Manufacturer blaming insurance repair for a fault

dalef

I bought a Suzuki last year, it's still under warranty, but had a collision which damaged the front of the car. It was repaired by my insurance (assumingly back to manufacturers standard) including the front wing/s.

Six months later all the electric windows stopped functioning during the snowy weather and so booked it in for repair on warranty with the manufacturers garage.

Having had a very quick look the garage are saying the insurance company must have done something to cause it, as the fault 'doesn't normally happen'. They aren't looking for the exact cause of the fault without wanting payment.

Feel I am going to be stuck in the middle, manufacturer saying it was insurance fault, insurance will say it can't be caused by them six months later.

Haven't been back to insurer just yet, wanted advice on what to do first? Should the manufacturer be spending time to find the exact reason of the fault before concluding it was the insurances fault?

Warwick_Hunt

Why don!!!8217;t you pay someone to diagnose the exact fault and take it from there?

m0bov

How can they blame insurance when they don't know what's wrong? How did they even know about an insurance claim? More to this....

telemarks

dalef wrote: »

Should the manufacturer be spending time to find the exact reason of the fault before concluding it was the insurances fault?

Yes, they can't blame someone else without investigating it first.

dalef

m0bov wrote: »

How can they blame insurance when they don't know what's wrong? How did they even know about an insurance claim? More to this....

They could see that the front wing had been replaced somehow

telemarks wrote: »

Yes, they can't blame someone else without investigating it first.

Thanks, that's what I would have thought.

Good news, it's all fixed :j
They agreed to spend a bit more time looking at it, apparently a cable was unconnected inside the door panel. Strange that it was working for about six months... possibly just a loose cable that eventually detached...?

Thanks for replies!

m0bov

Might be worth having a moan to the service manager, not the best way to run a garage blaming body repairs for electrical faults.

bris

telemarks wrote: »

Yes, they can't blame someone else without investigating it first.

Nonsense, they can do what they want, if they won't investigate who is going to make them?


The fact is they don't need to do anything until the OP proves their case. If they can get a report to say it's a warranty repair then they have a case, until then the manufacturer doesn't need to do anything.


This is no different to any other consumer rights issue where this pops up on here often.


lucky they got to the bottom of it for the OP so all good in the end, but if they dug their heels in then there is not a lot you can do without that proof.