We were directed here by our insurance company for some minor work on the front end of our car. The front of our Subaru is mostly plastic and this is the second time someone lightly bumped into us and broke the grill. What should have cost $450 (from having it previously replaced at the dealership) cost over $3000 at the body shop. Since we had to file an insurance claim this time around we had no choice but to bring it here. The other car involved in the accident had no visible damage. This body shop told that client it was best to replace her entire bumper to make sure there were no issues with her back up sensors, another $3500 charged to the insurance company. Total revenue to the body shop $6500. While dropping the car off they asked if we would let them do a computer check of the car, and not to worry cause they will bill the insurance company. We originally told them no, but they asked us to sign a form allowing them to do and persisted. The day after picking the car up, and having had driven it to Calgary the check engine light came on. We immediately took it to our local mechanic as we didn't want to drive all the way back to Cochrane with a check engine light. The mechanic learned the check engine light came on as a diagnostic was recently run with a low battery, and documented it was because the of the body shop. Ater spending $150 for the investigation and reset I took the info back to the body shop. They are less than helpful, and even rude that I would request they reimburse me for this. They told me it is not their problem. I feel they just run a business that takes as much money as they can from the insurance companies. What should have cost us less than $500 to fix has cost the insurance company over $6500.
My advice is to go to multiple body shops, and not just rely on this one. There has to be ones out there that don't rip off the insurance companies so much and burn the customers. read more