Classic Bodywork Recommendations

Rallyfreaks

RMS Regular
Messages
168
Location
East Belfast
Drives
Golfs
What a shocking story. Hopefully you get sorted. The fact that anybody in business these days can really believe its fine to say 'we made a mistake with the first quote" and then hit you with one more than 3 times it, is farcical on their part.

Looks like you're getting some legal advice as direct result of your posts on here which is great for us all. Although interested as we all are in how this progresses, its probably not in the best interest to discuss it further on open forum until resolved.

And as mentioned above, don't get too stressed, its only a car.......
 

davyk31

RMS Regular
Messages
3,257
They can't impound your car even if the bill is unpaid. They are totally separate matters. Clearly there is no written contract in place therefore it is your car and you can collect it. They then need to take whatever action they wish to recover the money from you but that places the ball in their court. They won't se it as simple but any resistance from them to release the car becomes a legal matter
 

chopaholic

RMS Regular
Messages
1,826
Location
Everywhere
Drives
JZ S15 / X5
He had an engine bay painted......

Unless there was a **** load of welding needing done....which isn’t likely, but even at that, how can the bill come to over 6 grand.

Ffs we seen our very own @chopaholic paint the engine bay of his car recently.....I would love to hear his thoughts on the 6k + price tag.

£5900 + VAT is absurd. I would love to see an itemised bill of what was actually done and where the hell they plucked that figure from.

My girlfriend is having her car fully painted by a fantastic painter in Portstewart, two arches replaced (cut and weld), under sealed, glass removed, all being done in glasurit base coat and lacquer - For 1/3rd of the price paid to have an engine bay done.
 

Chris tii

RMS Regular
Messages
1,542
Drives
BMW 2002tii
Classic Marques just contacted me about this thread. They obviously aren’t best pleased.
I would just like to point out that I haven’t questioned their workmanship or the amount of time they spent on my car.
The car obviously did need more repair work than first thought and they have provided a full breakdown on the work.
My only issue is with the difference in initial quote and final price. If they had of communicated with me about how the work was snowballing. And that the final price would be over £6k, then I could of told them to cancel the work because I couldn’t afford it. Perhaps then we could of then discussed other options that would of been closer to my budget.
 

mayweather

RMS Regular
Messages
8,172
Drives
M3 Evolution
Classic Marques just contacted me about this thread. They obviously aren’t best pleased.
I would just like to point out that I haven’t questioned their workmanship or the amount of time they spent on my car.
The car obviously did need more repair work than first thought and they have provided a full breakdown on the work.
My only issue is with the difference in initial quote and final price. If they had of communicated with me about how the work was snowballing. And that the final price would be over £6k, then I could of told them to cancel the work because I couldn’t afford it. Perhaps then we could of then discussed other options that would of been closer to my budget.

I would be very interested to see what the breakdown of the work was for 6 bags.
 

Neil_M

RMS Regular
Messages
4,766
I hope you get sorted @Chris tii . You aren't having much luck this weather!

In my opinion, the body shop are totally unprofessional to quote one price and then finish with another price. It's pretty standard to give a customer a shout should cost start increasing for whatever reason.
 

quattro Rick

RMS Regular
Messages
5,217
Drives
quattro / M796
Classic Marques just contacted me about this thread. They obviously aren’t best pleased.
I would just like to point out that I haven’t questioned their workmanship or the amount of time they spent on my car.
The car obviously did need more repair work than first thought and they have provided a full breakdown on the work.
My only issue is with the difference in initial quote and final price. If they had of communicated with me about how the work was snowballing. And that the final price would be over £6k, then I could of told them to cancel the work because I couldn’t afford it. Perhaps then we could of then discussed other options that would of been closer to my budget.

So they aren't best pleased about you being displeased with their estimate to final price jump? Seems quite hypocritical to vent your frustration after trying to gut someone for £7k...

Hopefully all gets resolved, and maybe they shouldn't be spending their time browsing forums, might reduce their costs if they did some work 😂 obviously this is a joke.
 

Burt2000

RMS Regular
Messages
11,227
Drives
Type RA Ltd
They aren’t pleased about the thread? Well that’s the power of the internet these days, if they are going to come out with bills like that they need to seriously up their game, nobody is questioning the workmanship but the customer service leaves a lot to be desired.Still I would love to see the quote breakdown for £6500 they must charge a very high labour rate.
 
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chrisdromore

RMS Regular
Messages
3,064
Drives
a8
Lets hope it can all be sorted amicably. RMS threads can very easily end up on the front page of a google search, for given location and subject matter. So I am sure they will be keen to return your car and hopefully you can update the thread as to how willing they were to co-operate.

Classic Marques just contacted me about this thread. They obviously aren’t best pleased.
I would just like to point out that I haven’t questioned their workmanship or the amount of time they spent on my car.
The car obviously did need more repair work than first thought and they have provided a full breakdown on the work.
My only issue is with the difference in initial quote and final price. If they had of communicated with me about how the work was snowballing. And that the final price would be over £6k, then I could of told them to cancel the work because I couldn’t afford it. Perhaps then we could of then discussed other options that would of been closer to my budget.
 

big_pete

RMS Regular
Messages
17,439
Location
Ballyclare
Drives
Soulless pos
The plus vat bit is taking away from the vastness of this here, vat alone is almost the quote 😂 I still can't get over

£7800! £7800! To restore an engine bay?

As someone that has spent a lifetime in the car trade and served my time at car body repair AND runs a niche car business I can't see any way whatsoever that makes this stack up that isn't just sheer greed.

MENTAL

*Edit* for context though any work I have seen from them is absolutely top notch.
 
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EF Ian

RMS Regular
Messages
2,879
Location
Portrush
Drives
EF & 260Z GT-R
My girlfriend is having her car fully painted by a fantastic painter in Portstewart, two arches replaced (cut and weld), under sealed, glass removed, all being done in glasurit base coat and lacquer - For 1/3rd of the price paid to have an engine bay done.
Said painter smoothed off and painted my bay for £1000+VAT. Bay was already stripped by me which helps but I can't imagine how the bill for similar work could get to £6k+
 

Cookies

RMS Regular
Messages
832
Drives
BMW
The plus vat bit is taking away from the vastness of this here, vat alone is almost the quote 😂 I still can't get over

£7800! £7800! To restore an engine bay?

As someone that has spent a lifetime in the car trade and served my time at car body repair AND runs a niche car business I can't see any way whatsoever that makes this stack up that isn't just sheer greed.

MENTAL

I had completely missed that point. That is genuinely crazy.
 

quattro Rick

RMS Regular
Messages
5,217
Drives
quattro / M796
The plus vat bit is taking away from the vastness of this here, vat alone is almost the quote 😂 I still can't get over

£7800! £7800! To restore an engine bay?

As someone that has spent a lifetime in the car trade and served my time at car body repair AND runs a niche car business I can't see any way whatsoever that makes this stack up that isn't just sheer greed.

MENTAL

*Edit* for context though any work I have seen from them is absolutely top notch.

Noticed the plus vat figure myself, but Chris did mention they negotiated down to £5900 all in, so a further £4k added to the £1900 he paid

But to be quoted almost £8k all in, I just can't get my head around it
 

Burt2000

RMS Regular
Messages
11,227
Drives
Type RA Ltd
To just drop almost 2 grand right away from 7800 to 5900 would make me question the validity of the bill in the first place.
 

Jecks

RMS Regular
Messages
397
On that note , if the work involved was the same , how do you drop from £7800 to £5900 all in, because someone questioned you.
In other words if Chris hadn’t of said anything and just paid, they would have happily taken the full £7800.
Shocking if that is the case.
 

ChrisL

RMS Regular
Messages
18,485
Drives
Audi S3 (8V)
This is sickening ... :worried:

Had a bad experience, or so i thought until I read this thread, with a well known bodyshop that gets recommended alot on here. Change in pricing, poor work and even poorer customer service. My end invoice was hand written on a piece of a4 page from their printer, not even letter headed paper, simply said "repair + paint damage" not even a price. lol

Couldnt believe it, paid and have never been back, but @Chris tii this is another level entirely, i really hope you get sorted.
 

stevieturbo

RMS Regular
Messages
21,096
Location
Antrim
Drives
Old Ford
The final bill is outrageous...but I still dont understand how it even got beyond £2k...after he paid the intial £1900 which was already £400 over quote....without having had some damn serious conversations about the final cost for it to even stand a chance of getting to £2000.....nevermind 4x that.
 

56oval

RMS Regular
Messages
4,903
This is crazy money. Iv'e never spent as much buying a car as the price of painting that engine bay. 😂 i'm off to lift my new project today. Might get them to price painting the fuel filler flap.
 
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