Wasnt sure where to put this rant from a angry bald man so thought it should go as part of my build thread.
Please dont read if you get bored easily it is a long whinging post. 
Ok i have been having problems with my new bumper and paint job now for a couple of months, finally sorted today so i feel i need to tell the story, to help me cleanse and move on
i found a body shop in the midlands who was willing to take on the bonding of the 2 parts that make up the R32 rear bumper which now looks like this.
At the same time they also did my side skirts and front splitter.
So I dropped the car off after the second forum meet, and John_O was very kind in giving me a lift back. the car was ready after a week so i made plans to go down there. Then i got a phone call at the last minute telling me that the join had split a little when brought out into the cold, so it needed doing again. No problem with this it made sense to me. So i waited patiently for another week, the guy told me on the Thursday he was having problems with his oven but the car would be ready for Saturday. So i got on my train and arrived to see my car sitting waiting on my friends drive. looking lovely.
I had left instructions for the car not to be washed but it clearly had when i arrived so as all anal GTI owner's know i started to get a raised heart beat. Had a look at the bumper with my friend and the actual bonding of the 2 parts was excellent i was really impressed with the job. But my friend had noticed that the split in the join was still there, were the chap had originally said it was. And to add to this the actual paint job was poor, it had orange peel effect all over the side with the split. So basically reading between the lines the car had not even been touched in the second week, the split was still there.
So i took the car home on the understanding that this chap would have to do it all again. A big fook around for me as i live 100 odd miles away.
Got the car home and give it a good wash to have a look at the paint job and tidy the interior as it had got dirty some how.
Well, this is when i started spitting feathers. First off they had been eating there dinner in my car i found bits of food and sh*t under the seats
Then it normally takes about 2 hours to wash the car i take my time to ensure no damage is done, Well it took me about 20 mins the dirt just fell off and the car looked a bright white normally its got a creamy hue to it, they had stripped off all the expensive wax i had on my car. this stuff.
Next i found a scratch on the wheel, nothing to cry about but it wasn't there before hand.
Then i found over spray on the front VW badge.
next up was what looked like a burn on the paint about the size of a 10p on the bottom of the wing, turned out to be clear coat over spray.
Then i found a 3 inch piece of what felt like stone, but was actually the bonding agent they had used to fix the side skirt's
All of this really made me feel very sad and angry, as i had not even got a stone chip on my paint work in 10 months of ownership. I am MR anal about the car dont even like the misses in it
it does not go anywhere near supermarket's, town centre's or curbs.
Sorry for prattling on only half way through so far.
Now the biggest thing of all that has pissed me off is, over the next six weeks, the chap answered only one of my phone calls, i rang him almost every day but he only answered my call by mistake i think. i went mad at him as you would after all this time in between being left to boil, all he could do was apologize, and say he had been to busy to return my calls, but said he would do the job again and would even come and pick the car up.
After this it went back to the routine of not answering my calls, and i had already decided that there is no way on this planet i was going to hand my car back to this disrespectful sh*t, so via email we agreed to get the job, fixed up my end including the paint correction work for all the above mess. And yes you guest it i sent him the quotes and the email i got back after 8 days said " i may as well give you all the money back as it would only cost me 50 pound to put the job right.
I am telling this now as i know i will not see any of the money to do the bumper again and fix the fook ups.
I got three quotes to get the bumper re-sprayed and foolishly went with the cheapest, i guess trying to ensure that i would get some back from the sh*t if i gave him a reasonable price.
so this cheapest quote was 200 pound dropped the car off, got the job done and had to drop it straight off at the detailers to do all the corrective work. he rang me up and said Tom there is no-way you should accept this, its one of the worst spray jobs i have ever seen.
and here it is.
Went back and demanded my money back, and he said i know my rights you have got to give me a try and fix it. So after some negotiating i decided to let him try again only if he took the bumper off and i would drive the car home bumperless to make sure they didn't fook up my freshly finished corrective detail.
Took the car in on Monday with my balls in my mouth, and he said look here is your money back, i dont think we can achieve the standard you are after.
Well after 2 months of this mess and time off work trying to sort it out,i finally found a brilliant body shop, and the job they have done makes the paint from the factory look poor it literally is perfect.
Sorry for putting you lot through this but The 2 things i hate most in life have been around me lately.
And they are people who show no respect at all, and cant even find one minute in the day to return a call from an a grieved customer.
But more than that People foooooking with my lovely GTI
