Morris Minor Owners Club

having just got my mgtf back from the paint shop, it has more scratches and scuffs on it that it did when it before it went in. dad having rung the company was told to bring it back in tomorrow (it took 3 weeks for literally 10 hours work), so safe to say payment is not going to be made until the work is carried out correctly and all damage is rectified. but what is my legal position on this?
the company has already said that the damage was already present when it went in, however it wasnt, if it was, it would of been down to be fixed.

You should have taken comprehensive pictures before you took it in.........

true, hindsight is a wonderful invention.

Indeed - but now it's just your word against theirs. Unless they value your custom - they will just stick to their guns and refuse to know anything about it. Either way - whatever the outcome - be sure to never darken their doorstep again!

payment is not going to be made

Good, both of you go when you take it back, and when you pick it up again.
They clearly haven't taken care of it in those 3 weeks they had it as was there duty.
Accept no excuses, and get in contact with trading standards, they may be notorious, a search on Google with their name + problem might be revealing.

Most garages (well ones I've used), put circles on a car drawing of any marks when the car was driven in and you sign to say you agree with what they find. This way both parties agree on body damage before work is done, either paint wise or mechanical wise.

If it were me.. stick to your guns, do not weaken, they will use your weakness as a way of getting out of the repairs.

It would be nice to know what company you are talking about but I assume that would be against MMOC policy by giving out this information. Can this be overcome with a PM perhaps as I have also had problems of this nature.[frame][/frame]

well we have further developments,

my mother took the car back to the garage (its her car really, but i get my hands on it on the 1st)
she was armed with a snagging list, presented this to the women in the garage, who looked at it, rang my father and said "we wont be remedying the work, and we will be keeping the car until payment has been made"

(maybe in violation of the rules) but my reaction was not to be broadcast to civilised society.

im my book, thats simply theft of property. my property at that. so, what do we done now?????
my initial reaction was to fire of a cheque for the said amount, then cancel it once i got home, thus i get my/mums car, the quite nasty garage (who keep hanging up on us when ever a conversation even sightly wonders towards heated) get nothing and then we take things from there.
safe to say, i am not fantastically happy having had my 55 year old mother walk 2 miles home along the a607.

so, what next?
police?
lawyers?

give a call to consumer direct before you do any thing else..

we did things in the wrong order and it ended up costing me 600 quid in repair bills which i could not claim back, if we had called consumer direct at the very start it would not have cost me a penny..

rang them, very nice people. wheels are set in motion for that.

According to this:
http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/cgi- ... 6-1011.txt


They have a responsibility to repair the damage, the issue could be proving it was them. If you pay the bill, pay by credit card and pay under protest, telling them this in writing (they know then you mean business and are willing to take it further). Then sue the pants off them.

I may be missing something but if the car was scratched before it was resprayed then the damage would be under the paint, after then on top of the paint?

Always keep calm when dealing with any business, you can't expect anyone to remain on the phone if it gets heated.
Glad you took other advice and seeking help from other sources.

allow me to elaborate,
the car went in for the softtop to be replaced, the rear valance of the boot to be resprayed, rear bumper relaquered and the front bumper resprayed on both sides.
however, even though the roof has been replaced, the boot resprayed (badly, you can see the seam where the tape was)
the front bumper was partially resprayed, whilst the other side wasnt, which had the bigger scratch and the rear bumper has not been touched.
as well as that, the rear bumper has a split in it, the petrol filler cap looks like it has been take off and booted around a workshop, so its chipped and paint missing and their are 3 other large scratches down the sides.
so, with all the work that was missed and the new damaged, i am a tad miffed to say the least.

it's a good job they aren't a Porsche specialist as they may just crash your car (whilst driving it with no MOT, despite it being in for an engine rebuild which they hadn't started doing), then take 4 months to give it back, with a bill twice what they quoted.. and when you get it back the body repairs are done badly,
so they say it's YOUR job to sort it out with their (3rd party) body repair shop.

I do still wonder why I paid them!

A friend of mine had problems similar to you so decided to go through his club as this was a recommended garage. I'm sorry to say he got absolutely nowhere, so decided to make this film in hope that people would see it and see what a c**p job this garage had done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJJ2RACHXm8

I really hope you take this all the way as there are too many cowboys out there ripping people off in this and many other businesses.

It is fair to assume that, when contracted to do a job, the job would be completed (which it hasn't) and the car returned in as good a condition (discounting the repairs) as it was when it was dropped off. This appears not to be the case.

You could, I suppose, draft a businesslike letter explaining what you expect to happen, i.e. the job completed, and the car repaired, to your satisfaction. Ideally you need to speak to the person in charge armed with facts.

The simplest answer to this may be to get a solicitor's letter. It'll cost somewhere in the region of £50-100 (yeah, I know ), but it ought to prove to them that you're someone who is not to be messed with.

Citizen's Advice Bureau will also be able to give advice on this sort of matter, although I'd be straight to the solicitor to get them behind you.

I know I can't possibly be any help, being in the States and governed by a different set of laws, but maybe you'll find a shred of inspiration? Anyway, over here, the first step is usually to get your local sheriff or police chief enlisted, bringing him by the business and having a big talk with you, him, and the owner of the shop. If that fails to rattle them enough, then we can go to our state's Attorney General's office and get the state government to investigate, usually (I believe) free of charge. Sometimes local city and county governments can also be of use.

We also have the Better Business Bureau and Chambers of Commerce, which are nongovernmental org's that publish ratings of businesses and attempt to protect consumers from malpractices. (Well, at least, the BBB does. USCC typically will protect businesses. )

Of course, you can always enlist a lawyer to help, for a fee. But the US' chief export nowadays seems to be lawyers, so I find them distasteful.

my dad had a problem a while back with his range rover. it was damaged in an accident, and he got a company to partially respray it. the job was poor to say the least, so he contacted the garage who said that because he had taken it away he had accepted it. he contacted trading standards or another organisation like that, and said he would with-hold payment. they said you are allowed to do this, but only after you give the garage an opportunity to rectify the problem.

as for holding the car, get on to the old bill.i don't believe that the garage are within their rights to effectively impound your car.

well, my mother caved in the end.
she paid the £600 and got the car back. so its going back to another garage for the work to be rectified (we used this garage before and they are quite good).
a lesson learnt by my parents