Body Shops who cut corners

[Carnoobie]

Ive been doing some shadowing (cause I love cars) for the past 4 days at one of the busiest shops here (60 bays), yesterday was my last day. And Im shocked how much shops cut corners on customers cars. I understand theyre getting hit right now with about 40 cars taken in daily but that does not mean you have to rush out jobs just for the sake of getting them out.

Staff taking customers cars for 20min joyrides to get coffee when theyre test driving or parking it, unacceptable. Being hard on the trans and shifting gears when car is still moving (ex. throw into D while car is moving back)

Some of the cars and complaints coming back are just unacceptable. From the 4 days of shadowing ive seen so far first hand, bunch of half a$$ jobs, rushed jobs, incomplete jobs, other mistakes left, screws/bolts left out, scratches from staff, panels not completely lined up, jesus. Not a shop I would take my car thats forsure. When this shop is packed its all about quantity over quality and getting each car in and out as fast as possible even if they have to cut corners.

In just 4 days at least 1 customer come back with. Imagine a month!
- new scratches that were there before, so they had to rebuff it out
- trunk dented that wasnt there before
- door on one side had a bigger gap than the other
- trunk lining wasnt put back in
- few clips left off from bumper install
- scratches left on passenger window
- installed defective new windshield
- overspray on a fender
- clearcoat wasnt put on a door all the way to the very edge
- sloppy paint job on a trunk that get this...it wasnt painted all the way to the edge so instead of taping it off re-doing it
the guy just used a paint brush and manually painted the edge himself cause the customer was able to see brush strokes and some bubbles. Ridiculous. Lets just say none of these customers were very happy picking up their cars and finding out new problems were left.

People arent stupid, they know what to look for when they pick up their cars.

-

 

[supton]

What shop is this? Shop on the corner?

Sometimes one gets what one pays. The lowest bidder often is low for a reason.

 

[SLCraig]

You have to post a pic of what a shop with 60 bays looks like, I don't think I've ever seen such a thing.

Also, the work you describe sadly happens everywhere.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Shadowing? The shop just let you hang around them for 4 days while you looked at what they're doing? Were you wearing your invisible suit?

 

[Stanley Rockafeller]

Originally Posted By: supton
What shop is this? Shop on the corner?

Sometimes one gets what one pays. The lowest bidder often is low for a reason.


You'd be suprised how often stuff like this happens. I also worked in an autobody shop in Calgary Alberta that also had a mechanical repair division. It was amazing how much stuff came back for repairs....just stupid stuff too. You could tell that there was no care or concern for people's cars. This was just another opportunity to gouge the customer again by stating that those problems were not there when the car left, and that they should pay again. My boss got VERY angry with me since I didn't want to rip off one particular customer who was clearly not at fault for the damages incurred thru our shop. That was the last sraw, I walked off the job shortly thereafter.

This shop also stored a few high end customer cars incl. Ford GT40, porsche GT-something or other, BMW Z8 etc. They have been in business for MANY years too.

 

[Stanley Rockafeller]

On one particular occaision, a customer had their Hyundai Accent in for some front end collision damage repairs. She understood that she'd need anew rad. etc and was fully aware that insurance was going to cover the cost of everything.

Shortly after she picked up the car, later tha tday the engine overheats. Turns out the hose clamp was not installed on the lower had hose (just a friction fit), so as soon as that car got up to operating temp, the hose slipped off and coolant went everywhere! You could imagine how angry the customer's husband was to see this shoddy work

 

[MaximusD]

Took my car in after a deer hit. Didn't connect a coupler for rad fan, installed broken diver side mirror, didn't replace hood insulator, didn't replace stickers for routing the serp belt and hoses... Took it back and said "try again". 14k and 2 months...this is what I get? Took it up the chain and all was made right.

 

[carwreck]

Originally Posted By: Carnoobie
Ive been doing some shadowing (cause I love cars) for the past 4 days at one of the busiest shops here (60 bays), yesterday was my last day. ...
Ridiculous.

Since you work there (according to the "Mayosandwich" version of the story at forums.redflagdeals) in Calgary, and you know so much about cars, why don't you show them the proper repair procedures ?

 

[bepperb]

When our Accord had 8000 in damage I asked our tow truck driver where he would take his car, and he had quite a few places he thought did good work. So I asked him where he would take it if he wasn't paying, and then he only had one recommendation. And they did a fantastic job. But wow, they are almost twice what any other shop charges (I have since gone back for something else).

I had to take that bumper off to replace it a year or so later and I was impressed by the work they did. They must go through a china marker per day per worker.

But I can also see a lot of people don't want to pay for this level of service. To be honest an arbor fell on our Highlander, I took it to my good place and it was going to be ~2500 on a car only worth about 7500 dollars. So yeah, we didn't get it done there.

 

[JTK]

I dread having to get any type of major collision or mechanical work done. There's always going to be guesswork and things getting missed. Shops see something new every day as opposed to years ago when the same body/chassis/mechanicals were used for years.

 

[Cristobal]

There was once a Mercury Insurance preferred provider shop in my town. They were using a single body man to service a huge number of cars. He was an undocumented alien who the shop manager would curse out, and yell at him to work faster, right in front of customers. At other times he did have a helper, but so understaffed, there were tons of mistakes.

I found out all these things when my own car needed repairs there. Hundreds of customer cars had to be repaired all over again by Mercury and the new preferred provider shop when the old one went out of business.

I later found out that the owner of the first shop had serious "Vegas gambling debts." That was why all that nonsense at his business was going on.

 

[The_Jeff]

This place sounds awesome! I hope you got some pictures. Please share.

 

[R2d2]

You sound like a stalker Carnoobie, if you spent as much time looking for a job you'd be sitting pretty right now.

 

[2Fast4U]

The more things you are able to do yourself the better. Granted body is pretty hard for any DIY'er. Do not think I will ever have a shop change my oil afterthey tried to drive my car off the lift.

 

[antiqueshell]

Originally Posted By: R2d2
You sound like a stalker Carnoobie, if you spent as much time looking for a job you'd be sitting pretty right now.


I'm beginning to agree.

I have repeatedly made very valid recommendations to this person and yet instead of using EVERY spare second he has to improve his situation in life,(looking for a full time job, or joining the Canadian Armed Forces, moving out of his mom and dad's house into a room, ect) Here he is writing long winded posts on BITOG.

 

[tommygunn]

Quote:
Ive been doing some shadowing (cause I love cars) for the past 4 days at one of the busiest shops here (60 bays),


Defusing the insanity that is Carnoobie is as easy as word substitution.

Quote:
Ive been doing some shadowing (cause I love her) for the past 4 days at one of the prettiest girls houses here,

 

[Kruse]

Originally Posted By: antiqueshell
Here he is writing long winded posts on BITOG.


Yea, but you gotta admit that as long as it's not taken too serious, it's entertaining.
To keep it on topic, I've taken a car to a body shop for some front end damage and they didn't replace one of the headlight assemblies. It was in the paperwork that they did, but they did not. Anyway, you could put your finger on the plastic headlight cover and just lift it up and down about an inch and rattle it. I'm not sure how they could have ever adjusted the headlight. Well, as a matter-of-fact, I know they couldn't have. Anyway, I called my insurance man again, ran it to the body shop again and this time they put in a new one.

 

[bdcardinal]

There are good body shops, there are really bad body shops. Usually the bad ones put on a good facade of looking good.

The bad ones will send us cars a lot to have stuff fixed under warranty that were obviously damaged in an accident, most likely to make more money on the insurance company. Odds are a rear fender arch moulding did not just "fall off on its own" when there is a wedge dent in the rear fender and there are broken clips all around.

 

[whip]

If Carnoobie post, I'm reading it!

 

[yonyon]

Originally Posted By: tommygunn
Quote:
Ive been doing some shadowing (cause I love cars) for the past 4 days at one of the busiest shops here (60 bays),


Defusing the insanity that is Carnoobie is as easy as word substitution.

Quote:
Ive been doing some shadowing (cause I love her) for the past 4 days at one of the prettiest girls houses here,



As such:
I may be misunderstanding this, but I think the shadowing that Carnoobie is talking about is sort of a half way between an interview and an internship. Basically they let him hang around and be a tagalong with one of the techs. Ostensibly it's a sort of a reverse interview whereby he gets to evaluate the shop and decide if he wants to take a job there on a purely commission/flat rate basis. They don't pay him, but, should he get the hang of how things work and take the initiative to start doing real work he's guaranteed a job there and can potentially negotiate a decent arrangement if he shows a lot of potential.

As such:
Originally Posted By: [censored
]Ive been doing some shadowing (cause I love her) for the past 4 days at one of the prettiest girls houses here,

Should be:
Originally Posted By: corrected [censored
]Ive been shadowing one of the prettiest girls (cause I love her) best friend for the past 4 days