Dealings with dodgy repairers. The saga continues.

[Ben Dixon <Ben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I think Im going to use this whole thing as a learing experience, and Im
thinking of putting together an advice page on my web site of what to do /
what not to do when dealing with repairers/repainters.

anyone think this is a good idea?  It would be a kind of 'collective wisdom'
from both customers and (hopefully) repairers as well.  Most of it would be
common sense, and people would probably read it and go "yeah,I knew all
that",  but I wish I'd had some decent advice before I started with the fun
and games.

an example would be taking photos before, during and after the work. seems
like a pretty obvious thing to do, but I didnt do it (and Im kicking myself
now...)
>From what I gather from my conversations with other repairers, any decent
repairer would do this anyway to cover their own ass.

maybe a checklist of questions to ask potential repairers before selecting
one.  Any thoughts?

To continue my own story, I went to the repairer today and showed him the
car and my percieved problems.  He said he would take full responsibility
for the front guard that he repaired, but was much more vague about the rest
of the car, which was not taken back to metal before painting, saying that
this was to be expected and that he couldnt really be held responsible.
(thanks for telling me that, asshole!)  He did say that he would 'help me
out' with the rest - whatever that means!  "Unfortunately", he says, " its
near xmas, so im really busy and wont be able to do anything until next year
- - come see me towards the end of January and we'll work something out"  So
meanwhile my poor GTV just gets worse.

One thing I will do is fully document and photograph things as they are now,
so that if they are much worse by the time he gets around to doing
something, I have some sort of proof that the delay made the problem worse.

Cheers all,

Ben

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