That to me looks like they have compressed only the upper half instead of the whole spring, if the original spring was a progressive rate, it would mean the lower loops are softer than the upper loops. They have left no room for movement in the upper loops at all having completely closed the loops like that, so that effectively means that you are only using the lower loops which are softer, that is why the car has an odd floating feel because now the spring rate in actual use is lower than what you had when the springs first went in. That looks so dodgy, who did that? I can also see the wire you mentioned earlier.
Have a look at this pic of my rear spring and you can see the difference.
See how the loops aren't touching except for the top one.