Paintshop joyrides

[EGG]

Hi

So anyway, car was booked in three months ago at a place that shall remain unnamed (I think that's not encouraged here, from what I remember). Their reputation seemed decent enough on the net, some recommendations from users here, mostly from another car site however (where the unmentioned shop is a sponsor).

After 3 months, numerous phone calls and several pretty weak excuses I get the car back. The paint is ok, but for 8.5k, it's certainly not concours.

I've read on here numerous times regarding people finding various automotive shop staff taking their pride and joy out for a hoon. I saw this as not really something I could stop, and I assumed if it did occur, they'd soon realise the car was no worked LS1 and head home. However, I had not fully judged the inability of apprentice mechanics to realise low suspension = LOW SUSPENSION.

Currently there's damage under the car, the radiator has been pushed up (although doesn't seem to be shedding coolant) and as a result the bonnet won't close precisely. I'm going to drag it round somewhere on friday to get an idea of the full damage.

Has anyone been through this before? I'm considering lawyering up, but I don't know what my chances are. Paint shop denies all knowledge predictably and says the damage may have been there before. I've replaced that radiator twice myself, so I know what condition everything in that area should be in. Unfortunately I let the comprehensive insurance lapse while the car was in the shop as they wanted to drop the 'agreed' value below what I considered acceptable, this was probably the first of many poor moves on my part, finishing with trusting the automotive industry in any way to not **** you over.

Cheers for any advice

[VZ_V8]

Thats a shame, its gives the honest ones like us a bad name when shit like this happens.

The only time a car gets driven out our shop is when it needs to go to the wheel aligner which is about 500m down the road. Other than that it is only in and out of the shop. I don't understand how shops think its acceptable to drive the cars around unnecessarily. They haven't tried to jack it up in the wrong spot or something have they? What does the damage look like? Like they have dropped it on a kerb or something?

So was insurance involved at all? Or was it completely private? For all the jobs we do for insurance we have to take a ton of photos of the damage to show what needs doing/gets done. If insurance was involved they would possibly have photos showing no damage previously?

[Woodchukka]

Have a look here (http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/1023612) at the ACCC web site. Then see what other links in it might be interesting or give them a call to understand your rights and give you some things to throw at the shop. Other than that a chat to a solicitor may be a good investment?

[godsvt2]

HI Egg i'm about to get my car painted can you PM me the name of the paintshop

[shaneooo]

Ouch, that must suck mate. I can't think of anything worse than that happening to my car.

Unfortunately it will be hard for you to prove, it will be finger pointing and their defense will be "I've seen this before, trying to blame damage on me and my shop to get free repairs"....essentially.

If you found another person or people with similar issues with this particular panel shop, banding up together with a combined case will give you a much bigger chance of success. The court will see that this is not isolated.

I make a effort before my car is serviced or at a paint shop of taking photos of the odometer with the date as that matches their documentation of taking delivery. That way if that ever happened I can prove that someone has driven my car as they have my keys and the odometer has changed since taking possession.

I recommend everyone do the same. Even get photos of the panels on your Iphone, simple enough but could help you out one day.