How Close is Good enough for you?

[Milo]

Heya all just wanting to know what your thoughts are on this...

I just got my car back from the panel beaters after my little accident i dont have any pics of the damage but it was about a 10k/hour shunt i did it while taking a right hand corner so i basically dinged the bonnet/rightguard and scratched up the front bar and broke one of the plastic clips on the headlight

when i whent to pick up the car I noticed that from about 2m away the car looks great but when i started to get closer you can see that almost none of the panels line up, if you can imagine the gap between the bonnet and the headlight on the side that wasnt damaged i can poke my finger there about 4mm on the other side i can get my finger in about 20mm so i wasnt happy with that so they took it back in and realligned afew of the panels it was little better now i can get my finger in about 10mm so the so i was ok with that so for the time being until i looked at the car when i got home from work and seeing that they hadnt replaced the headlight they had just made this new plastic clip for the one that broke then they overtightened the clip they made so now it has a giant stress fracture though it and there is a gap along the bottom of the light and along the side where it meets up with the right guard....

I payed $850 excess as it was my fault and i didnt want to stuff around the guy that i hit but my question is what would you guys say is acceptable i know everyone wants there cars to be symetricial but is this asking to much....do you guys think i am right in saying that i should get a new headlight and that the gaps should be the same on either side of the car or is this being to anal about it all.

I just think for $850 anit really worth it for bog, paint and some shitty plastic clip.

I said to the guy that i would fix his printer (i work for xerox) if he did a good job on my car....looks like ill be fdisking this guys HDs if he f&^ks me around.....

[XLR8 V8]

Take it back and ask the guy to fix it. If he refuses, contact the assessors and ask them to reinspect as you're unhappy with the work. Insurance companies don't like forking over their $$ for dodgy jobs either. If they agree with you they will demand the repairer fix it to satisfaction.

[Devil CV8]

The car should be in as good a condition after the smash repairs have done there job as it was prior to the accident... any less is not good enough.... hound them.

[BlackClubbie]

Mate,

A Stupid driver backed into my clubbie a while ago, i had to send it to the panel beaters so they can fix the door and all the stuff, well when i picked up the car it looked great, but then sometimes on a sunny day, i can see a few ripples...... i'll take it back there so they can "try" to get rid of the ripples, but i'm almost thinking of getting a new door ....

[Milo]

Oh dont you worry i will be taking this thing back, Im with the NRMA with about every policy under the sun, I will be taking the car back there and they will fix it, ive already complained to the NRMA they said they will send someone out to look over what they have done and what im unhappy with im just wondering how far you guys think i can push the enevlope....i mean like everyone i want the car to look like its come out of the factory at the moment it doesnt...i dont want to be a bastard and say that panel is 1mm futher off then the other but i dont want gaps that i can stick half my finger in. Ive had bad luck with this car of late....people cant allign striaght and the fronts are perfectly balanced im told yet there is still a shake in the wheel at different speeds.....is it to much to ask to take a car to a workshop and have it coming out the way you want it :( :( :bash:

Anyway the cars going back into tommorow and i will be "expressing" my dissaprovement.

[0VL.666]

Mate take it back, because that’s what you pay insurance for. You let them know exactly what you are not happy with plus more. Find any little thing to criticize about there work because in the end you are the paying customer and you will get what you want. I know this because I'm a panel beater by trade and it happens all the time no matter how good the shop is. Just make sure you do it sooner and not later because it becomes easier to state your problems without them claiming it was fine when they signed the car over to you and that it must have happened after it left the shop. In that case they are not liable and you have no comeback, I know all the ins and outs so just get it looked at ASAP.

[XLR8 V8]

Oh dont you worry i will be taking this thing back, Im with the NRMA with about every policy under the sun, I will be taking the car back there and they will fix it, ive already complained to the NRMA they said they will send someone out to look over what they have done and what im unhappy with im just wondering how far you guys think i can push the enevlope....i mean like everyone i want the car to look like its come out of the factory at the moment it doesnt...i dont want to be a bastard and say that panel is 1mm futher off then the other but i dont want gaps that i can stick half my finger in. Ive had bad luck with this car of late....people cant allign striaght and the fronts are perfectly balanced im told yet there is still a shake in the wheel at different speeds.....is it to much to ask to take a car to a workshop and have it coming out the way you want it :( :( :bash:

Anyway the cars going back into tommorow and i will be "expressing" my dissaprovement.


The panel shop mine went to handed my car back to me with a ridiculously bad harmonic vibration above 60km/h. Their excuse" "Because all the streets surrounding our shop are only 60km/h, we couldn't test drive it above that" - ignoring the fact that an 80km/h road was less than 400m away :rolleyes:
They tried to tell me I need to take it to a wheel alignment place to get it checked, but becuase they have already done once already I would have to pay for that myself :mad:.
I rang my insurance company from their carpark and then sat there and waited .... 5 minutes later they walked out the door and gave me the keys to their loan car. They rang me about 3hours later to tell me it was fixed and I could pick it up. Turns out they had replaced the wheels and bent suspension, but then reused the damaged wheel bearings! :eek:

[RICHO]

Grab a full colour glossy car brochure from your Holden dealer one that clearly shows how the car is supposed to look. And take it with you when you go see them.

Use it to point out the differences between your car and the way the car is supposed to look. Hard to argue with and from the shops perspective it takes emotion out of the argument.

Has worked well for me in the past when a dodgy job was done on my sisters car. Arrived with a couple of comparative photos for the shop. Their just fixed car versus an undamaged version, with the pics side by side the differences were as plain as day.

Might seem a bit anal but when you've spent good money on a car and pay your insurance you deserve the best repair possible.