A seasonal accident and subsequent insurance claim led me to Exway coachworks. I'd never heard of…read morethem before, but with insurance claims you have little choice of repairer if you want a courtesy car, so I wasn't about to argue. Once I knew who was going to be in charge of repairing my car I did check online to see who these people where, and was quietly reassured that this was a large south west chain, with an impressive track record of growth. But it seems my confidence was a little misplaced.
I should have guessed things weren't going to be all plain sailing when it took them several days just to pick up the car in the first place, to take it in for assessment. They made lots of promising noises on the phone, but actions speak louder than words, and there wasn't much action to be had from these folks at all. I gave them the benefit of the doubt - it had after all been a difficult winter, with lots of demand for their services - but that just seemed to encourage them to do even less for me. I started to suspect they were just palming me off with lazy excuses.
Days passed, with no word from them. I made frequent calls to try and find out what was going on (they rarely if ever tried to contact me), but got nowhere. My alleged courtesy car would only be offered in the car was going to be repaired, but that was taking a lot longer to decide than normal. It started to look like they simply didn't have any courtesy cars to offer, and were stalling for time. My fears were confirmed several days later. My car was finally deemed repairable, but there was no sign of any courtesy car from the company. With only a day to go before a big family gathering the other side of the country I had no car, and things were looking bleak. Promises of cars came, and promises of cars went, but I was still taking the bus.
Luckily for me I'd chosen Sainsburys for my car insurance, and once I contacted them things changed. They claim in their promotional material that they make the difference when it comes to service, and it they went out of their way to help, supporting my argument that the company was at fault, and they promised that if I hired a car they would reimburse the expense. Eventually I did get the courtesy car I was due.
To cut a long story short I did finally get my own car back from Exway 6 weeks after I'd fist contacted them. It was clean and polished, but the air conditioning was broken and the engine screamed horribly when idling. I did call the garage about this, leaving a message as there no one answered, but they never got back to me about it - unsurprisingly. In the end I paid another garage almost £50 to have these problems fixed - I figured it would be better for my sanity to do this, I just couldn't face dealing with the Exway group anymore.
Thinking about Exway coachworks in general, and when I first read about them, I remember saying to my partner how impressed I was that one man had created so much in such a short time. Now I get the sense that this company has risen from small beginnings to a south west institution perhaps less from sparkling service and more for sharp business practice - and from just the sort of reliable and profitable business that insurance jobs like mine can provide. Nothing I've experienced from Exway suggests that they care about me one way or another - provided they were getting paid it seems I was totally irrelevant.
I had a good tip for a local company who could have repaired my car, passed on from the AA man who helped me out of trouble in the first place but it situations like mine you have to follow the insurance companies edicts if you want what your cover provides - and in my case that was Exway Coachworks. Perhaps mine was a one off, and not having ever had to claim on insurance like this before this may just be the average experience, but suffice to say that whilst I'll be happy to stay with Sainsburys for insurance I certainly won't be choosing Exway coachworks again in the future for any help with my car if I can possibly avoid it.
