Insurance / Body Shop Dilemma after Wreck

Man what a hassle. What year car is this? Have you owned it since new? I’m only asking because I wonder if there were prior repairs done that got uncovered or if this shop is really just that incompetent. Good luck and if a direct repair shop was used, stay on the insurance company.
 
It’s a 2017 bought new in 2018. Only been backed into when parked once before that cracked a little plastic, which body shop 1 repaired very well. It’s a tricky gray paint, and body shop 1 had a great reputation so I went straight back to them with this wreck.
 
Will shop 2 not meet with you and actually go over what's up?

I have some more thoughts but its been a very long day, i'll try to reply in the next few days with them.
 
Will shop 2 not meet with you and actually go over what's up?

I have some more thoughts but its been a very long day, i'll try to reply in the next few days with them.
They called and listed it to me. They were supposed to send it as an email but didn’t. I’m confused where the 2400 turned into 900 but I feel like they’re not going to be truthful about that. They’ve been very nice and not crappy at all about getting thrown into the middle of the mess, but also I get the feeling they don’t like being questioned. I called back immediately after thinking of a couple of questions. I didn’t want an aftermarket tail light…so I stated that. They said I don’t get to pick, my insurance only covers cheapest. I stated this isn’t my fault and my car should be restored to the way it was, all oem, when they replied that a used lamp is already on order. If that’s OEM I’m happier than with an aftermarket. They could’ve just said that right off the bat. I also said I thought there’d be structural damage or evidence of it being pulled, they said nope none at all besides the tail light pocket.

I’m also going out of town before they think they’ll finish it, so I talked to them about that. They’re annoyed by it. Insurance made me take it in and threatened they wouldn’t fix any mold issues if I had any unless I went and put the car in now…even though the leak has been going on since August. Now all the sudden there is urgency. I can’t help that I’ve had a trip planned for 6 months. I come home on a Tuesday after body shop closes and go to work on Wednesday at 4 am before they open so I was trying to work out a plan with them.

It’s sort of giving the vibe of “just be happy your car is getting fixed.”
 
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Will shop 2 not meet with you and actually go over what's up?

I have some more thoughts but its been a very long day, i'll try to reply in the next few days with them.
I did have a thought that the $24xx could’ve changed to $900 due to being written up initially COD or customer pay, then changing to insurance rates. Although I didn’t think it was that drastic of a difference when talking body / collision work (I know the mechanical side, so that’d be warranty vs COD which is about 100% different), it could be an explanation.

I tried to contact the body shop yesterday to get the estimate in email and talk about the price change. The advisor never called back and the receptionist sent me one of my old estimates that they got ahold of from body shop 1. Never responded to my follow up about trying to get their (body shop 2) estimate of what they’re doing to it now.
 
Sorry it took me a bit.

First of all some of what i say is a guess, it is an educated guess but still.

On the tail light - it's your car you always get to pick - it's just that your pick may have consequences like you have to pay the difference. I think you're right to prefer the recycled part. Often times new lamps stand out like a sore thumb, though it is more common with headlamps or clear lamps.

On the estimate - i do know how the systems work and I'm a little surprised you can see this kind of estimate at all. All of the systems have a preliminary and final estimate sort of function. Maybe since you cant see the actual estimate the dollar amount is something the insurance companies portal is deriving from who knows where. It's also possible, maybe even probable that the 2400.00 estimate has been split into two estimates one for additional damage and one for corrective damage.

So for instance if the tail light is broken and it is thought to be from the accident and the other shop was not paid for a taillight - then the insurance company would owe the new shop for that and cant make the old shop pay them back. if on the other hand they charged to repair and paint the taillight pocket but did not do so or did so poorly then the insurance company can charge them back. The estimate would need to be split for accounting purposes. I do not think the estimate went from 2400.00 to 800.00 for a pricing change for the same items.

These shops are probably rated and ranked heavily on metrics like cycle time and satisfaction, neither one of them wants you unhappy and neither one of them wants your car there a long time, sometimes though and most of the time with something like this in order to to complete the happy part it takes time. Much like repair facilities, i think sometimes the customer facing part of it is not as technically savy as we might think or hope.

if you can get your hands on the final bill from shop 1 and the corrective estimate or estimates from shop 2 and want to send them to me either by PM or by PMing me for an e-mail i'll try to refine my opinions / you can redact or scrub them of personal information.

RE-frame damage there are 4 basic types of frame damage. 2 of them are almost never present in a repairable unit body car those two are twist and diamond. Twist and diamond affect the center section of the frame. That leaves sidesway and sag. In very basic terms sidesway is right left and sag is up or down. i think if the gaps are good on the trunk and rear doors then its unlikely there is actual "frame damage". Cracked seam sealer is an indicator of movement in the structure, things like the trunk floor and rear body panel are likely Body-S or body structural parts, this stuff can move a lot in collisions, the real question is did it return to its original spot and is anything other than resealing necessary?

This sounds like a fairly minor collision you're dealing with, but there still could be secondary damage somewhere. if you watch some crash test videos you can see how damage can travel through a unit body.
 
Last time I had my car at a body shop, they took 3 months so I just left my car there and continued to use the rental until it was properly fixed. After 2 months either enterprise or insurance tried to bill me for the rental use past xx amount of days and I told them to pound sand and figure it out themself, it wasn't my fault the other person rear ended me.
 
Sorry it took me a bit.

First of all some of what i say is a guess, it is an educated guess but still.

On the tail light - it's your car you always get to pick - it's just that your pick may have consequences like you have to pay the difference. I think you're right to prefer the recycled part. Often times new lamps stand out like a sore thumb, though it is more common with headlamps or clear lamps.

On the estimate - i do know how the systems work and I'm a little surprised you can see this kind of estimate at all. All of the systems have a preliminary and final estimate sort of function. Maybe since you cant see the actual estimate the dollar amount is something the insurance companies portal is deriving from who knows where. It's also possible, maybe even probable that the 2400.00 estimate has been split into two estimates one for additional damage and one for corrective damage.

So for instance if the tail light is broken and it is thought to be from the accident and the other shop was not paid for a taillight - then the insurance company would owe the new shop for that and cant make the old shop pay them back. if on the other hand they charged to repair and paint the taillight pocket but did not do so or did so poorly then the insurance company can charge them back. The estimate would need to be split for accounting purposes. I do not think the estimate went from 2400.00 to 800.00 for a pricing change for the same items.

These shops are probably rated and ranked heavily on metrics like cycle time and satisfaction, neither one of them wants you unhappy and neither one of them wants your car there a long time, sometimes though and most of the time with something like this in order to to complete the happy part it takes time. Much like repair facilities, i think sometimes the customer facing part of it is not as technically savy as we might think or hope.

if you can get your hands on the final bill from shop 1 and the corrective estimate or estimates from shop 2 and want to send them to me either by PM or by PMing me for an e-mail i'll try to refine my opinions / you can redact or scrub them of personal information.

RE-frame damage there are 4 basic types of frame damage. 2 of them are almost never present in a repairable unit body car those two are twist and diamond. Twist and diamond affect the center section of the frame. That leaves sidesway and sag. In very basic terms sidesway is right left and sag is up or down. i think if the gaps are good on the trunk and rear doors then its unlikely there is actual "frame damage". Cracked seam sealer is an indicator of movement in the structure, things like the trunk floor and rear body panel are likely Body-S or body structural parts, this stuff can move a lot in collisions, the real question is did it return to its original spot and is anything other than resealing necessary?

This sounds like a fairly minor collision you're dealing with, but there still could be secondary damage somewhere. if you watch some crash test videos you can see how damage can travel through a unit body.
Thanks for all your thoughts.

The wreck felt way worse than the damage looked. License plate imprinted in my bumper cover, it popped the end of the cover off where it meets the wheel wells / quarter panels (slightly popped them off)

When (shop 2) told me they thought it looked like there will be structural damage, that they’d water test it then disassemble to inspect, I was happy they sounded like they’d get to the bottom of it and seemed to hav zero problem being thrown in the middle of this mess. When they called with no evidence of further damage, but the list included seam sealer, and I saw the 2400 turn into 8-900, it made me wonder if something shady was going on. But they have no incentive to be shady, and I’d like to think insurance has no reason to be shady either. I know for a fact insurance hassled the second body shop to get the car in and looked at asap, and to “just fix his car!” Because I’ve been a pain in everyone’s ass. I’m letting it drop that this car isn’t right.

Where I was seeing the $ amounts was straight from a link from the body shop. They texted me when I dropped off and I keep getting texts with links to their website that will tell me some generic “we’re looking at your car now” “here’s the estimate” and “repairs are going great”

The estimate was broken down into body, parts, paint and supplies, mechanical, etc but only $ amounts were visible to me.
 
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