Car damage rant

dbzeag

Wants to kiss you where it stinks
Jun 9, 2006
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It is amazing how smiley and positive I feel leaving the cesspool that is the Ohio vortex and I am getting rusty with my feistiness.

So I was involved in a hit and run accident May 21nd. No one was injured, but my car was quite smashed up, with a bash into the rear left side. That Monday I took my car into Precision Collision to get repaired.

The reason I chose Precision Collision was because it was fairly highly recommended on Yelp as well as being a part of State Farm (my insurance) Premier Select group. If a customer has work done from one of these certified facilities, the workmanship is guaranteed for the life of the car or when the customer sells the car. I figured even if the company wasn't THAT great, I could keep going back to them to get any repairs on the work done as needed.

After inspecting it was determined to be about 11 days of work and $4385 in parts and labor.

Now to fault State Farm (who is usually quite good I might add), their policy is to use used parts when replacing damaged pieces. Now normally I wouldn't have an issue with this, especially on older cars where new parts would be hard to find. But on a car that's 7 months old, that seems a bit ridiculous. So that estimate of $4385 was with used parts.

After waiting 14 days and $4501 later, the work was "done". When I say done, the bulk of the work was completed but immediately I was noticing issues.

As soon as I looked at the car I noticed some things wrong. Actually as soon as I was handed my keys I knew there was something amiss. And here comes a long list of questions.

For starters, why was my keyfob covered in white paint when it was handed to me?
The rear left bumper and quarter panel were damaged. Why would the right side mirror be adjusted?

I also forgot that I left coins in the coin drawer on the dashboard and did not take them out of the car when I left it with Precision Collision. Why were only the dollar coins taken and the quarters left? Why was any taken at all?

The idea was to bring the car to the state it was before it was hit. Since the car was 7 months old, that must be pretty much in a brand new state. Why is the tolerance of all of the bumper seams and trunk seams off?

Why after supposedly cleaning was the car covered in dust?

Why after supposedly cleaning was the interior filled with dust and the stench of paint?

Why even if using a used bumper that was to meet specifications were the corners nicked up?

Why was the trunk missing a lid stopper to prevent banging of the lid to the body?

Why were there tape remnants and other glue products on the INSIDE of the front windshield?

After this wonderful and confidence-inspiring look over, I immediately went back into the building to tell the attendant the issues. He came out and recorded that the stopper needed to be replaced and told me he was going to order it and that was that.

After the frustration in the 98F sun, I just decided to go home and deal with it later. It was close to their closing time anyway.

After heading home I took a closer look and noticed a tab missing that holds the bumper on. One of the few things they fully replaced instead of just bending back into shape and they didn't completely install it. My call into Precision Collision to inquire about this finding was too late and they had already closed.

Chim and I decided to head to our Tuesday Night dinner group for dinner. After a lovely time, it was starting to get dark and so I turned on my lights. Wouldn't you notice that the RIGHT side rear lights were not working. Not only is this unsafe, but it is also illegal. These lights worked after the accident originally because the police officer wouldn't have let me leave the scene if both sets were out. It had to be something to do with Precision Collision’s work.

After calling them the next day about the clip missing on the bumper I also mentioned the light that was out on the opposite side of the car. "Out of curtousy" the attendent was going to graciously check that the light was blown as that was the hypothesis he came up with. A 7 month old car. With a bulb out. After an accident. After which a repair that required replacing the bumper and supports underneath and behind the bumper necessitating fiddling with the lights. Right.

Well I got the news that they had a clip and the trunk part that was missing (wow that was fast shipping) waiting for me and to just go in and he would inspect the light. After 5 minutes the two missing parts were installed and the light was magically working. Apparently it was unplugged and the bulb was not blown. Surprise surprise.
After all of this mess, I decided to contact State Farm and to tell them all of these issues I was having with Precision Collision. Certainly as a Premier classification for their services, State Farm would like to know the shoddy workmanship of my repair. Well apparently State Farm takes claims like this very seriously and immediately requested someone come to my place of work to inspect the car themselves for workmanship.

So now it's Thursday and spot on time the State Farm rep came out to inspect the work.

According to his findings, certain welds performed to the body were not coated for corrosion protection. Good thing it hasn't rained in 4 months. Also there were two other clips missing holding the bumper on (that made 3 total that were missing). The bumper just flaps in the breeze driving down the road. Also there were stud covers missing from the inside of the trunk as well as unfinished paint seams on the inside of the rear passenger door.

He was going to contact Precision Collision about these issues and the lack of quality control they seem to be suffering from and will schedule an appointment for me to return the car to be fixed again.
This is becoming a lot of fun.

Now maybe I am a very picky and anal retentive person (har har) but if a party from the insurance company, the company that is paying for the repairs, does not like the work, that is REALLY bad.
 
right now I've applied from everything I can think of and I can't even get a fucking walmart to call me back for a damn interview.

Maybe you should start up a Kickstarter fund raiser for a plane or bus ticket to get you out of MI. :heart:
 
Damn dude that's ridiculous. I would've refused delivery of the vehicle until everything was fixed. Whenever I've had bodywork done I go over everything with someone from the shop right away. Usully by the time the vehicle is fixed the shop is tired of dealing with my questions and "hey look at that imperfection" comments.

Good luck getting everything resolved. State Farm is easy to work with and will get you all set in a snap. Never had any problems getting something paid by them.
 
You let your insurers send you to a garage that uses second hand parts? WTF. A nearly new car should be repaired by a manufacturers agent surely and use new, authorised parts.
 
You let your insurers send you to a garage that uses second hand parts? WTF. A nearly new car should be repaired by a manufacturers agent surely and use new, authorised parts.

It's insurance policy that ANY car will be used parts first for replacements no matter the garage.
 
meh. leave it.


and get a full window decal in your back window saying "whatever shop did this shit body work."

bet they fix it eventually then.
 
The only way I get good service for body work is by knowing the shop personally. Ugh. Car stuff sucks sometimes. Sorry. :(