Hi guys,

this day last week I was in slow moving traffic and had a less than 5 mph bump into car in fronts rear bumper.

I admitted it as my fault and checked everyone was ok and everyone was fine.

Checked the car and could see no damage to neither my car nor car in front, but gave my telephone number in case anything arose.

Two hours later,

I was called by the womans partner and told that paint was cracked?

I said price the repair and get back to me and I would prefer to repair out of my insurance.

I had thought I smart repair would be approx £90 - £150 at most?

Twenty mins ago,

I get a call telling me the car has been repaired and the entire bumper was resprayed and black plastic replaced at a total cost of £280!!???

I haven't told my insurance

, but my excess is £200 and was now considering contacting my insurance and saying im being taken for a ride!?

Poss so

But increased premiums will cost you more than that

Id be asking for copy of the receipt first but your insurance will go up and you have failed to notify them of the accident anyways.

Do you really want to open that can of worms?

Yeah, thanks guys my thoughts exactly.

Ask for a copy of the receipt which must be on a garages headed paper, showing the address and phone number so it can be checked.

Also ask them to send a letter signed by all parties in the car, that they suffered no damage or injury due to the accident, apart from the damage to the car evidenced by the garage receipt

Still a bit risky, as they might say that 4 people in the car had whiplash etc. Quite a lot of dishonest people around these days who will try to make money in these situations. If you are worried, let your Insurers deal with it. The excess is normally for damage to own car and not third party claims.

they have had the work done because you are paying for it.

If they were paying for it then it would be £15 for a touch up.

the garage know that the price is massively inflated because the person getting it done isnt going to pay so no comeback.

I would be obtaining details

point out to the garage that if you are paying you want the invoice,

not the owner

also you need a proper VAT receipt to show your accountant who will use the VAT number for recovery purposes.

Also ask a local body shop how much they would pay for a respray of a bumper of that make and colour.

you might be inviting the other garage to reconsider the price if it is markedly different.

Trading Standards do look into rip off garages so you could also ask if they belong to a trade body disputes resolution scheme.

Unfortunately unless you want to pay extra for your insurance in the next 5 years, you'll have to pay this rip off price.

Still much cheaper than insurance claim.

It's one of those things in life.

Sometimes you find decent people who would get a touch up done for £15, some other times you find low life who want to have a full respray on you.

Luckily they didn't claim for whiplash.

My wife was connned by a woman who claimed whiplash for a non accident, a touch so light that there was no damage on either cars.

So consider yourself lucky