CarMedic - Leighton Buzzard

[Anonymous]

Took my motor there to get the front bumper sprayed to get rid of the stone chips. Also got the fuel filler cap done and the whole car mopped over to sort out any minor scratches and blemishes. A figure of £400 was agreed which I thought reasonable.

When I picked the car up, the mats were covered in dust from the body shop, the passenger seat and steering will also had dust all over them. At first sight, it looked like they had done a good job so I drove home. On closer inspection, the bumper had scratches that hadn't been filled and sanded properly, runs in the lacquer and patches where the paint hadn't applied evenly. There was also sticky stuff from the masking tape all over the grill so all in all, I wasn't impressed.

I went back and saw the boss of CarMedic - which is a franchise by the way and Leighton Buzzard is the head office. My experience of CarMedic Leighton Buzzard should in no way be taken as how CarMedic franchises will perform.

He was so arrogant it was beyond belief. He said '...it's a SMART repair - what do you expect?...'. I pointed out that as a layman, SMART repair means nothing to me. He then went off on a rant saying there was already 10 hours worth of work in there at £45 per hour. I kept cool and calm - but he didn't and it was at that point that he lost. Once he had finished ranting and raving I pointed out to him that his website states '...Small scuffs, scratches & dents in both plastic and body-coloured bumpers can all the returned to their original condition...' and the work had done wasn't up to that standard.

So the car is back in there today to be sorted. I don't think I will get perfection but who knows.

The stupid thing is...I'd asked them to quote for work on my Mondeo which would have been about £500, wheels refurbed on the Z4 for £40 each, leather refurb for £40. He could quite easily of got £700+ worth of business from me. Paintwork is a difficult thing especially when it's silver so if he had been a lot nicer, more understanding, more customer focused then I would still have considered giving him more work. As it stands - he's got no chance.

 

[Seggy]

I'm sorry but this country is really going down hill. Everyone is on the make wanting to make a quick and easy buck.
Where are the values of a pride in your work, the customer is right and to be respected etc etc going.
It makes me very sad.
I am a young man at 36, so what is it coming to when I am thinking back to when I was young and how much better our values were.

I feel sorry for you, because you end up wasting time and getting grey hairs dealing with the incompetance and low standards of others.

it seems all you can do nowadays is take lots of high quality photographs of what is going on to use a evidence of before and after, to keep a record of the bad workmanship to use in the future against companies like this.
Again this takes time and effort. But can be worth it in the long run. The internet is a good way to reveal these outfits.
Rant over!

 

[Anonymous]

Good post mate. If you are unhappy stilll you can always use the small claims court process. But make sure you put reviews up on sites like qype so if someone does search on that company then they will get an indication of how the company is.

Everyone makes mistake so it's worth giving them another opportunity to rectify. But they should compensate for wasting your time like a reduction in costs. No excuse for arrogance or rude behaviour.

A lot of people are struggling to find work and you get monkeys like these who believe they can get away with anything

 

[AlanJ]

Jake,

Sorry to hear of your issues with CarMedic, just in case things get difficult don't forget to keep a record of everything that has happened and what has been said and by who. Never an great fan of these one stop shops, some are good I'm sure, but would rather use a specialist repairer for each element - paintwork, leather and wheels. Probably cost a bit more but using a Forum like this to get a recommendation the odds on a good service are much higher. Hope it works out.

 

[Anonymous]

It was all sorted. The one guy doing the job took pride in it and he made sure I was happy before I left.

Two weeks later, I catch the bumper of my Mondeo and put a nice new scrape on the Z4!!! ggggrrrrrr

 

[chris]

Feel for you mate i really do. Been there go the tshirt!

Best thing is to find a decent bodyshop as these carmedic peeps are good for door dings, but thats about it (from my experiences). Silver is an easy colour to do, probably one of the easiest IMO. My old steel grey was a nightmare, as BMW use red undercoat to get the colour spot on, but other use std. Still got a spot on job though.

For reference i have just had my M bumper done, all sanded back, filled in places as it was not perfect. And the little washer things done to match perfectly, all for £160. I fitted it and put everything back on, but well worth it and a brilliant job. I do know him and used him before (quite a few times lol). But if you get friendly it does help.

Hope your cars ok when you get it back

 

[mason storm]

sorry to hear of your bad experiance, I also had a bad experiance with a dodgy repair company and had to get them back, still wasn't the best job. On the other side I used a car medic once for a Ford Puma bumbper, the guy did a really good job and for only £90. The trouble is untill you use them you don't know how good they will be.