So, I was recently rear ended by an suv and I am having this body shop by the name of Craftsman Auto Body take care of it. They called me a day earlier than the estimated date and said my car was ready. I was ecstatic so my fiance, Chris, and I go there to check it out and everything seemed great at first.
It was dark out so Chris used his flashlight app on the phone and there was soo much haziness and scuffs all up and down the lift gate. It almost looked like there was dust under the clear coat.
We showed the guy and he said some buffing should fix the issue and I ended up leaving it with them. I got a call the next day saying it was done, go to check it out during the daytime this time and it looks just fine. I take it home show Chris and lo and behold the haziness and scuffs are still there in addition to pits in the paint. Not chips but little bumps sticking up from the clear coat.

I also came to realize that the center part of the bumper is folded up, kind of like a half assed bumper tuck. Oh and also the portion of the bumper behind the mudguard looks buckled in.

Anyways, here is the driverside mudguard. Looks like hell don't it?


Passenger side mudguard.



Looks like this now. The brackets in the crash bar are not there so they just stuck the tabs on the bumper and pulled it up.



This is the missing piece:


This is how it used to look like. I'm not crazy I promise!


It's back at the auto body shop once again. I told the guy that I'm not coming back until it looks like the picture above.

Ain't nobody got time for that


Anyone got some not so pleasant stories to share because I feel like I ALWAYS get screwed over with things like this

 

That's a horrible job, how are they still in business 1/4 assing (not even half assing) jobs like that.

 

With the bumper warped like that they should have just replaced the entire bumper than trying to ghettofy it.

Before I started doing my own body work I brought my car into a dealership to get repaired. It was there for about 3-4 months on a $1200 claim and they ended up stealing my whole system and other misc things in my vehicle($2000 worth of stuff) and I didn't get paid for any of it

 

Sad thing is they did replace it. The old bumper had a massive hole in it after the accident where the suv's tow hook had pierced through.
Then they tried to tell me that there was previous damage under there, and I can believe that but it never look like that and I have pictures to back that up.

That sounds horrible! I was so afraid that they would steal my headunit and other things but its all there. *knock on wood*

 

who knows... thanks for agreeing with me. I feel like I've been obsessing over this though haha

 

You should see the "horrible body shop experience" thread.

 

oh god..

 

If your insurance company paid for the work, let them know it's substandard. I'm with Allstate, and after I recently had my '08 front bumper and hood replaced they contacted me several times to make sure I was happy with the quality of the work, and it's also guaranteed for as long as I own the car. FWIW, mine was repaired at Ferman Collision in Tampa, and I've never been to a shop that turned out such top-quality work.

 

I am also with Allstate. Chris suggested Craftsman since he took his car to one of their locations close to DC with no issues. I took mine to a different one.. anyways, do you think they will still contact me and ask how things are if I picked the place? I've called Allstate telling them that I am dissatisfied with the work I initially received and they said "you have to call them and have them take a look. Now, if they don't want to honor their work that's when you need to contact us."

It was a fairly simple job and they've truly made it a hassle so far.

I overheard heard the manager/owner talking to his guys and said "there seems to be an issue in the workmanship here." lol

 

Sorry to hear, there's Chantilly autobody shop on stonecroft road off of route 50, I work near there and have seen some high end cars there so I'm assuming they do good work.

 

Few years ago I damn near totaled my car and the shop I took it to Handcraft autobody for the most part did a great job. I remembered that I had a weird sound coming from my wheel bearing and it was because they tried to use a used part. I said something and they replaced it. They also repainted my front bumper a year later because it was peeling for some odd reason. Sorry to hear about your bad luck but hope all gets straighten out. Also utilize Yelp. Those negative review can really hurt people more then its worth. Here are accident and current pics.

 

Sara if they can’t do competent work on the first two attempts, how much hope do you hold for a third. Good idea getting the insurance company involved early on in this process. Insurance companies have huge leverage over body shops as they fund the bulk of the repair business. Allstate will have claims adjusters out in the field every day visiting body shops. If this were my car, I would request an adjuster visit the shop and inspect the job. Adjusters see chitty workmanship all the time. If you lay out your experiences regarding this transaction as reasonably as you have done in this post, the adjuster will get this resolved tout suite.

 

which craftsman did you go to?

 

That's pretty bad fitment, and your paint doesn't match.

But hey that's how shoddy repair shops make their money. They take advantage of the uninformed.

 

my 05 touring Z had tons of hail damage, guy who fixed it got all the
dents out but runied the paint job. In trying to get him to make good
I found out his shop closed and he jump ship leaving a handfull of
customers sol.

I hate driving this car in the sun now, the chrome silver has
a dirty looking appearance and the doors/hood/roof all have long
blochy streaks on them. First pic shows the day I bought it, the
other three pics show epic paint job fail.

The car is now worth 3k less on resale and no one wants to take the
time to strip it and do it right. Let alone the car is too old with 122k
miles to sink 5k+ paint job back into it so Im forced to trade/sell it for
a loss. Selling my nismo catback plus a nice tax return this year which
I WAS going to buy wheels with, pretty much covers the loss.

Only positive I can get from this is that I dont want chrome silver
anymore since theres so many of that color in my area, nows a good
time to get a newer z either redline/black/pearl will be next...

 

I went to the one in Dulles on Bryant ct. If you need a body shop go to Spectrum in Arlington. They have nothing but good reviews.

 

I waited about 2 months for a front bumper and sides to be painted and installed. They had my car for those entire 2 months. The quality of the work was good at least.

 

This is actually only the second time, sorry if that wasn't clear. I'm hopeful they'll return my car they way it needs to be honestly. I did contact my adjuster after reading this and sent him the email I sent the body shop and also noted my concerns with the work done.

 

Man that sucks can't you file a lawsuit? Honestly if you really felt like it you could get your car fixed.

 

"Man that sucks can't you file a lawsuit? Honestly if you really felt like it you could get your car fixed. "

I have done some research on the legal part of this and have found
out that if a defendnt cannot be found or ignores all request/summons
to appear the court would award me a default judgment.

now that being said, it's still the reponsiblity of the plantiff not the
court to physically collect the payment owed.

Which would really resolve nothing if he can't be found. I ran across
on the bbb site that they tried to go after him for another person and
were unable to locate him. His shop is empty and all signs were
removed last time I went by there. His website and phone dont work
either.

It sucks ya, Im kinda over it for the most part, though I'm really
looking forward to going shopping for a newer z 07/08 in a diff color
once I finish rounding up some used oem exhaust pieces to take my
nismo catback off the 05 before getting rid of it.