My car was hit by a student driver at a parking lot. I got several estimates though the student driver was willing to pay for the repair. Caliber's price was in the middle range and the expected wait time was long (4 weeks), but I chose Caliber nevertheless because I used Caliber before and was happy with its services.
However, my frustration started there:
- After 4 weeks of waiting, I dropped my car at Caliber. Two days later, Tom at Caliber informed me on the phone that the bumper he ordered could not support the reverse parking sensors I had on the car. He added that they were not well installed anyway. I told him they were in the right place and functioned well.
- Since I had already waited for so long, I agreed to move on. (In hindsight, I should have backed off then.) The repair was supposed to be completed in 5 days, but the snow storm came (not their fault). One week after the storm (Day 14), there was still no update. So I called them and they simply said the car was not ready; no explanation or apology for being late or for not updating me of the situation.
- Five more days later, they told me my car was ready and I asked for a pickup. They sent two people to drop off my car, which I was grateful for. Just before signing the paper, I noticed that the colors did not match and one side of the bumper was sticking out. I drove my car back to them, and they were not happy about it.
- Without looking at my car, one woman came to tell me that the bumper had different reflection from they other parts. However, the bumper was not the only part they painted; they also painted the side panel, which also had a different color. Without checking the color, Tom came out to dismiss the wrong paint color but agreed to look at the mismatched part. I was about to leave my car there when he said he already sent two workers to drop off my car and that they were about to close (The time was 4:30pm. 5:30 is their close time).
- I insisted on leaving the car there and walking home myself. Tom told me the car would be ready the next day (which is a Wednesday). Not hearing back on Wednesday, I called them again. This time Tom said they were busy and my car would be ready on Thursday. He said one of my original panels was repainted by some bodyshop (not true), as an excuse for the color mismatch.
- On Thursday, Tom told me that he's not happy with the new painting either (guess they made the same mistake) and the car would be repainted.
- On Friday, they called me to offer a car rental. I didn't take it because we didn't need it for the weekend. (Meanwhile, my wife had been taking Uber for her commute to work every work day for two weeks.)
- On Monday, I called back again, only to be told that the car was not ready. So I took the rental offer.
- Another Friday came around. Finally I was told the car was ready. The color was right this time, but the bumper still stuck out a little and none of the backup sensors worked. By then I was exhausted by the process and simply took the car. read more