A recent (last 10 years lol) development here in Alberta has been insurance companies integrating with auto body shops to create a one stop service centres. This is not a good situation for the unsuspecting consumer because now the insurance adjuster and shop are on the same side. For this reason I have always been suspicious of these setups and avoided them preferring to have any troubles fixed at an independent shop and let them haggle with the adjuster. This last week my suspicions were confirmed when I chanced taking the LR4 in to address some minor damage suffered due to a inattentive dumbass this past winter. (ie. not on my dime)
Short story the wheel arch was replaced and painted and new clips added. Unfortunately they failed to properly fix the mud flap support (broken little support brace). When I pointed this out to the "service representative" I was greeted with a look of confusion. Hadn't I noticed how nicely they washed my car and applied copious amounts of wheel dressing to everything? I said thank you for the car wash but unfortunately you have failed to repair my vehicle properly. This complaint was obviously betond the technical comprehensive of my service representative and they went into crisis mode.
This set off a chain of events: Vehicle wicked away and after 10 minutes a gruff looking shop foreman appears giving my the stare down, looks like it's game on lol. His first step is to try to intimidate and make me feel ignorant on the ins/outs of vehicle repair. After I stood my ground and repeated that he wasn't talking to a clueless moron he changed tactic insisting there was no bracket in the first place. Pointing out the existing bracket on other side, missing bracket on repaired side and subsequent arch movement due to missing bracket AND showing him photos of said broken bracket got him to admit that perhaps indeed there was a bracket. No $hit was my response. I know what happened, after the repair they probably discovered that the bracket was only available by ordering the whole 4 wheel mud flap package form Land Rover. Seeing the cost of this they took the chance that the customer would not notice. I doubt 98% of the population would have noticed but they are dealing with a freak here. In the end the bracket probably doesn't even matter much but the whole episode of them trying to slide one by on me just rubbed me the wrong way. The mudflap kit is on order
Idiots
