To think garage which has had our car for 4 weeks should at least look at it before declaring it is not their problem?

[LentilMoussaka]

I just wanted to get some idea of people's opinions before ringing the garage in the morning because I'm not sure if I am or not.

A month ago someone drove into the back of our car and since then it has been at the insurance garage getting repaired. On friday they dropped it back and as I was holding a wriggling baby I just signed the forms without checking it started etc.

Saturday morning DP got in the car to go to work and it wouldn't start - not even a flicker of life. I called the garage and asked if they would come and have another look. They said as the engine wasn't damaged in the accident and it started to get on their truck to be dropped back here it was nothing to do with them. I asked if being sat around for 4 weeks was likely to have caused the car problems and the mechanic said unless I could prove the battery was less than 3 years old they wouldn't help.

Since then we've tried jump starting, which didn't work, but have discovered the lights work which implies the problems are not battery related.

So is it unreasonable to expect the garage to at least take a look at the car? When I handed it over 4 weeks ago it worked despite the nasty dent in the back and now it doesn't even though the dent is fixed. I haven't seen it working although they claim it did.

YANBU. If feasible I'd drop by and ask the workshop manager to get a mechanic to look at it, they should have a mechanic even if they just repair bodywork, but usually there's only one.

It may or not be related but they certainly should look at it, and if you haven't been provided with a printout of the work that was done, ask for that.

YANBU - maybe you should speak to the ins company instead after all they work for your insurer.

I'm rather curious to know which repairer you used.

I'd probably get sued (or get mumsnet sued) if I started naming names but they were the garage we had to use through our insurer.

I'm willing to accept it's quite probably just a coincidence it's gone wrong now but I do think they should at least check.

Is it a chain of repairers? You could say that much, I'm just curious to know if it's the company I used to work for.

I hope the issue can be resolved.

Was the car driven back to you (as opposed to towed, etc)? If so, presumably it was working fine when they returned it?

It was returned on a truck and I didn't actually see it arrive. The garage say it was driven on and off the truck but it's not exactly a test drive.

I believe the company are local but couldn't be entirely certain.