How to hire
Match the shop to the damage first. A full-scale accident repair centre owns bent panels, chassis alignment, welded repairs and full resprays, with jigs, spray booths and paint-mixing schemes on site. A SMART repairer handles small scuffs, chips and bumper corners at your home or workplace. A wheel specialist only touches alloys. Sending structural damage to a cosmetic operator, or a kerbed wheel to a full bodyshop, wastes everyone's time, so describe the damage honestly in the first message.
Telford adds its own wrinkles to the job. The borough holds eight conservation areas, including the Severn Gorge and Wellington, where the council looks harder at changes that affect historic character [9]. That rarely touches the repair itself, but it matters for access: Gorge streets and older terraces leave little room for a mobile rig or a recovery truck, so describe your parking in the first message. If your plans include a new driveway or dropped kerb for the repaired car, that crossing needs council approval as a vehicle access, with its own form and inspection route [8].
Check approvals before you book. Search the IMI Professional Register for the business name to see its current professional standing [2]. If a bodyshop advertises BSI Kitemark approval for vehicle body repair, ask for the certificate behind the claim and check it with BSI [1]. Manufacturer approvals live on the firm's own site, so read exactly which brands are named rather than taking the claim at face value. Where a site claims no registration at all, treat that as information, not a failing, since body repair has no mandatory register.
Decide whether to claim or pay yourself. Compare your policy excess against the likely repair cost first: drivers often find repairs below a few hundred pounds better funded privately once future premiums are counted [4]. An insurer will usually steer you to its approved network, but you can generally still choose your own repairer and have the insurer deal with them direct. Tell the bodyshop upfront which route you are taking, since claim work and private work are estimated and authorised differently.
A typical private job runs the same course from first contact to sign-off. You open with daylight photos, the registration and an honest account of the damage, and the shop responds with its estimate route: online form, phone call or a visit. The estimate turns into an itemised figure, you compare two or three on the same scope, and the chosen shop confirms a start date with the final figure in an email or on headed paper. The repair itself needs no supervision beyond one agreed pause to authorise hidden extras, and sign-off is a daylight walk-round with the invoice and guarantee changing hands.
Get two or three itemised written quotes on the same scope, with clear photos and the registration sent to each firm. Every quote should separate labour, parts, paint and materials, state whether VAT is included or added, give a timescale and a collection date, and say what happens about a courtesy car. Ask whether parking sensors, cameras and driver-assistance systems are recalibrated where the bumper comes off, since skipped calibration can wipe out the saving on a low quote [4]. Keep every quote until the work is signed off.
The written quote should name the car, list each operation with parts and paint, state whether VAT is included or added, give start and collection dates, and set out courtesy-car and recalibration arrangements where sensors come off with the bumper [4] [10]. At the end, the file should hold the invoice matching the quote, the written guarantee with its length and exclusions, and — where servicing or an MOT came with the job — the MOT result with advisories, checkable on the official history service [6]. Keep photos, quotes, invoice and guarantee together, since a snag raised with the full file behind it is far easier to settle [3].
Before work starts, get the final figure, the parts list and the paint and guarantee terms in writing on headed paper or in a dated email. Accident repairs should come with a written guarantee, so keep the invoice with it. If servicing or an MOT is bundled in, as at a combined garage, the MOT result and any advisories come on their own paperwork, and you can check the expiry yourself on the official MOT history service [6]. Photograph every panel in daylight before you hand over the keys.
Collect in daylight and walk every panel before you pay the balance: colour match along the flank, panel gaps, overspray on trims and glass, and warning lights for sensors and cameras on the drive home. Raise any snag with the firm straight away and give it a fair chance to put the work right. If you cannot agree, the Motor Ombudsman runs a Service and Repair Code with a resolve-a-dispute route [3], and Citizens Advice sets out your options for faulty car repairs [7].
Pricing
As of autumn 2026, rough Telford ranges run like this: a small dent repaired without repainting, often called paintless dent removal, typically lands between £75 and £200 [4] [5]. A dented panel that needs filling and paint usually costs between £220 and £450 [4]. Treat these as planning figures rather than quotes, since no two dents bill alike.
Bumpers price by damage: light scuffs sit around £100 to £200 and dents roughly £150 to £300, while a cracked bumper heads toward £400 and a full replacement can reach four figures [4] [5]. A single alloy-wheel refurbishment typically costs £75 to £150 plus VAT, with diamond-cut finishes at the top end [5].
Paint moves the price most: untouched paint means paintless repair, while broken paint means filling, priming and blending into neighbouring panels. Dent size and position matter, since creases on body lines and aluminium panels take longer, and damage around sensors or cameras can add recalibration [4]. Main-dealer paint systems and courtesy cars also show up in the bill.
Ask whether VAT is included, since some published figures add it on top [5]. None of the six firms in this round publishes a price list, so your written quote is the price: scope, parts, paint, timescale, guarantee and payment terms, all agreed before work starts. Keep it with the invoice.
Bumper-off work carries a quiet extra where sensors travel with the plastic. Parking sensors, cameras and radar units sit in grilles, badges and covers, and manufacturers call for recalibration whenever those parts are disturbed, even where no warning light shows [10]. Camera calibration alone typically starts near two hundred pounds, radar runs higher, and a combined reset can pass five hundred [11]. Your quote should say plainly whether that figure sits inside the bumper price or lands on top.
Where the work happens moves the price too. A mobile SMART repair for a small scuff or chip avoids booth time and usually undercuts a bodyshop figure for the same mark, while a panel that needs oven time, blending and curing has no sensible driveway equivalent. Three-stage pearlescent and matte finishes also bill above solid colours for materials and time. The rule holds throughout: compare itemised figures on identical scope, since a low headline without paint, VAT or calibration alongside it is not the same job [4] [5].
Red flags
Quotes a respray or structural repair without seeing the car or asking for photos and the registration.
Claims Kitemark or manufacturer approval but shows no certificate or listing you can check [1] [2].
Asks for full payment in cash before starting, with no written quote or terms.
Gives one fixed price with no breakdown of labour, parts, paint and VAT.
Will not put the scope, price and collection date in writing before starting.
Starts cutting, filling or ordering parts before you have agreed the price.
Dodges questions about the guarantee, the VAT position or what happens if the colour match is off.
Refuses a daylight inspection or a short test drive before you pay the balance.
Cannot say whether bumper-off work includes sensor recalibration or who carries it out.