Charlie at Central IL Auto Body was very courteous and thorough during my estimate. He was much more hands-on with my bumper than any of the other 4 places I went to get estimates. He explained every last detail of my repair on a computer that showed all the repairs they were going to make. The price on the estimate itself was competitive with other shops in the area but not the lowest. However, the initial interactions I had with Charlie made me feel comfortable with going to this shop despite not spending the absolute lowest price possible.
However, once I had put my car in for repairs, I found the customer service of this office to be incredibly lacking. I turned my car in on a Monday morning and was told that it would be done on Tuesday near the end of the day. After receiving no calls from them, I called their office late Tuesday afternoon and was told it would take another day. The same thing happened on Wednesday, and my car was finally done on Thursday afternoon. At no point did I ever receive a call with an update on my car's progress. I had to call at every step of the way and extract the information from them myself. I will take them at their word and assume that these delays were legitimate. But the fact that they were not forthcoming with these delays does leave some shadow of a doubt as to whether or not they were due to circumstances beyond the shop's control.
As for the repairs themselves, the bumper looks good as new and the paint job matched perfectly. Overall, a 3-day repair is not too far outside the normal time window for service from other shops in the area. A big plus was that my car was washed and vacuumed on the inside when it was returned to me. This was a much welcomed amenity given that my car had been excessively dirtied thanks to the winter weather.
It is currently one month after the repairs have been completed and I have no complaints about the work done on my car whatsoever. However, I emphasize again that I find it incredibly unprofessional and discourteous that I was not informed of the changes in the schedule of my car repair. I feel that repair shops should be incredibly forthcoming with this information given that people who have their car in a shop have to make alternative transportation arrangements and oftentimes have to rearrange their daily routines such as work.
Overall, great work, competitive pricing, but on the back end be prepared to be a little more proactive in getting the needed information. To be quite frank it seems like this is a top notch shop, but I would rate my particular interaction with them as slightly less reflective of that rating. read more
