TL;DR Had my leather replaced on my driver's seat, they did a poor job, I 'accepted' the work, but it has deteriorated since, and I want to know what I can do now, skip to the break.
About 4-5 Months ago I decided to get the leather changed on my driver's seat of my BMW.
I ordered genuine OEM leather seat cover from BMW, because I wanted to make sure it would look good. Given my past experience with automotive seating, I contemplated fitting it myself. However, not being at all familiar with BMW seats, I was afraid that I could get some things wrong, for example break the plastic clips on the trim pieces, which I definitely did not want to do, and I was hoping for an immaculate job, so instead I decided to get it done professionally.
I rang BMW Brighton (VIC) to ask how much for them to do it, they said they just outsource that kind of work to Blackman's Leather in Moorabbin.
So, to cut out the middle man, I gave them a call, arranged it and got it done.
Got the seat back, and it looked horrible. They said they couldn't do the best job possible, because I left them just the seat, without the car, and so they couldn't move the seat on its rails to gain full access underneath (it's an electric seat), and they couldn't unfold the seat from the folded position (it's a 2-door, when you fold the seat forward to access the rear seats), even though this does not require any electrics. Seems they are not the BMW specialists they claim to be.
One piece of palstic trim was loose as they had cracked the retension clips, another plastic trim had screwdriver marks from where they had levered it off.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a179/doridoriking/2.jpg
But this is besides the point of this thread, I am just venting that I paid all this money, when I could have probably done a better job myself…
This was among many other things, like the leather being loose in some areas and tight in others…
Anyway, I rang them and asked if they could fix it, if I gave them the car, after discussing he asked 'who is going to pay for this work?'. Anyway, took it back and asked them to fix it, they said, they couldn't really do MUCH more, but they would try. It did look a bit better, they managed to fix about a third of the things I had issue with. They didn't charge me anything.
One of the things they couldn't fix were the 'tiedowns' which is the stitching that runs across the seat insert, even though I asked explicitly.
The following image is an example you can see the 'valley' or depression that is created, this is actually created buy pulling the stitch line back into the seat foam. IE. While the seat cover is being fitted to the seat foam, and it is not a result of the stiching itself.
http://www.themotorreport.com.au/content/image/2/0/2010_rena…
But I'd had enough by this point, and I accepted the 'fix', and I guess, that would imply that our transaction had been settled in commercial terms, I'm not sure.. But I'll come back to this.
Now, my seat only had a very subtle valley AFTER they replaced the seat cover, no where near as pronounced as the passenger's seat (or the image above). Now some time has passed the leather has contracted (as is normal over time), and the 'valley' is gone, and the leather is just flat here. And it looks funny compared to the other seat. I suspect they did not actually secure these tiedowns to the foam.
My question to the OzB community is, what can I do here? Do I have any recourse to take this back to him, and say "it did not stand up to normal use, and is not representative in appearance to what I paid you to do" sort of a 'warranty'? And either ask him to fix it (at his expense), or my money back? If the latter, am I entitled to get a full refund? As if I take this seat to another place to get these tiedowns fixed, which I will have to, as he has told me he does not have the ability to fix it, then I will probably be charged the full amount, as it will involve pretty much a full strip down of the seat again.
Now, in addition to what my rights are, I would also like to ask how others would approach it. For example, he will say he can't fix it. What do I say "In that case I will be requesting a full refund"? or "What can you offer me as compensation"? Looking for advice on exactly how to word it. Or I was thinking, "If I take it to another upholstered, and he can fix it?" "Well.. then, um… yeah… ". And if another upholsterer can indeed fix it, then I could take the quote to him, and say, "Fix it or I want my money back" ?
Open to ideas here.
On a side note, he was a bit more reasonable to speak to in person, but he was very dismissive, speaking in a very matter of fact way, kind of 'we're professionals on this topic, we're right, you shouldn't be questioning us'. Despite that, I will still take the fight to him.
This has been annoying me so much since it happened, and would like to put it behind me, but I would like to know that I have done everything I can, instead of 'should have, could have' for ever…
Thank you all so much in advance, any input will be greatly appreciated.
If you have read everything up to this point, then I thank you for your time.
EDIT: Formatting
The problem is it's going to be hard proving that the work they did is faulty, or get an expert to sign a statement to say the work wasn't completed satisfactory. here is a very old post of mine explaining how the CTTT works. Even if you do "win" at the CTTT, it could just be to rectify the issue, putting you back to square 1.
Personally i think you need to keep taking it back until it's done properly. Being there in person is going to concern other customers, so they might be more inclined to help.
There will come a point where it's just not feasible to continually chase it, so you'll need to cut your losses and walk.