Willowbrae - what's your experience?

[pshanks76]

Anybody have experience with Willowbrae Coachworks? I haven't had any work done by them yet but Martin has been really poor at communicating with me and keeps telling me things will be done by a certain date then missing the date and not getting in touch to let me know.

I'm keen to hear if this is something others have encountered or if I'm just having bad luck. I've said to Craig (he's coordinating the work for me) that I'm at the point where I'm ready to look for another body shop.

Would be good to hear other's experiences.

Paul

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[mwmackenzie]

Anybody have experience with Willowbrae Coachworks? I haven't had any work done by them yet but Martin has been really poor at communicating with me and keeps telling me things will be done by a certain date then missing the date and not getting in touch to let me know.

I'm keen to hear if this is something others have encountered or if I'm just having bad luck. I've said to Craig (he's coordinating the work for me) that I'm at the point where I'm ready to look for another body shop.

Would be good to hear other's experiences.

Paul

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Similar experience unfortunately... I've seen their work and it's spot on but he's not done much to help with my insurance claim. He was not happy with the terms the insurance company were putting on him so has left things hanging and i only found this out when I chased him up. He said just after Christmas he'd send me the quote but I'm still waiting....

I took my Car to Jamie Mullen on Wednesday lunch time at J Mullen Specialist Coachworks in Port seton as I've used him a good few times before and his work is up there with the best.. He called me back the next day saying quote was £5386 and he had given the quote to the insurance company the day before, chased them up at 9am that day, they were then showing the pics he took of the damage to their engineer and are now awaiting the authorisation to repair! More progress in 24hrs than 5 weeks with willowbrae and my insurance company

Jamie has also been dealing directly with the guy who hit me's insurance company not mine so my insurance will not be affected by this whole thing...

[robin]

I've only used them once but they were spot on - did the work on time, car ready when expected, perfect repair. I was paying for my own repair, rather than an insurance job. Of course that doesn't help you and that does sound like poor service

Mark, this claim will effect your insurance. When it comes to renewal time you'll have to declare the accident and the repair cost and I would expect your insurance cost to rise as a result despite it not being your fault.

Cheers,
Robin

[pshanks76]

Thanks chaps. I'm paying for all my repairs, so no dealings with the insurer's to worry about but the car has been down since early December and all that's happened is a geo test and basic estimate. It's been 2 weeks since the estimate and Craig needs to take the clam off for Martin to finalise the estimate but Martin's still not been able to get the car to CMC. He has said it will now be done on Monday so we'll see. I'm overseas next Friday for a month do I'd like a firm estimate before I go so that I can give the go-ahead.

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[IanD]

I had work done at Willowbrae twice, quality was excellent.
Got the impression Martin was always really busy so usually I'd phone up to check progress and he would call back later or into evening time but he always got back to me. I had confidence he was getting on with the work even without asking or chasing he had to sort out a few bits and pieces for me and they were all sorted out as expected during the jobs.

[StiflerMR2]

I had the front of my elise done last year, I rejected it at first, however it was all sorted quickly and was happy with it the second time around.

[Shug]

Had work done a few years ago on Elaine's car. Everything was handled through Craig when he was at Murrays, so all I can say is the timescale was as discussed and the job (a reasonably complicated one as it involved the door skin round the pax mirror) was done well. Paint was immaculately matched and while he said that the fibreglass repair might not be exactly as it came out the factory, we couldn't see any issues and it certainly never showed any signs of cracking or crazing.

As said, I think he's a really busy guy and perhaps needs a buffer like Craig between him and customers to keep the customer contact high.

[DJ]

Mark, this claim will effect your insurance. When it comes to renewal time you'll have to declare the accident and the repair cost and I would expect your insurance cost to rise as a result despite it not being your fault.

Cheers,
Robin

continued thread drift/

Yep, Exige renewal came in last week at almost exact same price as last year. Called them up to say only change is to declare a none fault accident. I was the last/front car in a 3 car shunt in March last year in the family wagon resulting in rear split bumper and dented tailgate in the family wagon. Stationary, not at fault, minor cost and my insurance company weren't even involved with the claim. CCI reran the quote with this info and premium jumped 15%. They kindly knocked 10% off this after I bumped my gums a bit.

[mwmackenzie]

Mark, this claim will effect your insurance. When it comes to renewal time you'll have to declare the accident and the repair cost and I would expect your insurance cost to rise as a result despite it not being your fault.

Cheers,
Robin

continued thread drift/

Yep, Exige renewal came in last week at almost exact same price as last year. Called them up to say only change is to declare a none fault accident. I was the last/front car in a 3 car shunt in March last year in the family wagon resulting in rear split bumper and dented tailgate in the family wagon. Stationary, not at fault, minor cost and my insurance company weren't even involved with the claim. CCI reran the quote with this info and premium jumped 15%. They kindly knocked 10% off this after I bumped my gums a bit.

How can they legally penalise me for somebody else's mistake? Utter sh*t rip off merchants! It's cost them nothing as I'm going directly through they other party's insurance company! I'll not be talking that one lying down!

[Shug]

Mark, this claim will effect your insurance. When it comes to renewal time you'll have to declare the accident and the repair cost and I would expect your insurance cost to rise as a result despite it not being your fault.

Cheers,
Robin

continued thread drift/

Yep, Exige renewal came in last week at almost exact same price as last year. Called them up to say only change is to declare a none fault accident. I was the last/front car in a 3 car shunt in March last year in the family wagon resulting in rear split bumper and dented tailgate in the family wagon. Stationary, not at fault, minor cost and my insurance company weren't even involved with the claim. CCI reran the quote with this info and premium jumped 15%. They kindly knocked 10% off this after I bumped my gums a bit.

How can they legally penalise me for somebody else's mistake? Utter sh*t rip off merchants! It's cost them nothing as I'm going directly through they other party's insurance company! I'll not be talking that one lying down!

Been like that for ever - the argument is that independent of fault, the fact you were involved in an accident proves you're statistically higher risk. Mental, but you can be sure the insurance companies are watertight with this - at the end of the day it's entirely up to them what they define your risk to be. In other words, it's a legalised scam from one end to the other....

[renmure]

/more drift

The insurance issue is not as straightforward all the time. I had a fault accident last year (couldn't really blame anyone else since there was nobody else on the road.. ran out of talent, hit a wall, didn't damage the wall) and the cost of repairs, at over £30k, was fairly significant. My renewal for the car came in at less than £50 increase and by shopping around I could actually get the premium down to 2/3rd of the original cost from the year before while fully declaring the claim. Hardly any effect on any other car policy as well. Totally went against anything I had expected.

[campbell]

Someone else's has gone up instead Jim, lol!

[renmure]

Someone else's has gone up instead Jim, lol!

lol

17 year old yoofs will now be uninsurable

[mckeann]

/more drift

The insurance issue is not as straightforward all the time. I had a fault accident last year (couldn't really blame anyone else since there was nobody else on the road.. ran out of talent, hit a wall, didn't damage the wall) and the cost of repairs, at over £30k, was fairly significant. My renewal for the car came in at less than £50 increase and by shopping around I could actually get the premium down to 2/3rd of the original cost from the year before while fully declaring the claim. Hardly any effect on any other car policy as well. Totally went against anything I had expected.

Which one of the fleet did you prang???

[renmure]

The one with the big orange stripe down it.



Did it in August. Should get it back next month.
It's a totally bizarre situation really. Everything is effectively being upgraded to the newest Evo spec at the factory. All the suspension components all round, shocks, new Evo extended wishbones, Evo super lightweight forged alloys, tyres, latest carbon splitter, Evo carbon headlight units and upgraded led lights, couple of grand of new tyres, all the gubbins in the front.. err.. plus a new front clam plus full respray, new paint protection film, plus other bits n bobs including a new windscreen wiper arm (don't ask!) I was due to get it back before Christmas but it has been delayed because the preferred paintshop haven't managed to paint the flip-tone effect in the orange strip to my (or their) satisfaction. It will come back with the geo all set up to factory standard and all I have to pay for is a service whilst it is down there... then it gets delivered back in their covered trailer. Like I say, if it wasn't me it was happening to I wouldn't believe anyone could be so jammy and would think they were making it up.

Might stick to straight roads for a while tho, or get Wendy to walk in front of me with a red flag