DTM- get what they say in writing beacause...
man... i remember a few years ago my350z was the shiet... now its a bunch of vendors selling the same vis crap (no offense) no new performance mods and thread after thread of vendors/shops/members screwing people over. imo the economy shouldnt effect your service to paying customers if you want to stay in buisiness.
Hello, I'm sorry to hear about your recent experience with DTM. I believe I was in the shop when your bumper was picked up. I have an office in DTM and also assist them with services..
I realize that you may or may have already taken your car elsewhere but my arms are open (at DTM) to ensure your situation is fixed.
I know that the guys at DTM can sometimes be confusing with words :/ but I'm positive things can be fixed and assure you proper assistance along the way.
Please shoot me an email to discuss more- nate@dtmautobody.com
Same goes for others
I realize that you may or may have already taken your car elsewhere but my arms are open (at DTM) to ensure your situation is fixed.
I know that the guys at DTM can sometimes be confusing with words :/ but I'm positive things can be fixed and assure you proper assistance along the way.
Please shoot me an email to discuss more- nate@dtmautobody.com
Same goes for others

I want to start out by saying that I have seen other cars that have been worked on by dtm, and they are perfect, but I was one of the less fortunate ones.
These people are dishonest and will do what it takes to empty your pockets for an average job you can get anywhere. I took my car here to get my fender and bumper and fender repaired after being clipped while I was parked. The paint and work on the fender is decent, but not under par, and the front bumper had some low quality work with low quality materials. I found out they let my car be a practice project for some new guy, and let me tell you, it shows, the paint is starting to get stress cracks like they forgot to add the stuff that makes the paint flexible, the fill is wrong becasue they were supposed to use a poly fill not fiberglass (on oem bumper), and they painted my grill black without my ok so not it looks like a hot wheels car.
Then when I arrived I only expected the only wrong thing was going to be the painted grill, wrong. But I took it because of my work schedule, and was promised that they will re do it on a later date when the car was available. The guy I spoke to there said that the problem of not having my car can be avoided by buying an aftermarket front bumper, and that they would paint any aftermarket front bumper I wanted, free of charge instead, and was clearly stated that my only cost would be the purchase of a bumper. After going through all of the trouble of getting the bumper, paying for it and bringing it to them for the fitting, the guy I spoke to wasn't there. Instead I got the pleasure to speak to a the general manager. He started telling me all of this bs about fee this and fee that. He starts telling me the costs for fitting, primer, paint, clear, and detailing it after, so I assumed had not heard or read the agreement that the first guy and I made. I told him about the conversation the first guy and I had, and he decided that my situation is invalid and he will not stand by the deal I was given. After I heard this I tried to calmly reason with him and explain the situation in case he just didn't understand the circumstances, but I never got to do that because every time I started to speak he would interrupt me and start telling me "You don't understand, the primer, paint, clear, fitting, ect. blah blah blah". He was extremely rude and clearly saw me as an idiot.
Now, they will not return my call, have not tried to fix their mistake, and have left me out $350 for the bumper.
Long story short, I'm stuck with a bumper and fender that I'm not satisfied with, and am out money due to their shady business tactics and dishonesty. I never have particularly wanted an aftermarket front bumper, the only reason I bought it was because I would be able to keep my car and have a well painted front bumper. Since they will not return my call or fix their mistake, I wanted to let everybody know how they have conducted business with me.
They are dishonest, they let guys that are just learning how to do bodywork practice on your car without somebody that knows what they're doing standing by to supervise the job, prevent stupid mistakes from happening, or fix it if something were to go wrong. This business will ignore you the second you ask them to right their wrongs. This place did business in a very immature way with me, and how does the manager of this place not know what his employees promise, or not know to interrupt a customer.
Today I went and picked up my bumper from dtm to take it home and First they said it wasn't there, then when I told them that they better hope it's there one of the guys looked again. I walked into the back to see where it was and it was in the pile of crashed body parts with stuff all around and on top of it. At least I got it, it was undamaged, and still in the plastic wrapping.
Just needed to vent and wanted my fellow z lovers to know my story about DTM in El Monte. They might do great work, but only when it's massive projects or they get to put their decal on it, it's a bummer this last experience with them showed me that they couldn't care less about the rest of us.
These people are dishonest and will do what it takes to empty your pockets for an average job you can get anywhere. I took my car here to get my fender and bumper and fender repaired after being clipped while I was parked. The paint and work on the fender is decent, but not under par, and the front bumper had some low quality work with low quality materials. I found out they let my car be a practice project for some new guy, and let me tell you, it shows, the paint is starting to get stress cracks like they forgot to add the stuff that makes the paint flexible, the fill is wrong becasue they were supposed to use a poly fill not fiberglass (on oem bumper), and they painted my grill black without my ok so not it looks like a hot wheels car.
Then when I arrived I only expected the only wrong thing was going to be the painted grill, wrong. But I took it because of my work schedule, and was promised that they will re do it on a later date when the car was available. The guy I spoke to there said that the problem of not having my car can be avoided by buying an aftermarket front bumper, and that they would paint any aftermarket front bumper I wanted, free of charge instead, and was clearly stated that my only cost would be the purchase of a bumper. After going through all of the trouble of getting the bumper, paying for it and bringing it to them for the fitting, the guy I spoke to wasn't there. Instead I got the pleasure to speak to a the general manager. He started telling me all of this bs about fee this and fee that. He starts telling me the costs for fitting, primer, paint, clear, and detailing it after, so I assumed had not heard or read the agreement that the first guy and I made. I told him about the conversation the first guy and I had, and he decided that my situation is invalid and he will not stand by the deal I was given. After I heard this I tried to calmly reason with him and explain the situation in case he just didn't understand the circumstances, but I never got to do that because every time I started to speak he would interrupt me and start telling me "You don't understand, the primer, paint, clear, fitting, ect. blah blah blah". He was extremely rude and clearly saw me as an idiot.
Now, they will not return my call, have not tried to fix their mistake, and have left me out $350 for the bumper.
Long story short, I'm stuck with a bumper and fender that I'm not satisfied with, and am out money due to their shady business tactics and dishonesty. I never have particularly wanted an aftermarket front bumper, the only reason I bought it was because I would be able to keep my car and have a well painted front bumper. Since they will not return my call or fix their mistake, I wanted to let everybody know how they have conducted business with me.
They are dishonest, they let guys that are just learning how to do bodywork practice on your car without somebody that knows what they're doing standing by to supervise the job, prevent stupid mistakes from happening, or fix it if something were to go wrong. This business will ignore you the second you ask them to right their wrongs. This place did business in a very immature way with me, and how does the manager of this place not know what his employees promise, or not know to interrupt a customer.
Today I went and picked up my bumper from dtm to take it home and First they said it wasn't there, then when I told them that they better hope it's there one of the guys looked again. I walked into the back to see where it was and it was in the pile of crashed body parts with stuff all around and on top of it. At least I got it, it was undamaged, and still in the plastic wrapping.
Just needed to vent and wanted my fellow z lovers to know my story about DTM in El Monte. They might do great work, but only when it's massive projects or they get to put their decal on it, it's a bummer this last experience with them showed me that they couldn't care less about the rest of us.
edit: Back on subject.. DTM lets get it together man. Your customers make you and I know you guys are reading all this
Last edited by DaProdigy; Nov 23, 2011 at 02:56 PM.
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UPDATE: Nate has assured me that if I bring my car and bumper in that all material and labor charges will be covered. I hope that I am not overlooking how he has worded the email, but Nate seems like the right person to deal with in this situation. I have not taken this to the bbb yet, and would rather not. Hopefully me writing all of this up and posting everywhere that I did has aided in straightening up the way that business is conducted at dtm. I will keep all of you posted on what happens next.
^^ Lol im sure they will. Im sure a lot of their business comes from the Internet forums and these car enthusiast forums. And when one negative thing about them surfaces, it's like a wildfire and spread to many other car forums as well, just like that one thread about a bodyshop in Walnut messing up a member's 350z.
Just get a refund and go to esteban at auto explosion. I went there after asking for advice here. You can search for my thread, nothing but good things came out of my experience. I spoke to esteban and dealt with esteban only. He took care of me, he gave me an estimate before seeing by car or my kit and never raised the price. I got a receipt and a warranty with the service as well. It was worth my commute from san diengo to gardena. Auto explosion man, just go. BTW I also got the sl2, nice bumper
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They weren't willing to give me a refund, only try to fix my oem bumper. If things go well tomorrow, I do not think that I will need to find another body shop until I get a rear bumper and sides.
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All done, everything went smooth and was extremely professional. I can confidently say I'm happy with how Nate handled this situation for Dtm even though he wasn't involved and could have stayed miles away from it. He really stepped up to the plate for these guys. Nate was nothing but the solution. Fantastic experience. I may want to re think how I look at Dtm, I will be back because of Nate.
Last edited by OkashiZ; Nov 28, 2011 at 11:56 AM.
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^ I guess this thread just had to be made so they could see how this whole thing affected them, but I went in today and it's no where near the same as last time I went in there, same people with the addition of Nate (who I haven't met before today) and now I'm thinking I'm going to wrote a new thread with the entire story for people to see how they are capable of righting their mistakes
well, if you hadn't made this thread would they have taken care of you? Sounds like they only did because of the possible bad reputation....
sucks people have to resort to this type of situation to get others to right their wrongs
sucks people have to resort to this type of situation to get others to right their wrongs
Last edited by BEBO'S ZEE; Nov 28, 2011 at 02:14 PM.
+11 lol. I'd still stay away from them for next time, but that's just me.
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And if I wouldn't have made this thread no progress would have been made do I'm going to think of this thread as a necessary evil
They were scared of small claims. They knew they'd lose out. Just make sure the future work comes out right and when you leave flick off the manager that was rude to you in the beginning then do the Aaron rodgers world champ belt maneuver. Like a boss.



