Any one work or had work done by them wat are they like is there much work out there for mobile car repair and for people who hace brought the franchise wat was it like does it work and is it a good buisness invest

 

i have seen chips away work and its not been the best !! also great if you can do paint work out side in the summer but what about the eleven months of the year when its raining and cold best leave it to the big boys with the proper body shops i think

 

Can't comment on them personnally but bodywork is a shit business to be in,so much to go wrong,spiralling material costs,people with a lack of disposable income are certainly not prioritising getting dents and scuffs done on the car.
Tbh you really need a premises as getting a good paint finish at the side of a carlots gonna be nigh on impossible.
You'd be better off IMO just refurbing alloys and taking dents out,stay away from scuffs and scratches as that way round you can't really go wrong as if the dents too bad in the first place then the garage is not going to be too disappointed if it doesn't work out,their taking a gamble after all.
I'm speaking from experience regarding the paintside as I had my own place,it was hideous,really hard game to make money in as there's just so much to go wrong and the job always turns out to be 10X worse than you think!!!
Be very careful of these franchise things as they always promise loads and offer little in my experience.
To judge your target market,which I would say will be mainly 2nd hand dealers,I would spend a morning ringing round them asking on average what they pay to get a dent removed,how often they use the service etc and is it something they'd use in the future.
This was the type of research I never bothered with my business and it cost me dear.
Iirc most traders pay Ł30 a dent/ding without paint,factor in your fuel and material costs as about 1/2 of that so Ł15 in your bin,if your like me you'll need about Ł4/500pw to pay your bills and keep a decent standard of living so that's a lot of regular work.
Could be a tough thing to do in this climate.

 

Thats some great advice cheers been reading alot about it but as you mentioned they promise alot just been thinking of achange in scenry been doing pvcu windows doors and facias and soffits for nearly 9 years just seems like theres no money in anything anymore im self employed but fiding work is getting harder as its not recommendation any more its how cheap you are at doing it

 

I worked for Chips Away for nearly 5 years when they were fairly new in to this country.
I worked for a guy that owned the franchise and after the first couple of years he was constantly trying to get out of his contract with them. He had to buy all their own products and they promised him his own 'area' but 5 years later there were 5 different Chips Away franchisees in his 'area'
I continued to do smart repairs for another 7 or so years but found it increasingly difficult to compete with the competition, people doing bumper corners for Ł15!!!
I enjoyed it, and earned some pretty good money in the beginning but towards the end I was glad to get out.
As to what anyone's work is like, truthfully, it's a bit of a lottery! Some excellent, some terrible.
If you're looking into getting a franchise, my advice would be don't!
Do it for yourself.

 

Chips away are crap,ive seen a lot of the guys round here and there work is shite,i have a guy who does all my customers cars (hes mobile) and his work is realy good

( i can spot a painted panel a mile away)

And i can tell you now he is always VERY busy and makes some good money.

Hes also taken a guy on and equipped him with his own van.

If i could paint i would sack my work off in favour,but im shite so i wont be

 

Put it this way.... I would never have any work by a mobile repairer, most are shocking! My best mate is one too

 

They repaired a 19 inch snowflake on my vectra GSI a few years back...

he didnt do a bad job of the actual repair but managed to laquer the brake dust on the rest of the wheel to the wheel....

Had him back but told me he was to busy to sort it for me....

 

imo smart repairs are great for the average joes that see's a large nasty scratch or dent on there car 'disappear' which most probally dont really care about thier car or even clean it! i cant however see a smart repair being invisible on concourse paint work, infact would probally stick out like a sore thumb!

 

its a bit of a silly question really as they will be as good as the guy they send so you could have a total dim whit or some one really really good whos work is top class! i had a few bits painted for my r1 buy the chips away in basingstoke and was very happy they also had my rondells that are on my saff done for me and again a good job!

 

I agree, it's a lottery as to who you get. I have seen some terrible work, but, I have also seen concourse cars worked on and win trophies.

 

Seen some of their work and it's been very very good. Had my missus door done on her Clio afer a retard samcked their door against it in a car park. Very pleased with the finished result. It does seem hit and miss though with who you get as the guy that came to me was named and I was told to avoid the other chap at all costs

 

its all down to how good the guy is, Have seen good and very bad jobs by them and unless its a warm sunny day and the chap has a good rep then its bodyshop for me