I had a very frustrating experience with Eastern, and the only reason this isn't a 1 star review is that the staff were generally friendly (if unhelpful and uninformed) when I interacted with them.
A huge piece of ice fell off the roof of my building and did a ton of damage to the back end of my car, so it was at Eastern being repaired for over a month (which was expected). They originally told me the repairs would be finished by 2/25, and that they had all of the parts they needed except the windshield which was arriving in the next couple of days. A week later they said that the windshield had arrived but they were still waiting on one more part which "should be arriving tomorrow". Over the course of the next week I called every other day (because they didn't ever call me when they said they would) for an update and the answer was always "sorry the part isn't here, should be in tomorrow". As it turns out, the part they were waiting for HAD arrived, but Toyota had sent them the wrong part. This happened THREE TIMES. I can understand the wrong part being delivered once, but for the wrong part to be sent to them three times in a row shows a serious breakdown in communication. I wish someone from Eastern had told me what was happening so that I could have been involved in communicating better with Toyota and making sure the correct part was sent, but no one ever filled me in on what was actually happening.
Because of this delay, I hit my insurance maximum on my rental car and had to pay $350 out of pocket to the rental company. I spoke with the rental company and my insurance company who both said there was nothing they could do and to take it up with Eastern. I explained the situation to Eastern, and Chad promised me he would speak to his manager about the situation and see if there was anything they could do. Unsurprisingly, Chad never called me back. When they finally finished the repairs (over 2 weeks after 2/25) they said it would be ready by the "end of Tuesday for sure" which of course ended up being "sorry Wednesday morning at 9am". I showed up at 9am and had to wait 45 minutes for them to "finish cleaning up the car real quick" before I finally got it and drove away. I was halfway home when they called me to say "Hey sorry we still have one of your floor mats here can you come back so we can give it to you?". And after ALL OF THIS, barely a week after getting my car back, the seal around the lock on the trunk just... fell off. So now there's a hole in my trunk lid that's open to the elements and I'm driving around with a piece of collision wrap taped over it so water and debris don't get inside the trunk.
My impression overall is that the people who were at Eastern are friendly but wildly disorganized with very poor communication with each other and with their customers. The only reason I went to them is because USAA said they were a "preferred shop" that they work with a lot, and I sincerely hope they get their act together because this was (and CONTINUES TO BE) one of the most frustrating experiences I've ever gone through. A different body shop is trying to fix their half-assed trunk installation.
Please save yourself a massive headache and go ANYWHERE ELSE FOR YOUR CAR. read more