Damn body shop!

[digger]

Some of ya may know. My 23 yr old took the keys to my pickup without me knowing it and ran it in the ditch.
Been a pain in the ass without a truck.
I had a rental, but it was a little Cobalt. Just not the same.
My old ass could barey get in it. Then after getting to my destination, I was having to roll out on the ground and pull myself up. Nobody will help in a situation like that, but it sure seems to make their day.

Got my truck back Monday. After a month.

First thing was a signal light out. Ya know how one bulb will be out and it will flash real fast? Don't know if it is a bulb, socket or something else.
Same day I notice a popping in the steering column. Shaft is bent on it.
Pop the hood today to try to fix the signal. They didn't even try to cover up the fact it had been wrecked. Can tell where the fenders were adjusted because of the bare metal next to the bolts.
Foggy as hell tonight after work. I'm just talking crap, tell the guys I'm going to have a time getting home with one headlight pointing in the trees and on on the ground...
Sure enough, was a bitch getting home. They put 30 minutes on the bill for adjusting the headlights! The bill says 15 minutes for the foglights... Glad I didn't try to use them.

I know it won't ever be the same. Just looks like they are going to try to get by with as little as they can.

 

[Rolex]

If the repairs were done by a licensed shop, and they were paid by an insurance company, you need to let your insurance carrier know what they did...or didn't do.
There's no way you should get it back in shoddy shape.

 

[sweetdiesel]

I'd take it back and get them to fix it correctly asap before they blame it on you. Did insurance cover this or did you have to pay out of pocket?

 

[Mel*E*Mel]

Well sorry to hear you had a bad deal.. but alot of it has to do with the ins companys themselves..
if the shop you went to is flat rate then you get what the ins company pays for nothing more..
you don't like working for free do you?
Even tho they paid to have the lights adjusted that was a raw deal time should have been taken to make that right , but sometimes they just don't pay for things and I'm not a big fan of working for nothing so if they don't pay to have it done it doesn't get done..
sorry to rant .. but i just had a bad day today with a ins adjuster...cheap a$$ wouldn't give me an extra couple of hours on a car that needed at least 5 extra hours of work.. here i thought i was being nice to the guy only asking for 2

 

[Scrogg]

It still should have been fixed right, or not at all. Period. He recieved a completely unsafe repair job. That's lawsuit material.
if the adjuster does not want to pay to have it done corectly, don't do the work!

 

[Lessen]

but alot of it has to do with the ins companys themselves..
if the shop you went to is flat rate then you get what the ins company pays for nothing more..
you don't like working for free do you?

This all makes sense and simply lends to the fact that he's found a piss poor shop. A good shop with talented and experienced bodymen can get the vehicle back in good quality shape in the time alotted. Now obviously I can't speak from the shops point of view but I have a very good local shop here that we've used multiple times and have been extremely pleased with the results. I can't say how much haggling they might have to do with the ins. company's but at the end of the day they've gotten our cars done right and from the customer POV that's all that really matters. I understand nobody likes to work for free but sometimes you have to in order to make things right. Whether a person is workin flat rate at a shop or as a salaried manager in some other business there will always be times when you have to put in extra time that you won't be compensated for just to get things done right. That's just business.

 

[marauder]

I remember when body shops were successful based on reputation and quality of work. Sometimes that meant working a little harder for the dollar. In this economy body shops should be jumping through hoops to get business, and letting half-assed work roll out the door isn't going to cut it. I'm not saying that if you took it in there for a fender repair and they didn't fix your windshield wipers that they're criminals, but what I am saying is that every part they put their reputation behind should come out of that shop looking top notch. That fender should never have looked replaced, etc...

 

[Rolex]

If they charged for the time to align your lights, they should be spot on. In most states, headlight alignment must meet state inspection.
Again, if it was paid by insurance, the company needs to know that they are laying out money for shoddy, and possibly unsafe repairs.

 

[Lessen]

I remember when body shops were successful based on reputation and quality of work. Sometimes that meant working a little harder for the dollar. In this economy body shops should be jumping through hoops to get business, and letting half-assed work roll out the door isn't going to cut it. I'm not saying that if you took it in there for a fender repair and they didn't fix your windshield wipers that they're criminals, but what I am saying is that every part they put their reputation behind should come out of that shop looking top notch. That fender should never have looked replaced, etc...

Agreed. :thumbup::thumbup:

 

[Mel*E*Mel]

It still should have been fixed right, or not at all. Period. He recieved a completely unsafe repair job. That's lawsuit material.
if the adjuster does not want to pay to have it done corectly, don't do the work!

don't do the work?/ then you have a very unhappy customer..
I know what you mean by that but the facts are you sometimes need more time to do the repair right or you need more parts to make the job right and if the adjuster doesn't want to pay for it then what?
Ins companys own body shops.. if they don't wanta pay for something then you have no chance of making the car right and then you have a very upset customer..

This all makes sense and simply lends to the fact that he's found a piss poor shop. A good shop with talented and experienced bodymen can get the vehicle back in good quality shape in the time alotted. Now obviously I can't speak from the shops point of view but I have a very good local shop here that we've used multiple times and have been extremely pleased with the results. I can't say how much haggling they might have to do with the ins. company's but at the end of the day they've gotten our cars done right and from the customer POV that's all that really matters. I understand nobody likes to work for free but sometimes you have to in order to make things right. Whether a person is workin flat rate at a shop or as a salaried manager in some other business there will always be times when you have to put in extra time that you won't be compensated for just to get things done right. That's just business.

True.. but what happens when you find extra damage and the ins company doesn't want to pay for it ?
and yes sometimes you just bite the bullet and do things but when it comes to added parts and they give you a hard time about the extra cost of the part and installing it what would you do? do it for free just to make the ins company happy? no but you need to take it up with them and see what can be done .. and trust me i've done things on cars that i never get paid for just to make the job right and get it out the door and keep it out the door.. i hate come-backs.. and when i do get one it's something non-accident related.. like they got hit in the front and now they have a tail light out..lol
but we fix it anyway just to keep the people happy and coming back .
And Talented?? Not to many guys around here can keep the same job for long .. lets put it this way . I've been there the shortest amount of time..12years.. and the longest 32 years . So we must be doing something right ..lol

I remember when body shops were successful based on reputation and quality of work. Sometimes that meant working a little harder for the dollar. In this economy body shops should be jumping through hoops to get business, and letting half-assed work roll out the door isn't going to cut it. I'm not saying that if you took it in there for a fender repair and they didn't fix your windshield wipers that they're criminals, but what I am saying is that every part they put their reputation behind should come out of that shop looking top notch. That fender should never have looked replaced, etc...

and again true..
Right now we're swamped with work.. alot of people aren't buying new cars they are just fixing the old ones they have . So there is alot of work out there right now

If they charged for the time to align your lights, they should be spot on. In most states, headlight alignment must meet state inspection.
Again, if it was paid by insurance, the company needs to know that they are laying out money for shoddy, and possibly unsafe repairs.

What the hell why not quote every body..lol
This is also true.. if it was written to adjust the headlights them yes they should have but sometimes things get looked over not saying that it's right it's just sometimes they rush things out the door and things get missed..again not saying it's right
I know i wouldn't do that..

 

[Rolex]

Well sorry to hear you had a bad deal.. but alot of it has to do with the ins companys themselves..
if the shop you went to is flat rate then you get what the ins company pays for nothing more..
you don't like working for free do you?
Even tho they paid to have the lights adjusted that was a raw deal time should have been taken to make that right , but sometimes they just don't pay for things and I'm not a big fan of working for nothing so if they don't pay to have it done it doesn't get done..
sorry to rant .. but i just had a bad day today with a ins adjuster...cheap a$$ wouldn't give me an extra couple of hours on a car that needed at least 5 extra hours of work.. here i thought i was being nice to the guy only asking for 2

Hey Mel, you forgot to quote that one, so I took care of it for you.

 

[Mel*E*Mel]

 

[qaart]

its like my moms car my sis drove it into a nother car. frount end was messed up. well week after none of the windows ir locks worked. we got the locks fixed but only one window works. also we had to replace the master cylender and ball joints

 

[digger]

Called my insurance agent today. Told him it had to go back. Just to let him know I was having problems.

I could understand the steering column, maybe.
Pulled up at the shop tonight with the lights on. One was about 4ft high, the other about 2ft. high. No way they even checked it. And the crap under the hood... pisses me off.

Don't think I'm being anal about it. But it is going back to the shop.

 

[abadk9420]

There is no way you are being anal about this, you pay for insurance for a reason, and it's not to get you truck back still screwed up, every thing should have been checked out before it even left the shop, if they had taken the truck for a test drive I am sure they would have noticed the problem with the steering colum, and after all this I think I would make them fix the inner fender wells as well, make them paint the inside too.

 

[marauder]

Before you take it back, get some pictures of it the way it is now. The reason I say this is because they will be bitter. eg. "Waiter, the food seems cold" and you get it back heated and with spit in it.

I had a car I took to a shop once, and dummy me put my new racing wheels and tires on it before sending it in. They came back with overspray on all 4 rims, yet there was no overspray on anything else on the car. I was 99.9999923% sure they did this intentional and I wasn't even giving them a reason to be pricks. It was a muscle car shop and they didn't like foreign cars. Simple as that.

 

[Mel*E*Mel]

Before you take it back, get some pictures of it the way it is now. The reason I say this is because they will be bitter. eg. "Waiter, the food seems cold" and you get it back heated and with spit in it..

Naa most shops would rather give it back to you happy then have you come back again for the same thing .. Well at least at my shop .. but yes take pics just have just in case anything comes of it
But you have to understand it's a wrecked car now.. it'll never be the same
The shop should have did everything they could to give it back to you the same way but sometimes it'll never be the same ...
again i'm not defending them .. just stating the facts
like we say at work.. it's a wreck car/truck now .. there is a lot full of new ones out there they can choose from...lol..
(I work at a ford dealership)

 

[digger]

But you have to understand it's a wrecked car now.. it'll never be the same

Got that right! Won't have to do a Carfax on it to check either. And it's value has dropped considerably. I would have been better off if they would have totaled it.

I get pissed off every time I get in it. My kid isn't staying with me right now, but the keys are still getting locked in the gun safe as soon as I get home. Insurance company made me sign an exclusion (sp?) form on him. They were gonna cancel me if I didn't. Had just went down a little bit from my screw-ups too.

 

[Lessen]

And it's value has dropped considerably.

Actually, that's not true. A car that has been repaired should be given the same value as if it had never been wrecked. I've traded a repaired (big repair $$$$) vehicle and I got a very fair trade on it. Not to toot my horn but I've worked the sales side in the car industry so I have a good understanding of how they work the numbers to make the deal seem like it's better than it really is. I received a fair trade value for my old car. If it's been repaired it's technically 'good as new'. If any sales person tries to tell you otherwise they are straight up LYING.

 

[Mel*E*Mel]

If any sales person tries to tell you otherwise they are straight up LYING.

very true

Digger..
just take it back untill your happy they have to provide a rental and it should be free to you ..
but just because it was wrecked doesn't mean it's worth less and long as they do the repairs right and make it "good as new" or at least make the car/truck look like it's year
not that you can take a 95 and make it look like a 08 but as long as the repairs are done right and clean it shouldn't loss any value
the carfax thing should only let the next owner at least know what happened to the car and not drop the value