Rye Street Borehamwood Ltd.

My car was side swiped by a lorry on 10th February, causing damage to the left hand wing. It was taken to Rye Street, who are my insurer's authorised repairer. It is now 21st April and I still do not have my car. I have been advised "parts" (they don't say which) are on back-order for JUNE. June! This will be over 4 months without my car. LV (my insurer) seem to have done nothing to chase them, and I only get a non-committal update text from Rye Street every 2 or 3 weeks. I have no confidence that I won't be told in June that the parts still aren't available. In the meantime, LV say I am only entitled to a basic courtesy car, which is arranged through Rye Street and Enterprise. Enterprise have given me the worst car I've ever driven - a tiny 3.5 year old Hyundai i10 with a worn clutch. And I'm having to pay an excess waiver that has cost me over 200 so far. Phoning Rye Street is almost impossible, as you get cut off, and there are no email contacts. LV is as bad, with waits of over half an hour. I drove past Rye Street a few weeks ago, and saw my car in the yard. Half dismantled and abandoned to the elements, which is very worrying. This whole experience, from a very traumatising car crash (where I thought we were going to die) to the nonchalant attitude of Rye Street and LV, has been awful. Especially compared to service received by my husband when he crashed his car a few years back - quick provision of a decent courtesy car and repair completed within a couple of weeks. I can only hope when I do get my car back, that it has been repaired to a high standard. But given my experience up to now, I don't have much confidence in that.
Apr 23rd, 2023

Apr 8th, 2023

Feb 20th, 2023

Service: Auto body & trim replacement
Nov 28th, 2022

Words of caution. My car went in to Rye Street Motors Borehamwood in January 2022 for body repairs to the wheel arch and rear bumper. On completion all seemed good with the car. Fast forward to November 2022 and my car was booked into the main dealer for its first MOT and three year service. The body work inspection revealed that the paint was peeling in at least three different places on my rear bumper. Once on the ramp it became evident that the bumper was not attached to the bodywork properly. There was a missing screw, a broken bracket, and the rear fog lamp unit (situated in the middle of the bumper) and the wiring was loose rendering the unit inoperable and an MOT failure. As there was no damage to the bumper or the paintwork on it (other than the peeling) I was asked if the car had been involved in an accident. LV were contacted who advised that I take the car back to Rye Street for inspection. A Rye Street Assessor came out and noted the peeling paint but said nothing about the damage to the underside of the car and did not note any damage to the outside of the bumper at the time. The car was driven into the workshop and later the Manager, Wayne Davis, came out to tell me that they would accept responsibility for the peeling paint but not for the damage to the underside of the bumper as the car had been in another rear end collision. It is difficult to see how such a lot of damage could be caused without any damage to the outside of the bumper and I questioned that particularly as the car is mostly on my drive or on my private yard. Mr Davis asked whether I had been with my car 24/7 and when I said of course not stated that I couldn't possibly know whether it had been hit or not. When a representative of the main dealer spoke to him on the phone he hung up on her. She advised me to remove my car immediately as did LV. She also advised me to make a formal complaint as he had been rude to her and rude and unpleasant to me. When Mr Davis brought back my keys I asked him why he had hung up on the main dealer. His reply was that she was just saying the same thing that I was. He went on to say that the car had been in a rear end collision following the repair carried out in January. My car is going to be independently inspected and I will accept that decision. Meanwhile it is off the road as I have an inoperable fog lamp. Would I use this garage again? No. Does the manager require customer services training? Without doubt. It is never acceptable to adopt a brusque attitude whilst standing over someone delivering a message that is going to upset them. Is it acceptable for the staff to watch/listen to the World Cup during business hours? Not if you want to maintain a professional establishment and I certainly felt as though I was interrupting something so much more important than the customer. If your customer is clearly distressed should you ignore the fact? No, but in this clearly male dominated environment it seems to be acceptable because many employees just walked past me. It seems only the female receptionist, LV and the main dealer were concerned for my welfare. If I had been a man and not a woman would this upsetting experience have occurred? Probably not. I do not believe Mr Davis would have adopted the same attitude if I had been male. On a positive note they did try to fix the wiring to my fog lamp without success. If I could give this company 0 out of 5 I would. IF my car has to be returned to them to put right the shoddy paintwork then it will be by a man and not me. Am I confident that the paint will still be on the car in 6/12/18 months time. No. Service: Painting
Nov 27th, 2022