Hit from behind - looking for a bodyshop

MMC

A2OC Donor
One has to love insurers and their call centres.

Some bright spark hit my A2 from behind at a junction over the weekend. All looks fine from the outside, bar a slightly misaligned tailgate. Underneath the bumper things look rather grimmer.

I called the insurer on Saturday morning. After the usual "Prove you're not Osama Bin Laden's third cousin" identity interrogation, the operator told me they'd get their "approved" bodyshop to come and look at the car.

"Splendid," I said, "And are they certified to work on cars with aluminium construction?"

Insert a suitable noise for a call center operator trying to answer a question that's not on the script or in the knowledgebase. Evasion, avoidance, claims that she couldn't offer advice, blah, blah, corporate scripted blah.

She had no idea, but said I could get another bodyshop to quote - if I was prepared to drive there, get an estimate, have their engineer question the estimate and dance around a pentacle drawn in goats' blood whilst chanting "shareholder value must be increased".

I realised this had 'catch-the-customer-in-the-middle disaster waiting to happen' written all over it, and agreed reluctantly, to their bodyshop.

The assessor came out to see me today.

"Can't work on ally-bodied cars." He said. I said that I knew, but apparently (according to Ms Call Centre) his company would take the responsibility for the job and find a qualified aluminium bodyshop and look after everything.

Apparently not. What a huge surprise (where's the 'dripping with sarcasm' emoticon when you need it?)

So now I have to wait for the towering intellectuals at the insurance company's claims department to work out what to do next.

Sooooo... Anyone know a bodyshop they'd trust with their A2's aluminium body near West Oxfordshire?

Thanks!
 
A good source for your info would be your local Audi dealership. They'll not carry out the work themselves, but will know who can be entrusted with your car....

Sorry to hear the news.

Jeff
 
Thanks Jeff. I'll give them a call in the morning. I get the feeling it may be a good idea to be a step ahead of the insurers here.
 
Looks like they do a fine job. Thanks for that, Quick. I'll make sure I have a list of options for the insurance company...
 
It's your car, you can take it where you like - you're not obliged to use the insurer's "approved" repairer ( ie the one they have back-handers arranged with).
 
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I would be careful of Audi introducing you to a claim handling company, like they did when my car was involved in a "no blame" accident in 2011.

The major pain following my accident was the claim handling company themselves.
They made available to me a new, very nice VW Golf 1.6 TDI, charged out at a handsome amount per week. They then appeared to do very little to negotiate the repair of my A2 with the third party insurer; running up the bill for the hire car all the while. My A2 sat at the Audi repair facility, looking extremely sad, from 09-Sep-2011 until 08-Dec-2011.
I decided to intervene and negotiate directly with the third party insurer: ultimately I was responsible for the hire car bill if the claim handling company were unable to recover costs from the third party insurer. I returned the hire car to the claim handling company and accepted a much cheaper but similar car paid for directly by the third party insurer.

I subsequently discovered that a good friend had a very similar tale when his Mercedes was involved in a "no blame" accident.
I suspect the prestige brand dealerships enjoy days at the races and similar inducements in recognition of subjecting their customers to this uneccessary strain.

Andrew

PS the repair to my A2 (front end) was successful; and I am still enjoying the car. Since then I have had two mechanical failures which my service garage attributes to the accident, and which damage was not picked up at the time by the insurance assessor: a broken alternator body and I can't recall the other item. I estimate the crash cost me in the region of £1000.
 
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Thanks Dan, Ennio and Robin - really appreciate that. I'll give Banbury a call as they're pretty near and sorted out a Seat for me ages ago.
 
Dang - just called Banbury. They can deal with a minor dent but don't work on aluminium bodies. That's a shame.
 
I'd seriously recommend summers link I posted above - I forgot to say that they do all the work for Maidstone audi.

I've had a few prangs over the last 20+ years - summers was the only repair I couldn't find fault with.

The repairers who worked on my A2 about 5 years ago - I rejected it 4 times - apparently they were audi approved.,they had it for months - and I wasn't very popular with the manager.....

Summers all the way - I won't have paintwork done by anyone else now - they seem to have that old fashioned think about them called customer service

Hope this helps
T
 
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Arse. They're writing it off. Not to surprised as the boot floor was out of shape.

So - now to find a replacement! Tempted - seriously tempted - by a Fabia VRS, but think I'll be sticking with a diesel A2. They just make sense :D
 
If it's a TDI (or if it has leather, Bose, DIS, etc), it would probably be worthwhile buying the old car from the insurers (usually for a trivial amount) and taking everything you can from it.
 
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Just because the insurer is writing it off doesn't mean it's not worth repairing - and don't forget it's still your car for you to do with as you wish.
How much would a repair actually cost? How much will you lose by having to buy a newer car?
 
Based upon nothing, I cannot see how a third party's insurer can write off your car. You have no relationship with this company: other than being a victim of their insured. If I was you I would be seeking legal advice.
Andrew
 
Hello!

ok so i live in poole, got it from behind in my van got three quotes all ranged fro £1800 to £2300 ...

sick really...... stumbled on this guy friend of a friend sort of thing, all done and dusted £350 al in!

hes based in Haynes west london, i know its a way to travel but hay, for that price who cares....

If interested let me know...

Oliver
 
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