Took my car to this place after getting in an accident due to the crazy gusty winds we had a couple of months back in central Texas. I have full-coverage insurance as I'm still making payments on my vehicle, so the cost was covered except for my deductible (that's right, my first accident ever, and I'm about to turn 30).
The insurance estimate said that the repairs would take 11 business days, so I had to wait until I was off work for the summer (I work for the school system) to take my car in. I dropped it off on the afternoon of Monday, June 13th. I just got it back yesterday, July 6th.
Here are some of the issues I had:
*When I dropped my car off, the friendly-seeming fellow who took the keys said that they would keep in touch with me about the progress on my car. Mind you, I didn't ask for this, he offered this up upon receiving the keys.
*When I hadn't heard anything by Friday, June 17th, I called the shop. The fellow who I spoke to said that they had had all the needed parts but one (which was a large part comprising most of the side of the car) in stock, so my car would be ready late on Tuesday the 21st or early on Wednesday the 22nd. I was really happy because that was so many less days of being stuck at home and carless than I had expected.
*I called on the morning of the 22nd since I again hadn't heard anything (notice a theme here?) and was told that the part had arrived damaged but another was coming shortly, and that the car should be ready on the 24th.
*On the 24th I called again. I was told that the part had been ordered from the supplier 4 or so times and had arrived damaged each time, so the shop was going to contact my insurance to see if they could use a new supplier.
*So I called again on the 27th and was told that my insurance had agreed and a new part was on it's way and would be there later that day or on the next day. I asked how long it would be until I got my car back, and was told that it'd take all week. This confused me because back on the 22nd I was told that installation of this part took only two days. I told the person I spoke to that I needed my car ASAP because, due to the very quick time estimate I was given by the body shop, I had agreed to do some contract work the last week of June and first week of July, but was now seemingly unable to fulfill that. I also stated that I had never received any telephone updates as I was promised, and said that I needed to have such updates so that I would know how repairs were progressing. The guy I spoke to said he would personally contact me to do this (after offering to email instead, which I said wasn't preferable since I might as well receive phone calls, being stuck at home with no car) every other day. He said that they would work as fast as they could but that most likely my car wouldn't be ready until Friday the 1st, as after the part was installed the car would need to be painted.
*Someone called me on Wednesday the 29th and told me that the car would indeed be ready Friday afternoon (7/1). That was the only call I ever received from Lost Pines Paint and Body. I said I'd be out of town on the afternoon of the 1st, and asked if it was a certainty that the car would be ready on the next business day after that (July 5th, due to the holiday). The person I spoke to said there was no way it wouldn't be ready, so I told him I'd be there to pick the car up at noon on that day. He said he'd still call on 7/1 to let me know the car was ready.
*I received no call on 7/1 but since I was on vacation, didn't call the shop to find out why. I figured they'd just neglected to call as usual.
*I called on the morning of 7/5, and of course, the car wasn't ready. I asked why and was told that the bumper that they had was the wrong one and therefore the correct one needed to be ordered from Toyota and therefore my car wouldn't be ready until the afternoon of 7/6. It wasn't until after I hung up that I realized that this made no sense because a.) I was told that all of the parts except for one were already available at the shop, so the folks had apparently been mistaken about the needed bumper from the beginning; and b.) I had been told that the car was being painted on 6/30 and 7/1, which... wouldn't the bumper problem have to have been realized before then, since it'd be part of what was painted?
*So 7/6 was the big day I was to get my car. I had to borrow my mom's car to get to work on that day, since my car wasn't supposed to be ready until the afternoon and I had an appointment at 10am. By 4:15pm or so, I still hadn't gotten a call saying my car was ready, so I called and was told that, oh yeah, my car would be ready in 45 minutes or so.
*So my car is back now. The rearview mirror vibrates a whole lot more than it did before I took it in (even post-accident), and the trunk is rattle-y but I can't figure out why. With all of the trouble I had in getting it back from this place, I guess I'm lucky those are the only problems. read more