There are many one-star reviews on the Internet that are probably a little unfair, in which the reviewer gave a one-star grade because of a trifling issue. This is not that review. To make a long story short, these people gave us a low-ball estimate, and then, once we received the funds from the person who hit us, tacitly refused to take our car for repair. This left us short of the money we needed to repair the full damage on our car, and also left us wondering why Hi Tech Auto Body gave us a low-ball offer in the first place. But to top it all off, the woman running Hi Tech Auto Body is so rude and nasty that we strongly recommend to anyone reading this review to STEER CLEAR.
Here is the detailed story:
Our car was rear-ended in August of 2015. The police came and took a report. The woman who hit us begged us -- BEGGED US -- not to use insurance, for reasons that are completely unknown to us. So, since we didn't think it made any difference to us, we said okay. In addition, after we got an estimate from an auto body shop that is very highly rated on Yelp in the Bronx, when the woman who hit us balked at the estimate, she asked us to get a second opinion from Hi Tech Auto Body. We weren't obligated to do so, but, again, we did so to be nice.
Hi Tech gave an estimate that was several hundred dollars less than the place in the Bronx. However, when I looked carefully at Hi Tech's estimate, I saw that it was missing a few items that the Bronx shop included, so, I called Hi Tech back and asked them to include these items in the estimate. (Besides stupidly agreeing to not go through insurance, I think this is the second place where I went wrong. I think that at this point, the woman at Hi Tech for some reason took some huge exception to the fact that I had asked her to go back and include these items in the estimate.)
We then got a check from the woman who hit us for the amount of Hi Tech's low-ball estimate. Fine, we thought. Hi Tech can somehow do the work for several hundred dollars less than that place in the Bronx, but okay. All we have to do is bring the car into Hi Tech, and they'll perform the repairs, and everything will be taken care of.
Not so fast. This was back in October. "We're too busy, call us back in two months," snapped the Hi Tech woman.
"Two MONTHS??" we thought. Well, we didn't have much of a choice, we figured. The woman who hit us had given us a check, so, that was that. All we could do was wait until Hi Tech took our car.
At the end of November, we called Hi Tech back. "No, no, we're too busy right now. I'll call you when we can take you," said the woman.
In January, we called her again, to check in and see if they could finally take us. "No, no, we're jammed with work."
"But you said that back in November."
"Well, we've had a lot of cars come in on tow trucks."
"Well, if our car came in on a tow truck, would you take us then?"
"..."
It's now the beginning of February. We decided to give it one last try. The woman, once she recalled which car is ours, said that business is "absolutely crazy" these days, and that they can't take us.
"But we've been waiting since October. That's, like, 4 or 5 months. How much longer do you want us to wait? Another 4 or 5 months?"
"Yes."
You can probably imagine that the conversation did not last very long after that, nor was it the most friendly and cordial conversation, either.
In sum, we wouldn't do business with this shop even if all other body shops between here and Mexico were flattened by a giant fire-breathing rat. We would sooner walk through massive piles of stale poodle excrement than deal with these awful people again. These people caused us great, great difficulty, irritation, frustration, and annoyance, and we dearly hope the same does not happen to you. read more