Elistan

A couple weeks ago, a young kid pulled her mustang out into traffic when she shouldn't have, and tagged EgoThreat's S on the right rear. Scuffed the quarter panel and wheel, tore off the bumper cover, and mangled some of the bumper cover mounting points.

So EgoThreat got the estimate from the insurance company of the other girl, and took that and her car to ____. The first indication of ____'s failure was how they treated her - she tried to explain her concerns about the suspension and wheel bearing, the guy simply blew her off "Yeah yeah, don't worry, we'll take care of it."

Then when she got the car back, there were several issues:
- No evidence that they did anything beyond what the initial estimate said. They didn't even know that it wasn't her insurance.
- The "new" bumper cover is obvsiously used. The little VIN sticker was painted over. They had no idea it wasn't her insurance paying, and treated her as such. I would have hoped they'd go to bat for her with the insurance company and make sure the car was repaired to higher standards, rather than just working to the estimate and trying to maximize profit.
- The really big issue is the color. In sunlight the bumper and quarter panel look fine. But under just about any artificial light, they've obviously a bit of an orage tint when compared to the factory painted cars.

We don't know if there's anything that can be done about all this - get a proper new bumper sure, but it wouldn't necesarily look any different. And the paint? What, repaint the whole car? Sigh. This sort of stuff sucks. (EgoThreat didn't want me to post the name of the shop...)

tailchaser

Sorry to hear your bad experience with ____________.

I had really good experience with _________ recently with our elderly Honda and last year with our Jetta. In both cases, they did exceptional work with paint matching. In both cases they missed a few petty things - but here's the kicker... did not treat me as though they thought the issues were petty when I brought them up. In fact, they made it clear that if I had any issues with the areas repaired as long as I had the car, to bring it by and they'd take care of it.

However... there is good news for you, too. Since it was the other insurance company's bill... they are required to restore the car (and you) to the condition prior to the accident. They aren't done until you are satisfied. If they have trouble hearing you when you speak, you may want to go through the hassle of having another body shop figure out what is required to restore the car and have them earn their bill by straightening out the insurance carrier.

Don't forget diminished value that you have a legal right to claim since the other driver was at fault.

Photodavo

Damn - I hate to here about things like this. The damage to the car must have been painful enough (sorry CC) but having to deal with the added issues from the unmentioned shop just makes it worse. I must say that I give both of you credit for not bashing the shop until they are given the opportunity to make it right. Hopefully they will and there will be a happy ending to this mess. If not, then they have only asked for whatever may come of it.

XLeezardx

Lets do this Wheel of fortune style. Ill take only 1 Vowel.... A

Shop's Name __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

viets2k

Not every body-shop or even the mechanical shop will be honest with you and that's how they make their living. Best thing to do when in that kind of situation is taking it to the Honda dealers...and they too are not honest sometime, and that's why you have to find the ones you can trust. I have not one but two body-shop that i deal with....one in Garland (on Forest ln and Jupiter), and the other one in Irving and they do a pretty good job, but yet sometime i had to keep my eyes on them just to make sure they doing it right.

If you think that you will get all the new OEM parts for your car everytime your car being repair by the body-shop(with insurance's $$$) then you better re-think again!!! Nowaday, everybody is trying to be money-wise. An OEM part would cost 3-4 times more than the after-market, and 5-8 times than the used ones. When i first bought my 03 S 3 months ago i bought an OEM front lip for my car and it cost me $399(no tax) and that's with the dealer's discount, but without the dealer's discount price it would be $499+tax. That's crazy eh!!! and so, the body-shop and the insurances they are just as smart as we are....they go online(EBAY)...junkyards and try to find the parts for your car that would cost less than the dealer's price. Ask me how I know. Well, because i had encountered several of them since i played with cars as a hobby and so i sold lot of parts that i don't need on EBAY.

I sold a set of 2000 civic SI rims to a insurance adjuster. He say it's for a customer(car got stolen).
Sold a 02 RSX rear bumper to this body-shop in Arlington.
Sold a full set of RSX front&rear struts-spring(oem) to this high-class used car dealer in Arlington......say that his customer doesn't like the after-market springs!!!
My sister's BMW 330i got stolen at Winstar-casino but was able to recovered it back right before the insurance fixing to write a check. The car sat at the bmw dealer for over 3 weeks. We called and asked what took them so long to repair the car and they(dealer) say that they are waiting for our insurance company to give them the oem cd deck!!! they(bmw dealer) say that the insurance won't pay the $1200-$1500 cd deck, and so they are trying to find ones for cheaper!!!

Anyway, as for the paint, well, new-paint and old-paint don't match-up well even with the same color code. Just give it a few months for the new-paint to fake out a little bit and it should be ok. unless whoever that body-shop is doing a very bad job.

PilotSi

If it's a good experience, no need to blank out the name

What shop was this? JIC any of us needs it *x-fingers*

outlaw442

oh dear god I hope you aren't talking about Earl Scheib.. I know there are other shops in the area but that one is RIGHT on the SW corner of Forest/Jupiter... that used to be one of my shops. before I saw how Earl screws people over and got out of there.

CosmosMpower

Sorry to hear about your lousy experience, seems like there aren't too many trustworthy shops in Dallas. I had a nightmare experience as well with the M3 shortly after I bought it. A kid backed into my fender in a parking lot in deep ellum and tried to run off. An officer saw him and chased him down to get his info and filed a police report shortly.

I called the insurance company of the kid and they would not file my claim until they spoke with their insured. Of course the kid did not answer his phone or return their letters so the insurance company denied my claim. I went through the trouble of driving downtown to get a police report and threaten the adjustor for said company until they agreed to pay for minimum damages. Their adjustor came out and threw a lowball offer to the shop I took my car to. This went on for a month and a half in which time they tried to deny my rental car extension and pay for a new fender. I ended up paying 300 out of pocket to the shop on a 1400 dollar bill to replace/paint a bumper and fender.

Tx_Phantom

Bankston of Lewisville has a decent body shop. I used them when the lady in her extra large SUV backed into my front bumper at a traffic light.

tailchaser

OK... I'll fess up... I keep forgetting that the best way to avoid the old screw is to help people find the places that don't suck as much.

I actually took my cars to (gasp!!!) the Service King on West Plano Parkway (15th & Plano Parkway) next to U-haul. Chuck was my service writer both times. I went there because I have a friend who paints cars for someone else that told me I'd be happy with the paint work done there with a lot less hassle from the other party's insurance company.

Turns out, I'm more than happy with the paint work.