CUTTING CORNERS, CUTTING SAFETY

<p> </p> <p>A few months ago I was involved in a car accident and my insurer MiWay instructed me to take my bakkie to one of their accredited agents, Panelcraft Bodyworks in Bellville for a repair quote and the subsequent work.</p> <p> </p> <p>On completion of the job I noted the sound system had (for reasons still unclear to me) been removed and refitted. Unfortunately whoever was charged with refitting the sound system doesn’t appear to have known what they were doing because they ‘barreled’ a new fixing ***** for the speaker right the way through the metal back of the bakkie cab interior so that it protruded an inch or more into the bin of the bakkie – and simply left it like that.</p> <p> </p> <p>The rewiring too appeared faulty as the sound system now crackled and the amp overheated quite seriously (neither of these faults pre-existing), something I brought to Panelcraft attention and they asked me to bring it back to be fixed. I did this at my own time and cost and while there they cut off the ***** extending into my bakkie and played around with the sound for an hour before telling me that it was ‘fixed’.</p> <p> </p> <p>A few kilometers down the road and the sound system was crackling again and the amp overheating. Given I was due to fly out the country (and increasingly weary of Panelcrafts workmanship) I contacted Panelcraft by email, notified them of the situation and was told by ‘Ray’ the workshop manager that I need only notify him when I would be returning and that the vehicle would be booked with one of their associated audio agents for repair.</p> <p> </p> <p>Fast forward to my brother heading down to Cape Town from JHB and setting aside the day to pick up the bakkie for a service and then on to the audio agent as pre-arranged with Ray.</p> <p> </p> <p>At the audio agents they confirmed the amp had ‘cooked’ and phoned through to Panelcraft for permission to replace the amp. This was flatly refused by Ray as he did an about turn and took no responsibility for the work, challenging my brother to come down to Panelcraft and talk it out ‘face to face’ if he had a problem and instead now stating in writing:</p> <p> </p> <p>‘Therefore my conclusion that amp has no direct impact of impact damage or shady work carried out. Crackling sound or speaker earthling not cause of amp malfunctioning as per car audio.’ (sic)</p> <p> </p> <p>Now, while I'm no audio electrician, I do believe in my limited understanding that it's possible for the self-same faulty wiring issue that could lead a sound system to crackle and distort, could also lead to an amp overheating?</p> <p> </p> <p>Unfortunately this was only one half of the issues I’ve now had to deal with. Upon taking the vehicle for the aforementioned service at Williams Hunt Bellville it was discovered the wheel nuts were stripped and needed replacement which was odd given they should have been replaced when fitting the new wheel to replace the previous one damaged in the accident?</p> <p> </p> <p>Upon following up on this with Panelcraft my brother was informed that as they had sub-contracted out the fitting of the new wheels to Hi-Q , as such it was not their (Panelcrafts) responsibility?</p> <p>(Given the third party contractor was of your choice and while you were contracted by MiWay for the job, you are in fact responsible, legally it’s called secondary contributory liability).</p> <p> </p> <p>When I mentioned the matter to Ray again he informed me in writing that:</p> <p> </p> <p>‘when your vehicle came in (per my staff) the L/R wheel was only secured with 3 wheel nuts and out of courtesy a 4th was supp****.’</p> <p> </p> <p>Ray…the reason there were only three bolts in place was because the fourth was sheared off in the accident. Instead of suggesting I should be appreciative of the ‘fourth free bolt’ (out of interest, how many bolts was MiWay invoiced for?), should the job of a panel beater replacing an accident damaged wheel not be to check the bolts on an accident damaged wheel when replacing it?</p> <p> </p> <p>In other words, Panelcraft saw fit to leave a wheel with only a single good nut holding it in place, thereby not only endangering the lives of the vehicles inhabitants and the vehicle itself but also other road users.</p> <p> </p> <p>What alarms me is not only the total lack of responsibility taken by Panelcraft but this, if a bakkie is returned with a ***** protruding into the bin through the interior cab wall, a faulty, crackling and overheating sound system where no issues were experienced before and the self-same wheel nuts that were in an accident that saw the fourth sheared off by the sheer impact…what is the standard of the quality control in their workshop?</p>