Estimate from non-approved repairer rejected

eunie

Hi All, 

following an incident (wheel theft), my car was sent to an approved repairer to be fixed. 

When the car was returned back to me, I immediately noticed that they didn’t fix everything (there were still some scratches and dents in the paintwork) and on top of that, they caused further damage to the car (they obviously didn’t mask up the chrome window arches which are around the side windows when they were polishing the car). I contacted the insurance company and they arranged for the car to be taken back to the same repairer. 

When the car arrived, then again, the car wasn’t fixed properly. The paintwork was done poorly, they missed some scratches and dents and they tried to ‘clean’ the polish from window arches but there is still some residue remaining - they very obviously just need replacing. 

I complained again to the insurance and told them I’ll use my own garage this time. 

I obtained a quote from a Mercedes-approved repairer. The insurance company contacted me this morning and said that the costs are inflated and they won’t authorise it. They will arrange for an independent assessor to inspect my car, evaluate the cost of repair and discuss a cash in lieu offer. 

I don’t want to get lowballed and get a few pennies, I finally want to get my car to the same state that it was before the incident. 

What are my options now?

eunie

It’s been the first time I had to open a claim with an insurance company so appreciate any advice. 

DullGreyGuy

wait to see what the independent engineer says. 

Depending on who the "Mercedes approved" garage is it's possible it's highly inflated. Certainly in my days of claims many prestige garages didnt do bodywork themselves and just farmed it out to the same bodyshops that insurers use and added 25-50% on top or if they did minor body works they billed labour as mechanic rates not body which are three times higher or more.

Had one annoying FOS complaint where the customer had reject ABC Coachworks as our approved repairer and insisted on taking it to the BMW garage. Unusually we managed to agree costs but then he phoned to complain saying he'd just driven past ABC Coachworks and his car was there. Obv the BMW garage used the same firm as we did... needless to say the FOS didnt uphold the complaint but still had to pay an extra 10% on the claim and the £450 FOS fee