My experience with Ramin and his team at Oscar Auto Body was so excellent that I feel compelled to write my first Yelp review in years to tell you about it.
I found Oscar Auto Body through this very Yelp page, and I want to pay it forward. Stop searching and just bring your vehicle to Ramin; at LEAST to get a free quote and meet him. Ramin is an excellent, genuine small business owner of the kind you rarely find these days, and the quality and integrity of service I got from Oscar Auto Body were absolutely top notch.
Let me tell you, Yelp reader, two quick things about my experience to convince you:
1. Ramin took the time to explain my options and teach me how the repair was going to work, so that I could make the right choices for me and my budget. I won't lie... Oscar Auto Body was the third body shop I talked to. I had already found a pretty good guy recommended by a coworker, and also got an estimate from a big-name-shop pushed hard by my insurance agent. But both of those shops left me feeling uncomfortable and confused... they looked over my damage (sad to admit: I swiped a motionless concrete pillar in my garage, destroying a door and denting the rear quarter panel) and said "OK, here's the price. Take it or leave it."
That price was bad. It was right around the "break even" point... where I could either pay it straight up cash now (ouch), or I could pay my deductible and file an insurance claim, and pay the rest of that same amount over the next 3 years in increased premiums, AND risk losing my insurance if I got in another accident. And I didn't even know how good the repair was going to turn out.
Dilemma. Uncomfortable.
Then I talked to Ramin. Ramin came out and looked over my car WITH me, walking me through how he was making his estimate. He brought up options I didn't know I had... I could paint & blend the entire side of my car for the best "like new" appearance, OR, I could save some money by only painting the door (which I would have to replace either way). I could buy a new door for $X, or we could try and find one from salvage, for less, but it might take so and so much time to find that door.
I wasn't sure what to say about the paint, so he took me to his paint shop to show me a car of similar color that his team had just repainted, to show me how it would turn out. He gave me his honest opinion that his paint guys were very good, and that in most lights I would never tell the difference, but that in some lights I might. He told ME to decide whether that aesthetic difference was important to me, and here's how much the cost difference was. Then we talked about the dent damage, and he explained how they would go about fixing it, and how the various parts of the car were connected, to explain the disassembly/reassembly costs that went into the estimate.
I walked away completely understanding what was going to happen, and how much each step was going to cost. I don't think tell Ramin at the time, but he already had my business. I walked away feeling very, very confident in what was going to happen, and that I had gotten a fair price for great work.
2. The car turned out fantastic. And on time. And on budget.
At the end of the day, whether you're searching Yelp for a great quality body shop or an honest one, you found it.
Ramin, if you read these reviews: I really, really appreciate the work you did for me, and the honest, considerate way that you treated me as a customer. Thank you for making this frustrating experience so much more comfortable, and thank you for making my car such a pleasure to drive again! read more