I hate to give an unfavorable review to a business that my family has patronized for three generations. My recent experience with Rutherford, though, was too incredibly bad to ignore. Not only was Rutherford's communication and customer service extremely poor, but they also failed to complete the repairs in a timely manner. Two of the repairs were not done at all.
When I made an appointment to have the body work on my truck done at Rutherford's Canal Winchester location, I was told that it would take five days-- six days at the most-- to finish the repairs. Rutherford sends pictures on a daily basis showing the work in progress, and there was no visible work of any kind done for the first four days that the truck was there. According to their pictures, Rutherford began to disassemble my truck one week after I dropped it off, and the projected completion date suddenly slipped from October 3, 2016 to October 13, 2016. I was not given the simple courtesy of a telephone call to let me know that there would be a ten-day delay, and found out only through Rutherford's automated email service. When I called Mike Roop, the service manager, I was told that October 13th was only an estimate, and that he could not guarantee that my truck would be finished by then. Since I live more than 600 miles away, I requested that the truck be reassembled so I could drive it home and have it repaired there. I was informed that I could not take my vehicle elsewhere for "safety reasons."
I was also informed that the projected completion date had slipped to October 19th.
At this point, I had no choice but to call my insurance company to arrange for a rental car so that I could drive home. It was absolutely necessary for me to be home from October 10th through October 23rd, but I hated the idea of making an extra 1200 mile trip. My insurance company attempted to intervene with Rutherford, but was unable to get the repairs on my truck completed earlier.
I left Columbus on October 10th, and was 300 miles away when I received a phone call from Rutherford with the news that my truck was "looking good" for October 13th, but that some parts were still backordered. The service manage was still unable to guarantee that the repairs would be completed, but it "looked good." I canceled my appointments for the week (one of which I'd been waiting for six months) and turned around to make the 300 mile trip back to Columbus.
As of now, my truck still "looks good" for October 13th. I have no idea what the work will look like, but I do know that two of the repairs will not be done. I asked to have a bent wheel replaced at my own expense, but Rutherford was unable to locate a wheel which matched the others on my truck. That's understandable, and my only complaint is that I wasn't told until today. I also asked to have my bumper replaced at my own expense. I checked with a dealer, and the bumper was readily available. Rutherford either forgot to do this or arbitrarily decided not to do it, and didn't bother to tell me that it wasn't done. Why am I not surprised? read more