Hi folks,
been completely ed over by a dodgy mechanic in Prilly. He damaged 2 front alloy wheels when fitting winter tyres purchased through reifendirekt.ch - repair job was terrible, sprayed all 4 alloy wheels an off grey colour, covering the centre wheel covers also! Has refused to properly refurbish the wheels. Complained to reifendirekt.ch and delti (parent company) and they shirked responsibility for fitter.
I am disgusted with how I have been treated and I want to seek legal advice.

PS. I recommend you AVOID reifendirekt.ch if you dont want to suffer the same fate - they do not care about such issues despite having referred me to this bandit fitter.

So any recommendations for solicitors are appreciated.

Thanks
William

Well, to be fair it's not the company you bought the wheels from's fault. It's the shops fault.

Send him a copy of the invoice from reifendirekt.ch for what you paid for the rims with a letter requesting compensation for replacement of the wheels as it's was his mistake and his repair job is unacceptable to you.

Tell him when you expect payment (2 weeks or so) or you are sending it to collections.

He probably has insurance for his mistake and he should collect from his insurance. But that's not your problem it's his.

Send this letter registered mail.

Thanks for the advice - but not sure i made myself clear.

1. The alloys are the original alloys that shipped with the car.
2. I bought the winter tyres from reifen, who contracted the fitting to this local fitter on their website.
3. I visited the fitter who took off the summer tyres on the two front wheels, and fitted the winter tyres.
4. The 2 front alloys were damaged in this process.

I personally believe reifendirekt should take at least partial responsibility for the fitters they refer their paying customers to?

Thanks.
William

Are you a member of TCS ? I know my mother-in-law has had to replace something on her car 3 times in 4 years (no idea what piece but it is definetely not normal). This last time she has gotten it repaired, the TCS said they will take a look at it, and all the invoices she has already paid for the repairs in the past.

Assume TCS is essentially the AA? No I am not a member.
I do not want to let this person away with that they have done to my car. I asked for 2 new tyres, and I ended up with 4 terrible looking wheels. Tired of putting up with bad tradesmen so taking a stand for once.

does anybody have details for a solicitor.

W

Me Laurent Maire

m.maire at mcelegal.ch – www.mcelegal.ch

Best of luck...

Good luck....Dont let them get away with it...hang in like a bull terier!!

Just a thought, I apologise that this is not going to help you on this matter, but I have taken out legal insurance with Zurich, its not cheap, but you are covered with legal fees (I believe from the info) if you need to take anyone to court for this kind of thing.

I have the details of a good broker, if you need the details, please dont hesitate to PM me.

In relation to the solicitor for this case, sorry I dont know of any that are in the area, but I hope you get it sorted.

Cheers
Will.

Oh. Well, then you need to get an estimate from the dealer to replace your rims and send that with the letter requesting payment to the person who messed them up. Personally, I still think it's the garage.

If the guy doesn't pay in the time you wrote, you can send a reminder that if he doesn't pay you will make a claim against him. If he still doesn't pay then you go to the office des poursuites and you file a claim against him.

If he still doesn't pay it goes to small claims court and there you can put you case to the judge.

You can do all this yourself without a lawyer. If no one here can give you a recommendation there is a list on the Vaud website.

http://www.vd.ch/fr/themes/etat-droi...stice/avocats/

Of COURSE it's the garage's fault, and NOT the company that sold the tires!

Tom

Thats really useful information. Thank you!

RD give you a list of garages that will fit tyres you bought from them, those garages get given feedback from customers, so did this fitter have 100% positive feedback or you did not look?
RD are not getting any money from the fitter so why should they take responsibility?

Yes, they listed garages that fit the tyres and I sorted by locality. They had limited feedback but it was positive. I will be sure to post negative feedback.
I still believe that reifen should take any disputes with fitters they put you in touch with more seriously. Its bad business..period. I mean, how hard is it to fit a tyre and not scratch the sh1t out of an alloy wheel. If you cannot succeed with this, then you should not be (or be promoted as, in the case of reifen) a tyre fitter. But yes, the main blame lies with the garage, but highly disappointed with response from reifen nontheless.

By the way - This isnt the first time this has happened to me, either. It also happened to a set of beautiful cloverleaf Alfa Romeo wheels I had previously which got scuffed with a pneumatic wheel screw gun, again via a fitter having bought the tyres through another Delti child company at home in Ireland. I didnt think I'd face the same issue again - lesson learnt. I think the problem lies partially with the business model - Delti take the profile margin of the tyre away from the fitter, the fitter is not profiting from that. Dont get me wrong the prices are right - but a normal tyre fitter will charge for fitting as well as getting a cut of the tyre profit. You get what you pays for I guess. All I know is that I will not be risking my nice alloy wheels to delti fitters again - I'm just sharing my experience and advise you know your fitter if you care for your wheels!

Best
Will

I guess it's pretty unfortunate that it's happened twice now.

What a lawyer will do is charge you a fortune but as you cannot prove the state of the wheels before the work was effected it will limit your recourse on the fitter i think, however it won't limit the lawyers fees.

If you are so particular about your wheels, why not go to a real garage and have everything done, sure it will cost more, but then trhat's another thread in the making !

Thats a fair point. I dont have pictures prior to the damage. I might take miniMias advice and go down the direct route.

Swiss precision my a$$. Theres no tradesmen left in the world any more. If I ran a company and did something like that I wouldnt get a nights sleep. I dont want to let these guys away with it.

But if the guy tried to repair them that doesn't sound very innocent to me. Why would he try to repair them?

If he's going to pursue this as you say, he's best to go direct. Talk to the office des poursuites. They should advise him what do to.

Be prepared that the guy will deny the claim.

I should add miniMia, that I have the fitter admitting fault three times in writing via email (first time accepting fault and asking to have the car back for repair, second time accepting that there was a problem with centre caps, and third time offering to take the wheels back a SECOND time to fix them again, to which I told him I didnt trust him with the car any more).

This should help, right?

Thanks for your advice anyway. Soul killing, this stuff.

here is reply i got


Monsieur,

Si vous estimez avoir une créance à l'encontre de votre garagiste, vous avez la possibilité d'introduire une poursuite à son encontre.

Pour l'introduction d'une poursuite, il convient de compléter le formulaire "réquisition de poursuite" et de l'introduite auprès de l'Office des poursuites compétent en
raison du domicile privé de votre débiteur.

Vous trouverez les formulaires utiles sur notre site à l'adresse www.vd.ch/opf.

Avec notre considération distinguée.


-------

sir,

If you feel you have a claim against your garage, you can commence a prosecution against him.

For the introduction of a lawsuit, it should complete the form "requisition tracking" and submitted to the competent Prosecution Office
Due to the private home of your debtor.

You will find useful forms on our website at www.vd.ch / opf.

Our consideration.



Does the guy have a loophole as the business is trading in a "private home"?
What do they mean by that?

Is my only choice a solictior now? Any advice apperciated.

cheers

It means "fill out the form, and deliver it to the competent office, which depends on the private address of the debtor."


i.e. you don't deliver to your local office, but to his.

Tom