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"CAR Specialist" Bodyshop, Redditch - AVOID!


Vlad

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WARNING: BAD LANGUAGE :D

 

Finally got some time to do a little write up about this. Some of you already seen this on my FB.

 

Story started last year... when so called "mate" asked for help setting up his new body shop. I've spent weekend helping him out... he knew i needed my front end respraying - so he said that he will sort it out for me, free of charge, for helping him. So I thought I help him as much as i can, as felt bad getting him to respray my front end for just helping him out for 2 days... So in the end I've spent there 7 or 8 days over weekends.

Few months later he started saying "when you bringing your car in?" and then straight away giving me quotes for like £600-700 to which I said "this is not what we agreed on?"... so in the end he said "yea, ok, i will stick to my word".

Took my car there last month to have front bumper repaired and resprayed, arches resprayed and carbon bonnet sprayed same colour as the car.

We pretty much spent 3 days on the car non stop...i got there 9am on tuesday and left bodyshop at 4pm on Thursday.... but he hasn't touched my car till Wed evening (messed around with his mates all day tuesday, smoke breaks every 10mins, sitting in the office checking FB and so on) ... I was doing everything i could myself (prep wise etc) - but obviously im not specialist, so told him to go over it and double check.... on Wed evening he finally decided to start on my car...

On Thu morning he lost it...we had an argument...i nearly punched him, but needed my car finished, so i didn't :lol: He was screaming that this is costing him so much and im getting it for nothing and so on.

That nothing cost me around £1400...

Let me break that down

Lets say i was there for 7 days.... That's £50 in petrol every time i went there = £350

Them 7 days i could've worked for around £150 per day = 1050

Total 1400 (even more if i was there for 8 days... can't remember now)

But he is keep saying that it cost me nothing?

Plus I've paid £100 towards paint, paid for his breakfast/lunch/fags etc etc etc!

 

I wasn't gonna put anything on FB or anywhere... but as soon as i left bodyshop - he blocked me on his FB and started calling me a "c*nt" and other things... that I've used him and all that!

And aparently, when i was leaving body shop, i said that i will pop back in and will bring him £200 extra for the job.... :lol: Hmmmm.... i think someone was day dreaming and until this day he thinks his job was a top notch and im in wrong!

 

 

 

Here are some pics of the top notch job

 

1. Front bumper

 

Back of lip completely missed and still in primer

IMG_6961_zps73itliyx.jpg

 

Same bit but on other side... loks like lacquer was just p**sed on

IMG_6966_zpsrqwblyt6.jpg

 

Oversprays and no straigh lines (ignore hole in the bumper...it was my amazing driving skills day later :lol:)

IMG_6956_zpscjw9cs73.jpg

IMG_6960_zpsjbmbdjws.jpg

IMG_6958_zpsc1rcq6jw.jpg

IMG_6957_zpszjwhz98o.jpg

IMG_6959_zpsdgs1z0wc.jpg

 

Bubbling on the paint

IMG_6967_zpsy0hrnmne.jpg

 

Nice and smooth

IMG_6962_zps0wkopp9w.jpg

 

 

Other bad bits:

Barely any lacquer on arches and bonnet! He never polished it up.... so i took to a local, very decent bodyshop with 20+ years of experienece to get it all poliched up and shiny - on what straight away he said "i wouldn't even touch it as there is not enough lacquer and it wilg go straight through to the paint" and he said to get it ALL(bumper,arches,bonnet) right - it will need to be sanded down and started from the scratch. Not my own words and same thing was said by another bodyshop!

 

And to top it off - i had new rear window spoiler to put one (Tarmac one) which came in gloss black plastic and looked perfectly fine to me - but he insisted that he paints it gloss black.... and guess what? Yep, he messed that one up as well... primed it... painted it... but missed nearly half of it. I resprayed it myself at home and done a better job with a rattle can :lol:

 

So yea, if you want your car ruined - I can hook you up with his details :)

But if you want to avoid him - its "CAR Specialist", based in Redditch (Howard road) and his name is Eddy Harris/Hinds (uses 2 surnames).

Warn others!

 

Edit:

Forgot to mention about bonnet... I did say that bonnet and arches have barely any lacquer on them, but while arches at least look half decent, parts of bonnet dried out like rush because if just few drops of lacquer. Also he didn't wait wait for it to cool down and masked it away while lacquer was still soft - there are few lines from masking tape now.

Edited by Vlad
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I always hate hearing about troubles like this! Sorry you've wasted the time and money on it :(

 

Those pictures show it to be a truly awful job... can't see his bodyshop lasting long if that's the quality of work

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Thanks mate! That's what others said!

Other comments I had were:

"My 3 year old son can do a better job"

"I'm having a baby girl in 1 week time... give her 1 month and she will do a better job" and many more that actually made me laugh :)

 

It will get done properly soon... just a shame about wasted time and was hoping to have car sorted for the Fast Show next Sunday... won't happen now! But I know it will be done properly next time :thumbs:

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The deal between you and him private but I must say that body work is atrocious

That's right... it was a private deal and I wasn't gonna say anything on here or FB.... but he asked for it himself!

 

Bl**dy hell Vlad. :scare:

 

Well done for not laying one on him as he sounds like he would have more than deserved it. :rant:

 

Sorry to see such terrible work done to your Zed as well, ...really hope you get it sorted soon mate. :thumbs:

 

Cheers man :) It will get sorted soon!

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How awful, so sorry to hear your story and from a so called mate that you had already given your time and out of pocket expense.

There is hardly anything worse to make you really mad.

 

I am right in the midst of seeing Bodyshops as I think you already commented on. So I am currently going through all the pain of trying to ensure I know what i am getting for my money and in writing, as Garage No 1 kept backing down on what was covered on their said price, so I took my car back.

I was fortunate, no work had been started and has made my very cautious now.

 

Good Luck with getting it all sorted, I will willingly share the information I am gathering on the Bodyshops I have visited in this area.

Edited by Wendy
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How awful, so sorry to hear your story and from a so called mate that you had already given your time and out of pocket expense.

There is hardly anything worse to make you really mad.

 

I am right in the midst of seeing Bodyshops as I think you already commented on. So I am currently going through all the pain of trying to ensure I know what i am getting for my money and in writing, as Garage No 1 kept backing down on what was covered on their said price, so I tool my car back.

I was fortunate, no work had been started and has made my very cautious now.

 

Good Luck with getting it all sorted, I will willingly share the information I am gathering on the Bodyshops I have visited in this area.

Thanks :)

 

As I said in your thread before - I can highly recommend Southam Bodies... give them a call and arrange a visit and speak to the guy - he knows his stuff, done many show cars and got his own old Porsche in there now - when he took covers off it - my jaw just dropped - never seen a car in such immaculate state!

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It will get done properly soon... just a shame about wasted time and was hoping to have car sorted for the Fast Show next Sunday... won't happen now! But I know it will be done properly next time :thumbs:

I know what it's like as well when you trust people to work on your car and the results are far from satisfactory despite a good outlay of cash or in your case time & cash. :dry::angry:

 

I had some body work/spray painting done on my Zed last year locally which although they did "good" work in some places like my front bumper, side skirts & roof their work on my rear quarter was really poor. :thumbdown:

Going to be a job for another body shop now but I have no idea who to trust locally so I'm not rushing to throw my money at it just yet.

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It will get done properly soon... just a shame about wasted time and was hoping to have car sorted for the Fast Show next Sunday... won't happen now! But I know it will be done properly next time :thumbs:

I know what it's like as well when you trust people to work on your car and the results are far from satisfactory despite a good outlay of cash or in your case time & cash. :dry::angry:

 

I had some body work/spray painting done on my Zed last year locally which although they did "good" work in some places like my front bumper, side skirts & roof their work on my rear quarter was really poor. :thumbdown:

Going to be a job for another body shop now but I have no idea who to trust locally so I'm not rushing to throw my money at it just yet.

It will get done properly soon... just a shame about wasted time and was hoping to have car sorted for the Fast Show next Sunday... won't happen now! But I know it will be done properly next time :thumbs:

I know what it's like as well when you trust people to work on your car and the results are far from satisfactory despite a good outlay of cash or in your case time & cash. :dry::angry:

 

I had some body work/spray painting done on my Zed last year locally which although they did "good" work in some places like my front bumper, side skirts & roof their work on my rear quarter was really poor. :thumbdown:

Going to be a job for another body shop now but I have no idea who to trust locally so I'm not rushing to throw my money at it just yet.

 

yea, it's really hard to find out how good are they! I'm glad I've got a choice of 3 places now, which are highly recommended and was gonna go to one of them originally, until he said he will sort me out!

I thought he was good as he was chatting all that stuff...like anal he is about everything and will re-do the job if he is not happy (even tho customer is happy) and all that! I stupidly recommended him on here before and 1 member took his front bumper to him.... which as far as i know - was messed up as well!

I suppose we learn on our mistakes!

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Hard lesson to take though Vlad especially when it happens to your pride & joy as you know. :byebye:;)

I know... It's quite sad and annoying... But for some reason I'm not that annoyed as I thought I would be haha may be because it looks ok ish from the distance and I kkow that it will be sorted properly soon lol

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Hard lesson to take though Vlad especially when it happens to your pride & joy as you know. :byebye:;)

I know... It's quite sad and annoying... But for some reason I'm not that annoyed as I thought I would be haha may be because it looks ok ish from the distance and I kkow that it will be sorted properly soon lol

Maybe it's just that after all the supercharger hassle you had that this seems fairly minor by comparison. :dry::lol:;)

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Your write up sounds at least reasoned and not some inane ranting as I can imagine it could be. So well done for that.

 

Sounds like the guy thinks that now his business is 'set up' the hard work is done, if that's his attitude then it will fail in a very short space of time as the customer complaints pile up. Karma is a pretty powerful thing...

 

...out of interest what experience/qualifications does he have for body work? As most people have said, I could have done (and have done) a better job with a few rattle cans than that shocking piece of work (work used in its loosest terms).

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Sorry to hear about this Vlad. I struggled to find a body shop around this area, and after my car got scraped by some idiot, I took it to our local chips away for repair. I was that impressed with how that turned out, that I now use the same guy for spraying my spoiler and lip etc. At least I can trust him, and he takes pride in his work, especially as he likes my car.

Hope you get sorted soon.

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All I can say is serve you right!

I told you about this guy's shoddy work but you said it had nothing to do with you, despite the fact you highly recommended him to me.

I said it was nothing to do with me what happened between you and him! Just like it's nothing to do with anybody else what happened between me and him - I'm not blaming anybody else for it, just warning people!

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That's some shocking work. I think this is the guy you recommended to me a while back, looks like I may have dodged a bullet.

 

Oh I'm glad you avoided it! I was looking through my messages to see if I can find it - but couldn't, so thought I post it on open forum!

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Your write up sounds at least reasoned and not some inane ranting as I can imagine it could be. So well done for that.

 

Sounds like the guy thinks that now his business is 'set up' the hard work is done, if that's his attitude then it will fail in a very short space of time as the customer complaints pile up. Karma is a pretty powerful thing...

 

...out of interest what experience/qualifications does he have for body work? As most people have said, I could have done (and have done) a better job with a few rattle cans than that shocking piece of work (work used in its loosest terms).

Thanks mate.

Not sure about qualifications, probably none, as he is quite thick!

Experience - I know he worked for couple of bodyshops before and had his other bodyshop for couple of years before moving into new unit. But since this, I had few messages from people who used to work with him saying that "he was sh*t years ago, and looks like he is still sh*t" and he was sacked from one of the bodyshops as well, which I only found out recently.

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All I can say is serve you right!

I told you about this guy's shoddy work but you said it had nothing to do with you, despite the fact you highly recommended him to me.

I said it was nothing to do with me what happened between you and him! Just like it's nothing to do with anybody else what happened between me and him - I'm not blaming anybody else for it, just warning people!

 

Without trying to blow this up or go into tiny get ails it still sounds to me like you still lack insight! And this this is what was/is annoying about the whole.

You recommended someone to me who gives me the run around, does a really bad job and when I complained to you about this after the end of the protracted saga, you said it's none of your business what happened between the 2 of us👀! This comes accross as unsympathetic and selfish.

You fail to see that what happened is that I got a shocking service by someone you recommended! It wasn't a social complaint though is behaviour is also shocking! I was'nt asking you for a refund but some acknowledgement that you misled me and this guy has messed up. This is taking responsibility.

The least could have been on the lines of "i"ll speak to "my mate" to see how this can be redressed or to let him know you were unhappy with the service", Not its nothing to do with me because it does👎. I'm not blaming you for his actions but for claiming he was a professional when by the evidence of it all you where guess or quoting his words without substantiated evidence.

 

So it's good the same treatment was metted out to you despite him being your mate and highly professional ( "very anal about his work" as you put it!)

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