeks not 1, and the cost of 2 hoods.

J

[funkihamsta]

Always find it funny that car insurance ads seem to portray the idea that you don't have to do anything, and they'll take your car away and get it repaired as a good thing!

[jhoneyball]

Was this an audi repair place? I thought there were only one or two official audi repair places in the uk for the A8 and A2

[philshort]

quote:Was this an audi repair place? I thought there were only one or two official audi repair places in the uk for the A8 and A2

Thats what I thought too. I was surprised when they sorted out a repair centre the next day, and only 40 miles away. I don't know if its one of the repair centres Audi use, but I will be trying to find out from Audi.

I have been looking more closely, and in the evening sun you can clearly see that the drivers door is now convex and the rear door is concave, as well as not being aligned.

The A8 is expensive to insure because of the expense of bodywork repairs - aluminium panel beaters are pretty scarce outside of Crewe. I'm not surprised if they insist of trying to cut corners.

[nonegreen]

Philshort, intrigued by your comment about Crewe and panel beaters. They are so good in crewe that Audi are building and painting the new MSB and shipping it in.

Anyway y' know that advert for direct line when they come and take your car away and bring it back all spick and span when one of their drivers rams you up the arse. Well when some scrote in a 4p sierra shunted my nice blue 944 in manchester (while I was sat at a red light) They phoned me up and asked me where the car was so they could repair it. I told them it was at the Porsche agents and they said they would be picking it up from there . I told them that would be called taking without consent and I would ensure both criminal and civil prosecution would ensue and they just laughed. So I went to the bodyshop and sure enough some twonk from "we bog it up ltd" turned up to pick up the car. I had explained to the Porsche agent that my desire was for the car to remain there until my insurance assessor had seen it and they complied. However Direct line were very unhappy, especially when I slapped em with a bill for 11k which they eventually paid after 2 visits to court. The point is insurance companies are just thieves with "o" levels and you have to be able to stand up to them and sue the bastards if necessary.

[dennisthemenace]

I know its no audi tvr etc but my old work van got hit by a landy and went to a back street garage to be repaired this was done through lex who they were on lease from when i got it back the bonnet had a shut line that varied from touching the wing above the headlight to half an inch under the windscreen now i know it wasnt my van but i had to live with it so complained and in the end they sent it to a ford dealer to be done after they had finished you couldnt tell it had been hitthe bill was 3 times as much but the quality of work was leagues ahead of bodger bill , anyway with you audi using the space frame i thought the work could only be done by audi , they built it they know how to repair it , insurance companys just take the p155 these days

[superlightr]

You have the right to insist on an offical repairer of your wishes. Offical porsche centre or audi etc.

Dont let them fob you off, go back to the main dealer for repairs every time.

[philshort]

Theives with O levels - like it! Fear not, there is no way I will be accepting anything less than a proper job. I expect the car to be returned to its previous immaculate condition and will not give up until it is. I will be involving Audi and I will be telling the insurance co who is repairing the car. They had their chance and blew it.

[douglasr]

The happened to me as well. I had a Civic VTI repaired at an approved bodysop. When I got is back, the rear wing had not been pulled out enough so the gap around the door was inconsistant. In addition the clearcoat had bubbles in it.

I took the car back and it was redone. When I got it back a second time, it was slightly better, but not much and the had sprayed blue paint on my rear alloy wheel.

At this point I called the insurance company - they were very helpfull and an engineer was sent out. His first words were "you dont have to tell me where it was repaired, thats bloody awful". He wrote a report, then next week the car was collected. Prior to its return, the engineer went to the bodyshop and re-inpected the car - he rejected the paint job again !
It was eventually done properly the next time. He said to me "off the record" that he had gone through the Bodyshop manager "like a does of salts" and told him that he was in danger of losing contract work with my insurance company.

[danny hoffman]

I had a run in with NU a few years ago and they ended up getting the car re-repaired at a Jag specialist (it was a Jag) and paying me compensation for the hassle. It took about 6 months and at one point they threatened to report the loan car as stolen to the police because I refused to go and collect my poorly repaired car!

My old boss ended up with the Audi garage buying back his Quattro because they gave up trying to match the paint after one of there mechanics dropped a hammer on the bonnet. They tried a full respray but it was a terrible job. It was a trick white metalic colour and there were only 2 in the UK apparently. They said the car would have to go back to the factory.

Anyway, my experience is that a polite but strongly worded letter to all parties will get results - don't accept any b*ll.

Danny

[philshort]

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Maybe I should commission Carzee to expedite matters! Do you think his fee would be reimbursed?

I intend to "have words" tomorrow with NU. I had already told NU the work appeared substandard when the repairers first tried to return it (i.e. when they crashed it) and they said they would pass this on to the repairer, and if the work was not rectified they would send an independant inspector. If the inspector finds the work unacceptable I will be pressing at that point for the car to be repaired by Audi.

I will keep you posted!

[jhoneyball]

Phil

I have checked with a mate who works for Dovercourt Audi dealer in London

There are 3 places in the UK which are Audi approved for doing aluminium work.

Wayside in Milton Keynes

Metcalf's in Walton-on-Thames - who work in conjunction with HWM Audi (in Walton-on-Thames)

and

www.smithknightfay.com/body/body.asp

which says "This is highlighted by the fact the Smith Knight Fay body Repair Centre is one of only 3 recognised Audi Aluminium Repair centres in the UK able to carry out body repairs to the highly advanced all Aluminium Audi A8 and Audi A2"

Hope this helps

Jon

[philshort]

Excellent - thanks Jon!

I've had dealings with Wayside before, not MK, but Towcester, and they seem to be a good bet.

Strange that the SmithKnightFay web page metions they are an NU authorised repairer. Shame NU didn't seem to know this!

Anyway, thanks again for taking the trouble to check this for me, I owe you a drink!

Bloody brilliant PistonHeads, innit!

[spnracing]

quote:
You have the right to insist on an offical repairer of your wishes. Offical porsche centre or audi etc.

Dont let them fob you off, go back to the main dealer for repairs every time.

No, you definitely do not.

The insurance company has the right to repair the car wherever it chooses, the only contractual requirement is that the car is repaired to reasonable standard. You can ask the insurance company to have the car taken to a main agent but they DO NOT have to comply.

I had a nightmare with repairs to our little Seicento after a tosser in a white van hit it.

It was taken to an ex-main dealer, when I went to collect it the paint looked like it had been applied with a Halfords spray can and the interior was covered in paint marks.

I complained and the owner of the repair centre agreed - though why he hadn't checked it before calling me I don't know.

Car was repaired again and paint was better, but inside of car was still covered in yellow paint and now a dark oily substance too trying to hide it.

I refused the car again, the insurance company inspected it and said it was OK! I still refused, demanded a second inspection with me present. The independent assessor agreed the car needed a complete new interior (all seats, airbag/steering wheel, entire dash, gearbox gaitor, door trims, the WHOLE lot). Eventually the insurance company (AXA Direct) agreed to pay the bill - some £3000 plus VAT. The original damage cost £2000, the car was probably worth 3.5K at the time.

The entire episode took 12 months to sort out, with about 5 visits to the first repairer and three more to the Fiat garage that finally sorted it. To add insult to injury the van driver denied liability and only paid up after being taken to court and being told he was a liar by the judge.

Anyway some other points - if you collected the car you will have been asked to sign an acceptance form when you paid the excess - did you sign this?

Insist on an independent assessor if the insurance company one gives you any problems, I think this is within your rights.

Although you can't insist the car is repaired at a certain garage, you probably COULD argue that it should be taken to a repairer that is familiar with working aluminium panels.

Don't give up. For one thing no-one will buy a second hand A8 with dodgy panel fit.

[jhoneyball]

Doesnt some of this depend on the insurance policy? Arent there are some "granny" policies (ie cheap ones aimed at low risk low mileage drivers) where you explicitly have signed away your right to use anyone other than the insurers own repair places?

[philshort]

quote:Anyway some other points - if you collected the car you will have been asked to sign an acceptance form when you paid the excess - did you sign this?

Insist on an independent assessor if the insurance company one gives you any problems, I think this is within your rights.

Although you can't insist the car is repaired at a certain garage, you probably COULD argue that it should be taken to a repairer that is familiar with working aluminium panels.

Don't give up. For one thing no-one will buy a second hand A8 with dodgy panel fit.

The car was delivered, and yes I signed an acceptance note. I did however inspect the car first, and before signing it wrote "SUBJECT TO FULL INSPECTION, REAR DOOR NOT FULLY ALIGNED" above the signature. The delivery driver had already written on it "MARKS ON N/S/F WHEEL" as I had pointed out damage to the alloy wheel which was not there before they kerbed it and wrecked the tyre.

I have spoken to NU and they insist I give the repairer a chance to rectify the problems. Fair enough, I think they are obliged to do this (even though the garage is not authorised to repair the car by Audi). The repairer can't fit it in until 19th Sep (surprise). I will in the meantime document the problems and send details to the repairer, NU and the HP company (whose vehicle they are fcuking about with).

I absolutely will not give up, you are right about the panel fit. I may have to sell the car next year (unless IT picks up) and no-one will touch it in its present condition, especially being aluminium and expensive to rectify.

The really annoying thing is that this is going to cost a lot of money, all becase NU's systems are geared to getting your car to the nearest NU authorised repair centre and doesn't seem to be able to recognise that not all centres can repair the car. If you always have three bites at the cherry these cars WILL be expensive to repair.

[danny hoffman]

NU kept on insisting they had to return my car in a condition which did not affect the value of the car. i.e. they could do a crap repair as long as the book value was unaffected. The repairers actually damged my car in 3 seperate places, incredibably they even scratched the new wing they had "fitted"! They claimed that as it wouldn't affect the resale value (£4k) therefore they didn't have to fix the damage which they fully admitted doing!!

I refused to accept this and insisted it was returned to it's pre accident condition.

I tried letting the original repairers sort my car at first, but as it came back with new damage I refused to let them take it there again.

If I were you I would insist on an Audi authorised repair with a full manufacturers guarantee.

Danny

[Loaf]

quote:
You have the right to insist on an offical repairer of your wishes. Offical porsche centre or audi etc.

Depends on the policy you have. Some insurers insist on their own repairers, most will allow you to use whichever one you want. HOWEVER, if you do this, you may not be entitled to benefits such as a courtesy car (I use the term loosely), excess waiver etc. and you may have to settle the bill direct and claim it back from the insurer. Check the small print on the policy wording and policy schedule. If anyone has any problems deciphering this, mail me direct (offlist).

[apn]

If it's still in the warranty period don't you have to have it repaired by Audi?

Taken from the Audi site:
Since 1997 the fully galvanised bodyshells throughout the Audi range have been covered by a 12 year anti-corrosion warranty. All models are also safeguarded by a comprehensive 3 year dealer warranty (provided the vehicle is serviced by an authorised Audi dealer) and a free 3 year roadside assistance service.