Simply put, this is not a reliable or trustworthy body shop. My car is a 13yr old BMW, but I keep it very clean and it was ready for some clean up work to keep it looking fresh. After many years of reliable work at a nearby shop, I followed a recommendation to try another shop someone I trusted had a good experience with. My front and rear bumper were featuring some scuffs/wear, and the decorative window trim was scratched. I also had a scratch along the side of the car, and wanted to replace my clouded side markers and a cracked lower front grill. The estimate was fair, and the work was scheduled to take 7-10 days, which seemed appropriate. Given current supply chain issues, I ordered the replacement parts 2 weeks in advance through the shop, and paid a sizable deposit.
The car was first returned without the rear work completed, and 3 weeks later than anticipated. The body shop's detail person was a bit of a butcher with the orbital buffer, and my hood (previously immaculate) was heavily swirled. They agreed to take the car back and perform the rear work. The representative pretended they never put that work on the estimate, acting like it was just an honest mistake. I noted to him that the estimate I approved did in fact have that work on there, and he said he'd check on that. Thankfully I kept the original estimate. Two weeks later (so over 5 weeks for a 7-10 job), I went to pick up the car. Additional charges were applied for the rear work (almost 2x of the original estimate) as the rep again claimed they had not included that on the original estimate. I obviously objected to that, and to how long the work took compared to their original estimate. I then produced the original estimate showing the rear work in detail. Clearly he didn't expect me to have the original printout, and began scrambling to try and explain. I then said even if for some reason I didn't have the original, why wouldn't he have called me to tell me what the new charges would be before doing the work?
At this point, I said forget it. I'd handle this all with the owner later, and handed the receptionist my card. I told her to run the entire amount, and that I'd let the owner make the right decision later when we spoke, but the rep stopped the admin from charging my card, and began scrambling. After a few minutes, he handed me another that had removed 40% of the bill (thousands of dollars). I objected to that and insisted paying the higher amount, but he wouldn't allow the receptionist to run anything but the new bill. He also didn't want me taking a copy of the higher priced bill, which I promptly took pictures of.
Later after bringing the car home, I was more closely inspecting the car, and noting they had buffed most of the swirls from the hood out, when I found a deep scratch that had clearly been (attempted) to be filled by touch up paint. Window trim had been installed poorly, and wasn't lining up. I also found out that at any highway speed, my windows were whistling and rattling loudly. When I later addressed this with the owner, he said the buff job "uncovered the scratch" and that out of the goodness of their heart, they tried to fill it for me. It looks terrible. It's bad enough I'll need to paint the hood this coming spring. He also disowned my new window rattling issue, saying they did nothing to the windows (obviously, whatever they did when installing the window trim did this.) Had I not reviewed both estimates closely, I'd have easily been charged thousands of dollars more than I was supposed to.
Having been in the automotive business, I know this scam, and I know a lot of unknowledgeable people that go here are being wildly overcharged. This is a predatory operation that performs less than acceptable work at a far longer schedule than they advertise. I'd strongly suggest looking elsewhere for your body work. I'll note, the video of the hood scratch cannot be uploaded to yelp, but is available on other online review sources. read more