Times are hard for a lot of people right now, not just me. But just my luck, at the worst possible time when money was at an all time low, I was the victim of Catalytic convertor theft. The thieves came twice. The first time they came I caught them jacking up my car in the day time and managed to chase them off with a chair leg.
I don't know if the same thieves came again, it could have been different people altogether for all I know. Because the second time around I never seen or heard a thing. So I presume they came like the true rats that they are, scurrying around in the middle of the night.
The old, super reliable low mileage Yaris. Sadly, this car no longer exists.
The first I knew that my Catalytic convertor had been stolen from my older model Yaris (can't even own an X reg Yaris these days) was when I went out to it one night to run a quick errand. I started the car and instantly knew the CAT was gone. It sounded like a tractor. I got out and looked underneath to confirm and my heart sank.
Like I said, my money was extremely low, and this theft actually resulted in me having to give up driving after 16 years on the road. Thanks lads. I couldn't afford to get the Catalytic convertor replaced. And if I borrowed the money from someone, what's to say it wouldn't be robbed again in a few months.
I mean, same car, same parking space. They've already tried twice, succeeded once. All It would take for the thief would be a quick look underneath the car to see if the part had been replaced, and if I never seen them it would be taken again. It literally takes 2 minutes to steal.
And I certianly didn't have the money to buy another car. So either way, off to the scrapman it was. I tried all the UK websites that offer the instant quotes / prices etc. Some of the prices were extremely low. A few were acceptable and I did accept some of them, filled out all my details etc, but they either never got back to me, or gave me the run around. They ended up being a waste of time.
So I went and had a look on TrustPilot and found a few that had very good review scores. I made contact with them all, and thought to myself -the best price and the quickest response will get the car. That ended up being removemycar.co.uk.
This company did not mess around. The price they offered was much higher than everyone elses, and as soon as I accepted their offer they had me booked in with a date and time that the recovery truck would be coming round to collect the car.
Like other companies that provide this service, I believe removemycar.co.uk use certain scrap / salvage dealers depending on where you are located in the UK. So for me they used a salvage company that operates in the Wolverhampton, Birmingham and surrounding areas.
For me that ended up being the Alexander Brothers. And they were excellent. I'd read many horror story reviews online that people had left for other dealers, mostly on TrustPilot, so was a bit concerned.
Things like, the dealer agrees a price but then starts haggling to a ridiculously low price when they arrive if they see a flaw with the car that they can exploit. Even when the flaw was declared before a deal was reached online. That was a common complaint. Or they don't arrive at the time specified, if at all.
Well, thankfully that didn't happen to me. The Alexander Brothers were stand up guys. I'd already told removemycar that my car had no Catalytic convertor due to it being stolen, and the quote price was based on that part being missing.
And when the recovery truck driver from Alexander Brothers came to pick up the car he was bang on the time agreed. He was a good guy very helpful and there was no haggling with the price at all. After the car was loaded on the recovery truck we sorted out the paper work (V5) / bank details for payment etc, and within 15 minutes the money was in my account.
If you're in the Birmingham / Wolverhampton area and want to scrap your car, even if you don't want to use the middle man company (removemycar.co.uk) I'd give these guys a call first and see what they will offer. They literally paid me more than double the price of what all the other scrappers were willing to pay.
I'm not sure if there prices may be a bit lower now than they were a few months ago, as scrap prices are always changing. For all I know they might be higher right now. And the other good thing about these guys other than them paying the best price is they are professional. They don't mess about. At least not in my experience with them.
If you want to get a quote directly from the Alexander Bros Metal Recycling Ltd, you can do so by phoning them on: 01902 608354. They are based in Willenhall (WV13 1EJ).
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