I'm not happy. It probably wasn't *all* their fault - I suspect it's a product of their issues, insurance company restrictions, and their assumptions about the wishes of their clientele. But their shop certainly played a substantial part.
It was a simple front end collision - my front passenger corner met his. No injuries, both cars drivable afterwards, although mine only for short distances because of intrusions into the wheel well.
I took my injured Honda to Dick Ide Collision because I like the Dick Ide Honda dealer. The initial repair estimate was a week, which sounded fine. Time passed and the estimate changed to two weeks, and I was tolerant. Time passed and then the estimate was five weeks (including two holidays), and I said, "WHAT'S GOING ON?!"
There were excuses, including it being a busy season and the problem of finding good help (yes, this filled me with confidence). I was assured that work had begun on my car, so I figured it didn't make any sense to yank it out of there and give it to another body shop. I expressed my frustration in civil tones, and they were understanding. My car was miraculously ready after another week (3 weeks total in the shop), and I expressed my gratitude.
The car looked great, but it made a funny grinding noise at the first traffic light. Didn't sound good, but I couldn't reproduce it.
A few days later the back end was making squeaking noises, seemingly in time with the rotation of the wheels. Sounded like the brakes, but it didn't make sense as I had recently replaced them. I also had a long drive in front of me and no time to investigate the noise.
By the time I reached my destination I knew that someone had to look at the car. This next place found broken sway bar bushings, axle boots that were starting to split and leak grease (if this had caused a seized wheel...) , and squealing brake wear indicators. I'm sure the boot issues weren't caused by the collision, and I'm willing to bet money the other two problems were.
Did Dick Ide Collision know about these issues and decide not to fix them? If so, is it because they couldn't spare the time or they didn't want to ask my insurance to cover it? If they knew, why didn't they at least advise me of the problems? The cracked boots could have caused me serious trouble - even if they didn't feel it was their place to fix them, they should have told me about them. If they didn't know, how could they NOT know - don't they give the cars a careful examination so they know what damage the collision has caused?
So, I'm not sure what the whole story is, but I won't be back. read more