As of Monday, 10/29/12, Auto Body Connection is no longer a "State Farm Select Service Repair Facility."
My agent informed me that this was the result of a number of complaints, with mine being the last straw.
I am going to be brief, direct and honest in this review. After you read it, you can decide if you want to do business with Auto Body Connection.
On September 7, 2012, I had a major non-injury accident on a California desert highway, driving into Nevada. My car went to the shoulder of the road and I ran over some LARGE (bowling ball sized) rocks. It completely tore up the passenger side of the car, blew out two tires, ruined the two rims. That was not the full extent of the damage but the car had to be towed into Nevada.
On October 30, 2012, I picked up my car from Auto Body Connection. There was an approximate delay of one week from the time the car was ready until I picked it up, for two reasons. Initially I told Auto Body Connection that I would need a couple of extra days because I had to coordinate a trip to the DMV for a "one day permit" that would allow me to drive the car from their facility to the DMV so that I could register it. Then, the night before I was scheduled to pick it up, Auto Body Connection phoned me and said that I owed them an additional $160 due to a "betterment" charge (this is insurance-speak for an additional deductible amount imposed due to the fact that I had two new tires that were needed).
I wasn't happy, and I let them know it. I paid my $250 deductible several days after I took the car to the shop and on several occasions made reference to the fact that I was paid in full and when the car was repaired I planned to pick it up and drive it off with no money exchanging hands (this was confirmed in several conversations after I had paid).
A family member had to loan me so that I could get my car.
The "betterment" charge never appeared on the invoice / estimate for my car. Did the body shop drop the ball when they wrote the estimate and sent it to State Farm for approval, did State Farm drop the ball when they reviewed the estimate and didn't flag the omission, or both? It doesn't matter. If I knew that I'd be charged this amount the time I approved the repairs, I could have planned ahead. But I didn't, and you don't call someone and tell them to come pick up their car and say "Oh, by the way, you owe us $160 additional."
Auto Body Connection wasn't pleased with the way I communicated my displeasure and you know what? That's a real shame. I contacted my State Farm agent, complained, then someone came down from the State Farm office in Las Vegas, and made the decision to terminate Auto Body Connection's "State Farm Select Service Repair Facility" status.
In addition to this, Auto Body Connection claimed the reason it took over a month to fix my car was that they had difficulty obtaining parts (and at one point a vendor had sent them incorrect parts). I can accept that as a potentially legitimate scenario, BUT...the only reason I got status updates was that I called and asked for them.
I'd follow up a day or two after something was supposed to happen and would be told that the parts didn't arrive, that the wrong parts arrived, one thing after another, and it would have been a different matter if they'd bothered to pick up the phone and tell me, rather than my having to micro-manage their efforts.
The woman in charge clearly was not pleased with me or my sister. When my sister sister paid for the charges she was told there was a 3% "service fee" for paying with a credit card. They agreed to skip the charge but after some dramatics about "Let's just do it so we can...END this."
Caveat emptor. read more
