Keyed across three panels! GUTTED

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geforce189

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Some b*stard has keyed my car. It's particularly bad on the near-side rear door where it's quite deep, it's not that bad across the front door and rear wing but I'm mega gutted. I don't have any photos to hand right now...

Looking to get this fixed... I've read on here that some people recommend Chips Away but others don't due to it being pot lock which technician you get because it's a franchise. I live in SW London if anyone knows a particular bodywork repair garage or has any other recommendations? Should I steer clear of Chips Away or not?

I have protected no claims so wonder if I should make a claim - it happened outside a mate's house, he thinks its his neighbour as his car(s) have been keyed previously (he has an on-going saga with them) so I'm going to be calling the police and getting a crime reference number anyway.

GRRR!
 
Unreal the mentality of human beings man, cretins, seriously are, sorry to read this.
 
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Sorry to read this :(

In terms of the repair- you're right about it being pot luck about which Chips Away guy you get. Unless you know the person doing the work and seen previous repairs from him i would probably stay clear as there are so many decent places out there with good reviews. (I'm from SE Kent, but know of a few decent places if you're willing to travel...just drop me a PM)

If you were to go through the insurance then take into consideration the excess you will have to pay, and that it will be deemed as a fault claim that you will have to notify them of come renewal. I realise you have PNCB but this protects your number of years/discount and not your premium.

I'd weigh up the options....but I expect it would be cheaper to pay a 2-300 quid for the repairs and not go through the insurance in this instance.

Hope you get it sorted swiftly
 
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I know how your feeling, my last car got keyed, nothing more gutting than seeing your pride and joy keyed :(
 
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kwistof said:
Sorry to read this :(

In terms of the repair- you're right about it being pot luck about which Chips Away guy you get. Unless you know the person doing the work and seen previous repairs from him i would probably stay clear as there are so many decent places out there with good reviews. (I'm from SE Kent, but know of a few decent places if you're willing to travel...just drop me a PM)

If you were to go through the insurance then take into consideration the excess you will have to pay, and that it will be deemed as a fault claim that you will have to notify them of come renewal. I realise you have PNCB but this protects your number of years/discount and not your premium.

I'd weigh up the options....but I expect it would be cheaper to pay a 2-300 quid for the repairs and not go through the insurance in this instance.

Hope you get it sorted swiftly
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the support! Such f*ckers! My mate knows it's next door but hasn't been able to prove it - I've now got a crime reference number from the police but without any evidence it's all circumstantial... Probably find if he puts a webcam up or some other form of security that it will stop anyway. I feel like retaliating but it's probably not worth it in case I end up in a fix :-/

I've got 9 years protected NCD and have never claimed for anything at all ever on the insurance so I wonder if that will count for anything and mean that my insurance premium won't be affected that much? I guess a claim is a claim..?

So ****** right now
 
It's my first claim so my insurer reckons that it shouldn't affect things too much, I now need to get some quotes to see if it's worthwhile to claim. My excess is £200 so if it's substantially more to repair then I'll make a claim otherwise I'll probably just foot the bill.

Anyone recommend a bodywork repair garage within 45 mins of SW London, PM me! Cheers!
 
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Hi,

I have had exactly the same happen last week - same three panels too. I've had a quote of £385 to have it repaired.
 
Sorry to hear that. Moronic ba**ards! 200 excess for a 400 quid job seems unfair. But now yout phones its prolly started ball rolling on your guture premiums anyway as data prolly collected on it now?
 
turbonutz said:
Sorry to hear that. Moronic ba**ards! 200 excess for a 400 quid job seems unfair. But now yout phones its prolly started ball rolling on your guture premiums anyway as data prolly collected on it now?
Click to expand...

You're kidding! didn't know that... My day just got a bit worse
 
I had a 2" light scratch in my bonnet - gave it a Polish and it returned to body-colour but stayed flat and very obvious. Chips-Away wouldn't touch it, said it needed a panel respray not a spot repair. Another smart repairer said the same thing without even seeing it, so I'd just go looking for recommended, high-quality independent bodyshops and go from there...
 
I think my excess is £250. Think I will just pay up rather than get hit with a higher premium.
 
Insurance companies are a joke at best, even if you don't make a claim, they will register your call & then consider this on premium renewal, even if it cost them sweet fa with no claims either, heard this reported numerous times before aswell, unbelievable tbh.
 
geforce189 said:
Anyone recommend a bodywork repair garage within 45 mins of SW London, PM me! Cheers!
Click to expand...

Just realised that if you want to keep the corrosion warranty in force on your Audi (I think it's about 12 years warranty IIRC) then you will have to use an Audi approved repairer to get the work done - so might be worth calling up your local Audi branch and find out where they get their waranty work done.
 
NHN said:
Insurance companies are a joke at best, even if you don't make a claim, they will register your call & then consider this on premium renewal, even if it cost them sweet fa with no claims either, heard this reported numerous times before aswell, unbelievable tbh.
Click to expand...

I do feel for the general public....I can see how everyone hates on the insurance industry as on the face of it the majority of increases/changes seem illogical.

It's taken me many years in the industry to get my head round this and it just about makes sense now! lol
 
They seem very illogical to me tbh personally with my policy, I understand things like areas, type of car, mods, crime etc, but none of these appear more relevant to my policy & yet it still goes up for no reason I can see logic in, but alas.
 
kwistof said:
I do feel for the general public....I can see how everyone hates on the insurance industry as on the face of it the majority of increases/changes seem illogical.

It's taken me many years in the industry to get my head round this and it just about makes sense now! lol
Click to expand...

This shocks me and makes me sad. It doesn't feel legal but I guess because I went through the declaration process at the beginning of the call that it's hidden in their T&C's somewhere or some sh*t.

TBH - I shop around every year and never just renew with the same insurer, given how competitive the market is for insurance I *hope* that these tactics from the insurer just cancel out a hike in premium i.e. hopefully it's only lodged on their database that I "called in" and not on a national database. Somebody is probably gonna tell me otherwise now?!
 
Pics please.

Feel free to PM if you don't want to post, I am sure I can advise on a low cost paint correction you can do at home.
 
geforce189 said:
This shocks me and makes me sad. It doesn't feel legal but I guess because I went through the declaration process at the beginning of the call that it's hidden in their T&C's somewhere or some sh*t.

TBH - I shop around every year and never just renew with the same insurer, given how competitive the market is for insurance I *hope* that these tactics from the insurer just cancel out a hike in premium i.e. hopefully it's only lodged on their database that I "called in" and not on a national database. Somebody is probably gonna tell me otherwise now?!
Click to expand...

Only your insurer will know the answer to this.

Some insurers will make a note in a diary/policy record so it's just on their database until a formal claim is made, some may also upload it to the MID as an open claim so it's on a national record, even if you haven't actually made any claim yet. I'd call them back up and find out how far they're pushing the details you've already given them tbh.

It's not the easiest of things to remove non-fault incidents where a claim was not made from the MID but it can be done.
 
16Klappe said:
Pics please.

Feel free to PM if you don't want to post, I am sure I can advise on a low cost paint correction you can do at home.
Click to expand...

Will do. Thanks - appreciate it.

Just in case anyone else picks this thread up in the future - both West London Audi and Victoria Audi use H&L Motors in Twickenham for their approved repairs and Wimbledon use Hamilton & Palmer. kwistof@ is right - depending on nature of damage the corrosion warranty is 12 years and you would need to get it done at an approved Audi bodyshop
 
kwistof said:
Only your insurer will know the answer to this.

Some insurers will make a note in a diary/policy record so it's just on their database until a formal claim is made, some may also upload it to the MID as an open claim so it's on a national record, even if you haven't actually made any claim yet. I'd call them back up and find out how far they're pushing the details you've already given them tbh.

It's not the easiest of things to remove non-fault incidents where a claim was not made from the MID but it can be done.
Click to expand...

jeez - might have opened a can of worms there then. The woman sounded like she didn't care that much and didn't pry etc. Guess I'll call back and see if anything has been noted on my file. All calls are recorded so I wonder if something inevitably ends up on there anyway.

Thanks for the sound advice
 
NHN said:
Insurance companies are a joke at best, even if you don't make a claim, they will register your call & then consider this on premium renewal, even if it cost them sweet fa with no claims either, heard this reported numerous times before aswell, unbelievable tbh.
Click to expand...

No, only a small minority of insurers do this but it gives the rest of us a bad name.
 
audi upgrades
geforce189 said:
Wimbledon use Hamilton & Palmer
Click to expand...

Do not touch Hamilton with a barge pole, trust me, the work they did on an S3 I know of myself was shocking, absolutely terrible, to the point I had to push there MD to have the work redone properly by my guys to factory standards, Hamilton were a joke from start to finish, QC my ****!!!!
 
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A mate of mine has just bought a new house and parked his car round the corner, found it the next morning and 7 panels had been keyed.

He spoke to Chips Away but they said if you can feel the scratch with your fingernail you can't use a smart repair

People who do this are scumbags
 
That's proper harsh.

H&L off the cuff quoted getting on for a £1K (will get the official estimate next week), £300-400 for materials alone. One panel has multiple scratches deep scratches and the one next to it has a few mild ones but according to them will need to be blended in anyway. There is also a deep scratch on rear arch panel so it is three panels than need treatment.

Worth getting another quote or not? Seeing as they're Audi approved and all and fairly close to me in London. I can't see this costing any less than £500/600 (£300/£400 I'd consider) even if I went to less reputable independent place and at that price I'm still not prepared to pay out of pocket so it seems my only choice if I want thus repaired is to cough up £200 excess and get on with it??!

Cheers
 
geforce189 said:
That's proper harsh.

H&L off the cuff quoted getting on for a £1K (will get the official estimate next week), £300-400 for materials alone. One panel has multiple scratches deep scratches and the one next to it has a few mild ones but according to them will need to be blended in anyway. There is also a deep scratch on rear arch panel so it is three panels than need treatment.

Worth getting another quote or not? Seeing as they're Audi approved and all and fairly close to me in London. I can't see this costing any less than £500/600 (£300/£400 I'd consider) even if I went to less reputable independent place and at that price I'm still not prepared to pay out of pocket so it seems my only choice if I want thus repaired is to cough up £200 excess and get on with it??!

Cheers
Click to expand...

Just bumping this, any further comments on the quote etc? Thanks for all the support and advice to date
 
alryt geforce,

im an underwriter for an insurance company if your insured through a broker rather than a direct insurance company,
itis possible they will delegate your next years premium based on your previous experience of driving without any claims!
personally i would ask them to run through a quote based on a added fault vandalism claim....as they are actually a lower percentile increase rather than a simple fault claim.

as for the premium being increased for a notification this is not true and actually against the law! so you have no worries on that side of things.
but i would say i would rather foot the bill as the claim will have to be notified for 3 years so that is 3 years of an increase premium rather than one!

Once again the scummy generation of youths strike again!
little B*stards
 
dexx913 said:
alryt geforce,

im an underwriter for an insurance company if your insured through a broker rather than a direct insurance company,
itis possible they will delegate your next years premium based on your previous experience of driving without any claims!
personally i would ask them to run through a quote based on a added fault vandalism claim....as they are actually a lower percentile increase rather than a simple fault claim.

as for the premium being increased for a notification this is not true and actually against the law! so you have no worries on that side of things.
but i would say i would rather foot the bill as the claim will have to be notified for 3 years so that is 3 years of an increase premium rather than one!

Once again the scummy generation of youths strike again!
little B*stards
Click to expand...

Thanks mate. I'm insured directly with an insurer so no such luck with that aspect I guess. Damn. Will ask about added fault vandalism claim if I go down that route which I think I might have to - can't afford to lob out a grand right now unfortunately.

Do you have any idea how much the premium would increase by when I declare it next year? Is there a percentage figure or similar? I guess it's hard to know but if you know how I might be able to work it out then great.
 
geforce189 said:
Thanks mate. I'm insured directly with an insurer so no such luck with that aspect I guess. Damn. Will ask about added fault vandalism claim if I go down that route which I think I might have to - can't afford to lob out a grand right now unfortunately.

Do you have any idea how much the premium would increase by when I declare it next year? Is there a percentage figure or similar? I guess it's hard to know but if you know how I might be able to work it out then great.
Click to expand...


Firstly who is the insurance company?
like you said you have Protected NCB so that will benefit you what sort of premium are you paying atm?
well basically there is a percentage of a loading per claim/mod/points
to throw it out there as your in London without being rude as itis a high risk postcode
id say 10% - 35 % increase.

try and get there claims department to inform you of some sort of figure of an increase for next year as the calls will all have to be recorded if they give you a figure even if its a ruff estimation they CANNOT charge you anything more!
 
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I had my a3 hit on the back bumper one week, then week after Keyed on the rear quarter panel, in circles, what's annoyed me more is i am due to sell. Luckily the buyer doesn't want a discount and is willing to do the work himself stating it will cost him £10 to fix it up!
 
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