White's Bodyworks, Hassocks

Took a VW car there 3rd March 2021 for a large dent around rear wheel. Estimate 18hrs plus materials. Work commenced 15th March. Got photos. 16th March: "18hrs so far", plus consumables £198, "hoping to finish today" 18th March: "36hrs labour plus 620 extras" 18th March: I sent email querying the doubling. 18th March: my email: "We are not going to pay more than 3.5k including VAT. Even that is double your original estimate." 1st April: "40hrs to date" 7th April: "ready for collection tomorrow" 8th April: very poor job seen, problems visible from 10 yards away, bad filling, wrong colour white paint. We offered him the option of re-doing the whole thing, which he accepted. 19th April "just finishing the repair" 5th May: "primed and ready for painting. We’re just waiting for the primer to fully cure prior to topcoating" 5th May: "definitely next week" 11th May: "Please arrange collection for Thursday lunchtime" 18th May: "your car will be ready tomorrow" 19th May: visited, respraying door as well due to damage in shop 20th May: finally collected, looks ok, door handle badly reassembled. £3500 paid, for a job which other body repair people said was worth half that. Under the bonnet and all other not immediately visible areas was a thick layer of grime, all over everything. In my opinion, won't use this outfit again.

White"s bodywork"s fixed my leaking tank and repainted it. I should be pleased but at a quoted £2,500, this was extortionate, even given the hours of restoration invoiced for. The proprietor works on a "deposit- by -stages" basis. He assured me on the phone that overall cost would be ballpark £800. (He will vehemently deny on the phone quotes are given but this is what I asked for and got). Paint good quality but having argued and agreed a "get it back for" price of nearly £2000 I was disappointed by the non-colour matching attempt despite providing a sample. You can have an entire motorcycle painted for less than this. The paint match was something the vendor assured me was possible within reason. It was many shades out, covered in thick shop dust and the excuser I got was "we could not scan sample piece" A horror to deal with, Phil will gladly take your money until you are bled dry, Anywhere else must be better.

I took my 1952 vintage Lambretta to this place for a minor repair to the kick-start prior to putting it up for auction. The scooter was absolutely impeccable, spotlessly clean and lovingly cared for prior to auction. When it was collected from White's, it had been left outdoors and was filthy. No document was provided on collection to prove that any work was actually carried out, or to justify the outrageous cost. Due to the up-coming auction date, the Lambretta was taken as it was and delivered to Bonhams, so I had no opportunity to test it. Both my partner and I called White's several times very politely, and were told that invoices were done once a week, please to be patient "till the following Monday". However nothing happened and as soon as he recognised my number, and then my partner's number, it became totally impossible to contact this man. Consequently, although I provided the auctioneers with the scooter's full history, I had no invoice for this repair. Naturally the auctioneers had to check it, but they gave me no feedback and it sold for considerably less than what they had anticipated for me. This business does NOT comply with legal trading standards and should NOT be used. My report written on White's Facebook page has been deleted, and all written messages have been ignored. Confirm everything written by John Sell here last month, and will be writing similar reviews everywhere possible. I can only imagine that all the 5-star reviews are phoney.

An absolute shambles of a company, and without doubt the worst owner of a company I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. I employed Phil White of Whites Bodyworks to repair a clutch and choke on my 1966 Vespa scooter. He had the bike for over 6 months before I had to collect out of despair. When I collected the bike it was in a disgraceful state. He took thousands of pounds off me for doing hardly any works at all. The clutch isn't repaired and the bike was covered in dust and sludge! Throughout the 6 months experience of trying to liaise with Phil he continually avoided my phone calls, and text messages. Whenever I did manage to trick him into answering he used the same lie every time that the guy working on my bike was away, or self isolating. He is a crook and I would urge anyone considering using this company to avoid at all costs.

Needed Phil and his team to take a look at a classic Morris Minor, circa 1950, and give me a quote on the work that needed to be done. The good thing about White’s Bodyworks is that they won’t blind you with science and they’ll be honest with you. There was work that needed doing on the engine and some parts that might have been difficult to source but the guys at White’s Bodyworks bent over backwards to find what it needed. Phil has some great connections among classic car lovers and a great deal of personal knowledge. You can tell the team enjoy tinkering around with old cars and bikes more than anything else. Great job done in the end, thanks for all the hard work.

Phil White accepted a repair and respraying job for the cycle parts of my Kawasaki GPz550 and took a £1000 deposit for the work in Aug 2015. In spite of repeated requests for progress reports through October 2015 to February 2016 I got nothing but stonewalling and excuses. I terminated the contract in March 2016 and collected the parts but was refused a refund due to work supposedly completed by a graphics sub-contractor. No invoices or evidence of the work were forthcoming and in spite of repeated requests for settlement, I heard nothing from Phil. I had to resort to a small claims court case to get my money back. Even with a CCJ against him, Phil White failed to pay the money he owed and it required a warrant and two visits from a bailiff before he settled the debt in September 2016. What a star! Take your business elsewhere if you have any sense.

I paid £84 for them to collect my Buell. Once collected Phil White was to do a condition report and then we could discuss renovation.They never did collect it and failed to turn up 3 times. I cancelled and Phil White refused to refund, he then stopped answering the phone. I gave him 14 days to refund, he still didn't. I took out a Court Order against him and he still refused to pay, then offered less than full amount. Then offered full amount but I'm still waiting.... If he can't afford to refund £84 would you trust him to do the work properly?

I recently had an incident involving a tight parking space and too much speed. The result of the incident was a badly scratched bumper (and an undamaged concrete bollard). I took the car down to White's Bodyworks in Bolney, West Sussex and had Phil White (the owner/operator) take a look. One very reasonable quote and a few days later I had the car back good as new. Not only was the repair greater than I could have hoped for, the service was above and beyond what I had expected. Another little perk to visiting Phil's garage was the array of classics undergoing refurb.. Thanks again Phil :)