Body Shop Nightmare

[sleddriver]

Originally Posted By: Propflux01
Next time (or this time if its still AFU), call State Farm. They are rough on body shops that they recommend if something's wrong with the repair.

My agent is a good guy and he was kept informed throughout. We talked this morning and I told him I would NEVER recommend this place to anyone. Period. He passed on this report to his staff.

 

[sleddriver]

Originally Posted By: Jarlaxle
I gotta ask: what was the rental?

Chevy Malibu. I was quite impressed with it actually. It did many things well. Very quiet over rough roads. Quick steering & brakes. No squeeks or rattles. Plenty of room (I'm 6'4"). Very good stereo w/ excellent AM reception, adjustable tone controls, and nice sound. What I didn't like was the limited glass, very thick A, B & C-pillars, and high rear deck making visibility to the rear and side very poor. It also seemed to hunt for gears when slowing down. First DBW throttle I've used. Noticed different response when backing up vs. fwd. Weird.

 

[sleddriver]

Originally Posted By: coolbird101
Great rant by the way.

Thanks. I don't usually, but this was too much. Hopefully someone here will heed my advice and INSPECT EVERYTHING before you pay them ANYTHING.

I didn't mention this but I also checked: My wipers, washers, alll turn signals, emergency flashers, headlight low & High, horn, and parking lights to verify everything was hooked back up and working.

They evac'd my A/C and I forgot to check that. Driving home, it was cool ~ 60°, but not cold. I thought I might have to add some gas. Then after about 30min. it dropped down to 40°, where it usually is. Maybe it was all in the accumulator? Don't know. It's been very cold since.

 

[sleddriver]

Originally Posted By: Ken2
sleddriver did two things very right--

He carefully inspected the job. YOU GET WHAT YOU INSPECT, NOT WHAT YOU EXPECT.

And he did not accept the shoddy job. He continued to demand that they get the job done more or less right, and he worked his way up the corporate ladder.

Thank you. I think your words of wisdom are right on! That's a good one to remember.

No doubt their feet are still hot. Maybe they'll think twice. Maybe not. I wasn't going to let them get away with treating me like a fool. I think they were rather baffled with a guy who works on his own car and knows better. I intend to post my review on some local feedback/customer sites.

 

[MinamiKotaro]

Originally Posted By: JethroBodine
Originally Posted By: sleddriver
Then next, for some unexplicable reason, he puts his truck in reverse and starts to back-up! Despite my horn-honking, his bumper hits my driver side headlight, bends the hood up and crumples the driver side sheetmetal panel (fender? front qrtr panel?) between my door and the bumper.

.....sorry...I have nightmares about that happening to me.


Happened to my Mom when I was little. The person in front of us at a stop sign put it in reverse and backed up, despite Mom blowing her horn like mad. When he hit us, Mom got out to yell at him.

Mom: "Why were you backing up?"
Guy: "I don't know." (Yes, that was his actual answer.)
Mom: "Didn't you hear my horn?"
Guy: "I thought you were blowing at someone else."

 

[antiqueshell]

Originally Posted By: sleddriver

No doubt their feet are still hot. Maybe they'll think twice. Maybe not. I wasn't going to let them get away with treating me like a fool. I think they were rather baffled with a guy who works on his own car and knows better. I intend to post my review on some local feedback/customer sites.


Thanks for relating your tale of terrible service from another crooked shop!

Do keep them squirming, make sure they KNOW about your internet posts, just make sure to keep them accurate.

These places need to know that they WILL suffer dearly and lose business if they continue to screw the customer.

 

[RobS]

Seems this kind of story is the norm and not the exception to the rule. I know of virtually 0 body shops in my local area I would trust for even anything minor.
At least the paintwork came out well. Most body shops by me shoot a gallon of peel with enough dirt in it to build a sand castle, or try wetsanding and leave more block sanding tracers/DA pigtails then untouched area. Worst off is most of these 'scuff and buff' jobs I see end up sanding the paint(relatively) flat excluding the last inch or two at the end of panels. Really poor work around here. I've needed bumper repair on my current car for a while and have pretty much lost hope. I'd rather have cracked up original paint then the junk most of these locals put out.

 

[threeputtpar]

I should consider myself extremely lucky that my father likes to hang out at a local body shop that he went to high school with the owner. When I had to have the A6 fixed when my MIL backed into it, he was there every day to see what they were doing and actually helped with some of the prep work. No shenanigans on my car as he inspected everything they did. They matched the paint perfectly. The price was quite nice, too.

 

[sleddriver]

Update: I found something else they screwed up...the cruise control system no longer functions. I didn't think to test that one. I'll be fixing it myself....