insurance company refferred me to a really bad car repair place

lolly-i-pop

A few months ago I crashed my car, and had to have some body work done to mend it. My insurance company got one of their approved repairers to do a quote, and then fix it for me. Long story, but the following happened -

- i drove 10 miles for them to take pictures of it, and then contact the insurance company (i then drove 10 miles home)
- they offered me a date to get it repaired, and offered me a courtosey car, however, i needed my car repaired sooner, and so they were unable to offer me a courtosey car if i wished to have my car fixed in a reasonable ammopunt of time,
- they said they would pick my car up between 9a.m and 1p.m. despite several phonecalls and requests to speak to the manager, the car was not collected until 5p.m.
- told me car was ready to be picked up, when in fact they had not finished repairing it (another 20 mile journey made, for no reason in the end)
- i requested that they drop off my car, which they said would be done before midday, which was then done at approx 4p.m.
- after a few weeks, the car had to be returned, as they had not fited my wing mirror properly.... i made another 20 mile trip with the car to get it refixed, and a man who worked there pulled off my wing mirror casing, snapping off a small bit of plastic and re-fitted it, with the now broken casing (SURELY this means it is not 'as new')
-poor customer service throughout the experience, for example, never returning calls when they say they would.

My question is, should i write and complain? And if so, to the repairer, the insurance company or both?

Thanks!

scullster

If I'm brutally honest (I've had a bad day), it sounds like a bit of nit picking towards the end of a bad experience. Given the distances travelled (mileage and time), I'd put it to bed.

However, that seems a little mean spirited of me and my day hasn't been that bad so I then thought about assessors and insurance companies would be quite happy to withold payment on a garage to ensure they were getting fair value, but we are talking about a wing mirror fascia. My concern now would be whether the plastic bit could fall off - if its colour coded, the cost of replacement will be probably £100 - £200, I'd tackle the repair company and demand it be replaced or you will take it up with the insurer. If it is colour coded, they could order it, spray it and then you pop in at your convenience to let them pop it on.

(there I'm happy now)

lolly-i-pop

The distances travelled not a big issue, but the ammount of time I have spent ringing the company up ( i swear I must have made about a hundred phone calls to them) and waiting around for them (i.e. 2 days spent waiting for them to deliver / drop off my car).

With regards to the risk of the bit of plastic falling off, it is not going to fall off, it has already been snapped off.

I admit that I am probably unreasonably !!!!ed off with the whole events, but was just wanting some advice on what the best thing to do is, as I feel the insurance company should be aware that at least 1 customer (and I imagine more) have ad problems with this company

KILL_BILL

speak to the manager/md of the garage in question and see what he says and recompense you etc - if you get no where then speak to the insurance company

at the end of the day the repairers want to stay in the insurers good books as they rely on the work from them

dacouch

Ask the Garage to sort the problem, if they are no help speak (Politely) to the Insurance company as it is their responsibility to ensure the repair is done correctly.

This sounds like a Norwich Union, Axa/Swift or Direct Line claim

scullster

lolly-i-pop wrote: »

With regards to the risk of the bit of plastic falling off, it is not going to fall off, it has already been snapped off.

I wasn't sure which plastic bit has been snapped off - cars are full of thousands of them. Usually, plastic bits that tend to snap off are those that are used to attach / clip things together. If it happened to be one of those, the fascia or whatever may sit nicely in place now but fall off at at later date - if it falls off you're moving, it would a) likely get damaged and b) potentially lost.

If you don't think it will be a problem now or down the line, I'd put the experience to bed. To relieve your frustration, a letter to the garage, copied to the insurance company may help the blood pressure and get you a degree of closure.