Here is a question to all of the good panel workers on this forum.

OK heres the story. A couple of months ago my boss scraped the rear door, dog leg and wheel arch of my car whilst he was leaving his parking spot.

My car is full comp insured so I took it off to AAMI for assessment. They were very nice & marked out on the paperwork where the damage was, told me that they would ring later in the day stating who was conducting the repairs & how long it would take & put me in a taxi to work.

Well the lowest quote was from a panel beater who will be referred to as BF (Blind Freddy) from here on. BF only based his quote on the wheel arch because he is either blind or cannot read so naturally his quote was the lowest as he had only quoted half the job.

Picked the car up from BF on Tuesday & went straight off to fill it as it was very low on fuel. When filling I noticed that the scrape marks were still on the door & dog leg so I paid for the fuel & drove straight back to BF's. I went into BF's office asking why they had only done half a job & their answer was that they didn't quote on the door or dog leg. BF then came out with some cutting paste & wiped off the scrape marks & I drove off wondering what sort of customer service organisation BF's really is.

Got back to work & noticed that the wheel arch edge is way to sharp, there was un feathered bog &generally the whole "repair" was nowhere near the right shape. On top of this there was still masking tape on my rear bumper & sticky goo on the back door Rang AAMI and organised for an assessor to have a look on Wednesday morning.

That night I parked the car in my garage & noticed that there are ripples (shadows) where the scrape marks were in the door & dog leg.

Wednesday morning I took the car in & showed the assessor BF's handywork (the goo on the back door was hard by now & won't budge even with turps). Also stated that I could have done a neater job myself using bog & pressure packs (which was not exagerrating). The assessor rang BF & asked him why he did only half the job & was told that they didn't quote on the whole job. Organised to bring the car back in on Monday.

Took the car back to AAMI with bits of masking tape & whiteboard marker pointing out all of the aspects of BF's work that I am unhappy with so that he really can't miss anything this time.

I also expressed my concerns about BF touching my car again because if he can't do a good job when he is being paid what sort of job will he do the second time for nothing. I asked them why they could not send it to the next quoter & just not pay BF for his bog job.

Now the question is what is the best way to scrutinise BF's second attempt after the car is re delivered to AAMI on Wednesday?

The ripples in the door don't show up in their covered carpark & I doubt that BF intends to do anything about them anyway as he did not factor this into his low quote.

Thanks for reading this..BTW BF's is in Canberra.

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It shi ts me to tears when the media & state politicians refer to the Federal Government as "Canberra"

Hi Jim,

Since youve been stuffed around so much with this, I would also look at the repair from 10 different angles until you can notice the difference in paint colours. Usually spraypainters try to "blend" the new paint into the panel alongside so the

Thanks Rhys Yep I forgot to mention the car is white & the paint itself isn't a half bad job. I paid them some cash & got my spare front guard painted too which is ok.



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I've worked in the smash repair industry for around 25 years and I can tell you the first mistake you made was insuring with AAMI, they've worked out that only a small percentage of customers check their cars so they go with the cheapest quote to maximise

So to help your situation, do not relinquish your endeavour to get the job done properly. Ultimately you will get the areas attended to with time. Once the panel has been painted three times you would be within your rights to demand a restripping of all o

With some prejudice, when you leave a car at an 'assessment centre', that signals that there will be X number of panel company hacks vying for the job. Who wins the job? The most comprehensive quote? The best panel shop? The best customer service? None of

My thought is to take the car to another panel beater explain what happened in the inital repair and most panel shops are quite happy to point out other peoples shoddy work for free :)

Well Ive got my fluoro lamp in the back of the car. I also have one of those long tools that you attach sandpaper to (its about 40cm long & has a handle but I cant remember what its called). I might try hitting the car again with a whiteboard marker & the

Hmm sounds like they are putting you on the must be right before delivery customer list

Well I picked up the car yesterday & from 5 metres away it does not look too bad the rear door now wears a new coat of paint too.

They have buffed the paint down so far that there is a grey hair line about 10cm long down the bottom rear edge of the d