hi im sorry if this is in the wrong forum

Car Toyota Avensis 2.2d 2007

My sisters car went in for some work to be done after she slid into a kerb in the snow the garage i took it to said it need a new bottom are and the ball joint that is attached to it and it would be ok so i left wit h them as they said it was too dangerous to drive and they gave me a lift back i have now had a phone call saying that while it was parked up waiting for parts in their yard it had been scratched heavily and gauged on the front left side bumper and they said it would cost an extra £150 on top of the £195 to fix the original fix of the bottom arm and ball joint

They continued on to tell me i had left the car at my own risk and they were no responsible for the damage thus leaving me an extra £150 out of pocket which she can not afford if we have it done

Please tell me if am liable for this or if they are as im sure its their problem as it was in their care not mine

Please can you tell us more about how this damage apparently occurred and also more information about how they attempted to disclaim liability for it.

In principle though, they cannot disclaim liability for this damage.

In that case I don't see that there is any way that they can disclaim ability for this.

I would suggest that you take the car away and get the damage assessed by an independent third party. Then write to the garage with a copy of the quote for repairs and asked them to pay for it. I would not risk leaving it with the garage any more and I certainly wouldn't risk asking them to repair the damage.

If push comes to shove then I think that if you started a small claim against them, your chance of success would be better than 95%.

Make sure that you do everything in writing. If you do anything on the phone then read our customer services guide first. If you are receiving messages from them make sure you store the messages. If you're talking about voicemail messages then make sure that you store them off the phone. If you're talking about text messages then get those off the phone as well and print them out.

ok so should i pay them for the work they done on the car

Where is the car?

If they still have the car then I don't rate your chances of getting away from them without paying for the work they have done.

In that case, for a simple life the thing to do is to pay their bill, get the car away and then start claiming – as I've suggested above.

If by some amazing chance they have released the can't you, then no – I suggest that you don't pay anything until you find out the value of the damage that they have caused

thank you i will be picking the car up Tuesday and then taking it straight to a body specialist

Don't they have CCTV in the yard?

Of course if you ask they would say no, but you can look for it yourself and if they're there ask to see the footage.

I bet one of their kids was messing about and damaged your car.

picked the car up today as i was that fed up with waiting for it they did say someone had cctv at the start of all the grief but nothing since , to be honest the bloke was so ****ty with me i just paid him and got out i will foot the the bill for the bumper my self ,but im going to make sure nobody else uses them ever again

Let them know that they are responsible for the damage and that you will be billing them. If they dont pay then a small claims procedure will get them focussed. The only fly in the ointment is that they were in a position to mitigate things by repairing it themselves so I hope you can find someone to corroborate their statement about charging you.

they got a price for getting it fixed but then said it was me who had to pay ,what a joke ,anyway ive got the car now and will never use them again what a bunch of cowboys the last thing one young that worked there said he doesnt know what the problem is as it wasnt that bad , it took all i had not to punch him in the face ,what a sh i tt y attitude

Broadland MOTs catfield norfolk just incase anyone is thinking of using them

they got a price for getting it fixed but then said it was me who had to pay ,what a joke ,anyway ive got the car now and will never use them again what a bunch of cowboys the last thing one young that worked there said he doesnt know what the problem is as it wasnt that bad , it took all i had not to punch him in the face ,what a sh i tt y attitude

Broadland MOTs catfield norfolk just incase anyone is thinking of using them

You must be a mentally strong person.

I would have punched him on the nose and then said: "what's your problem? It's not that bad" while he bled on the floor.

Well done for resisting the temptation.

I personally think you should get your car fixed and then bill them with a mcol in sight.

I bet they would pay up as soon as they received court papers.

Get the CCTV secured.

Why would you foot the bill yourself when you could sue them and have an extremely good chance at winning.