[triedeverything]

I would like to share a particularly poor experience with the Gobumpr/MyTvs folks in Bangalore.

About two months back, a recklessly driven two wheeler crashed into the left side of my Polo. The crash was so bad that the tire blew and the entire door needed to be replaced.

I have used Gobumpr earlier for smaller nicks and scratches and it was a reasonable job. But this time it was the pits.

They took the car promising to give it in a week. But even after a month, there was no update.

This is the Hennur road branch. The guys there wouldn't even pick up the phone when I called them. I tried Kumar, his boss Ganesh and even the guy at the top. All same category.

When I finally got it, the fuel was empty. When I sent it, they had taken pictures and there was almost half tank. When it came back, there was one blinking bar.

The paint job was pathetic. After charging me almost 27,000, this was really just poor workmanship.
It was all rough. In fact, it was not just the portion that was painted that was rough - the entire car was rough - like they had sprayed the entire car!
One panel was not tinkered. Just painted over - with the dent clearly visibile.

When I opened the bonnet (the car felt different to start), I noticed that someone had removed the battery clamp.

I took to Twitter and intially they said I had to pay 500 as 'inspection charge'! Imagine the gall. They expected me to pay to check if they had done their work!

The took the car and again wouldn't return calls. After two days they returned it.

Yesterday, when I checked if all doors were locking, the left rear door doesn't get locked when the central locking is used! Just fed up with having to reach out to these incompetent people, I took it to another mechanic. And he tells me the tinkering is bad and needs to be redone!

If any of you know someone up there, do ping me. Also someone reliable who can fix this issue for me. Also looking at installing an autocop like device since it's an old car and currently locks using only the key
No explanation was offered as to why the battery clamp was removed or why the fuel was emptied. I don't know whether they have changed any other parts as well. The car used to crank up in one twist. it struggles to come alive now. Really frustrated.

Would not recommend these untrustworthy, unreliable and incompetent folks even for small jobs.

[Mustang_Boss]

The best practice is:

- Try to stay with your car always, when any job is being done.
- For painting or other mechanical jobs, which run into days, do a daily visit and check the progress.
- Check the quality of parts being used. Evaluate every move.
- Never ever leave your car with a mechanic for days, unless its needed. Order the parts. Once they reach, deliver the car to them. Otherwise, park it in your house as long as it could be driven.

If your car takes you everywhere and protects you when needed, why not give similar love & attention to get her into Top shape? Relationship is a two way Street.

Dishonesty is very high among the people, so why take chance?

We are not living in a world where everyone is honest & responsible. Here, the law is poor too, so you have to do your job as a Owner. As you failed at your duties, i hope you have to pay the price. No amount of chasing is ever going to satisfy you to the fullest. Sorry for saying upfront.

[audioholic]

There are a VERY FEW independent body shops which do a professional job and those places are not really much cheaper than the ASC. The rest just pass off shoddy work under the disguise of a good color match and cheaper pricing and most of the times it's effect is only obvious after a couple of months. And things like these are just one of the examples where even after paying a high price, the franchise garage just used the loopholes of these aggregators and got away with a poor job.

Better stick to the ASC for anything more than a panel repaint. At least you have different levels of escalation and at least at one level it will work irrespective of brand if quality isn't good.

[Oppanna]

Whenever you leave the vehicle for service or even major repairs it is always advisable to be careful

1. Get to know about the service centre beforehand and check the reviews first
2. Get detailed understanding about the work to be carried out and the cost involved
3. Ensure that you stay there when the car is being serviced and get it back
4. If car is left for major repairs be aware of the spares they are using and do a surprise visit to check the progress

What i have seen is people blindly leave the vehicles for repairs and then when the work is not up to the expectation then make scene out of it.

Instead will it not make sense to closely observe and track the repairs?

After all we are motorheads and cant ignore our vehicles right?

[triedeverything]

One reply is actually hoping I pay the price. Wow!
It's not practical to go everyday and check progress. Get it back everyday? That doesn't make any sense.
When will we be able to trust our workshops to do something that's expected of them?
Anyway, I went at it hammer and tongs on Twitter. I replied to every tweet from an unhappy customer that mentioned Gobumpr - saying it happened to me too.

I did this for almost a week.When they realized I wouldn't grin and bear it, someone from their team reached out. And then again silence.
Then I tweeted again and this time mentioned the parent organization - TVS Motors as well. I also included a link to this post.
And finally someone from TVS contacted me yesterday. They will fix the issue with the door.


One thing I learned in this is that when contacting the insurance, they have recommended vendors through whom you can get the work done. Doing it this way will not be as expensive as the ASC and work is assured as well done. The insurance is from Acko. Did not face any issues with the claim - this was a very smooth and painless affair. Would definitely recommend them.

[steadfast]

Any specific reason of not going for insurance and ASC ?

For such big repairs and that too a German where any fiddling/swapping with electronics can be catastrophic it is never advisable to leave cars unattended at such places

[ankitsharma]

Originally Posted by steadfast

Any specific reason of not going for insurance and ASC ?

For such big repairs and that too a German where any fiddling/swapping with electronics can be catastrophic it is never advisable to leave cars unattended at such places

+1 to steadfast's statement. With cars that have parts/electronics that are costly it is a obvious practice to swap the parts.
I think you should have played safe by taking it to the ASC even if that meant that you lose on the NCB and pay higher premium.

I was rammed by Uber on the driver side and it resulted in both the doors having minor dent. Tried Brite Skoda with ICICI Lombard and ICICI guys messed the claim process (Well that is another story).
I will get this done via ASC only knowing their work is not much competent and that I will have to shell out money from my pocket. Because for a week my car will be with them and hence if something happens you can actually hold them accountable.