Botched paint job - what are my rights?

damo

Right...bit of a nightmare! About a week ago i was driving along and a little old lady just drove straight into the side of my car, straight into the rear passengers door. Big nasty big big dent in the door is the only damage, the door works 100% fine (opens and closes fine), the poor terriffied old dear accepts full responsibility (there were witnesses) says shell pay for it etc. So i went out to some crash repair workshop and the guy tells me ill need to replace the whole door , says he needs to order in the door and paint it and put it on the car etc. total cost including paint and labour 1500 eur. In my (foolish) heart of hearts i decided that was too much money for the old lady and i drove around to find someone who'd do it cheaper, so i found this old geezer who said hes the citys longest running panel beater/crash repairer, said the door doesent need to be replaced at all and said he'd do the job for 500 quid. I accepted and left him in the car. When i got it back it looked ok i thought, so i paid him and left, but on closer inspection you can clearly see he got the colour slightly off, and did a crappy job of the paint (dust and little tiny bumps caught up in the paint).
So what rights do i have? can i walk in there and demand he re-does it or can i demand my money back and go to someone else(which id prefer to do)? Ive paid him now so i dont think theres much i can do, you get what you pay for i suppose, maybe someone can enlighten me?

junkyard

If I was you I'd take the car back and show him the problem, at least give him a chance to rectify the problem. If he doesn't, tell him you'll get legal advice. Did you get a receipt for the work? How old is the car? Unfortunatly in most cases you pay peanuts you get monkeys.

bazz26

The first approach is the polite approach, show him the job he has done and and you are not happy and want it to be redone. If he is in the business as long as he says he is then he will more than likely admit the mistake and do the job again as he cannot afford word of mouth going around that he does a crappy job.

Something like this happend to by father years ago but the main dealer made a balls of the respray of the back door on his car. The metalic lacquer was not left dry long enough and dust and dirt stuck to the paint. Went back to the dealer and pointed out the bad job and the door was done again proberly.
Not sure what way it would work out for a guy working for himself but again he cannot afford the word to get around that his work is dodgy.

mike65

Just be polite but firm, give him the chance to see he's done a crap job and say so! If that does'nt work the small claims court may well be your best bet. It's dirt cheap to use and quicker than the traditional legal route.

http://www.valueireland.com/tips/small_claims_court.htm

Mike.

Volvoboy

Chances are if you threat him with the small claims court he'll get up off his rock and roll sharpish and fix it for you on the spot, chances are that theres dirt caught in the final laquer of the paint and it'll come out if he rubs it down with 1500 grit paper and water and buff till shiny again,
the shade of the paint my be that the original paint has faded and a good wax on the rest of the body work should get u back suckin' diesel in no time.