***AVOID THIS PLACE AT ALL COSTS*** I'm not kidding!
I use Yelp all the time for recommendations, but have not written a review before. I had such a terrible experience with this auto body shop, I felt compelled to warn others to avoid all the time and money wasted here.
I got in an accident on the I-90 at the end of October on a Sunday. My car got towed to Sturbridge Service Center. Sturbridge Auto Body was less than an 1/8 mile away so we drove it there to get repaired as I live in NY. I left a note and called back on Monday. The front desk said to call back in 2 hours to get a quick estimate for the repairs since somebody was already looking at the car. Called back 3 hours later, and the person said no one had looked at the car and the person who answered was "just giving me the run around." I should have known then, to get my car the F out of there. Alas, I did not, and the story continues.
It took 3 long weeks to repair my car, I was told on Wednesday 11/13 that my car is done, please come to pick it up on Friday 11/15. I took the day off, along with my father to drive up to Massachusetts. We pull up and the owner Mark said my car was NOT READY!!! After a 2 hour car ride, **and a call to let Mark know we were on our way, like HE REQUESTED** and being told it was ready, it was not! He said give me 20 minutes to fix it, we went out to lunch and when we can back nearly 45 mins later, it was still not done. He kept blaming Allstate for this and that, never placing blame on himself, even though he had 3 weeks to repair my car.
At this point I was done and wanted my car out of this auto body shop. The owner SWORE to my father and I that my car would be okay to drive to Albany, even though it had an engine and battery light on. I took off on I-90 W. An hour into my trip, the lights on my dashboard start popping up-- brake light, tire pressure, seatbelt, etc. My speedometer then drops to zero when I was accelerating up a hill, and no shoulder. I was terrified to death, but was able to find a large shoulder to pull safely into. I called Mark and told him what happened and he immediately sent out a tow truck to come get me (as he should of). I was towed back to the auto body shop and he gave me a rental car to get to Albany that night. He even admitted he should never have let me into that car knowing the problems with it. I'm just thankful that I was not hurt.
I had to drive back that Sunday 11/17 to get my car. All seemed well, until I got in the car, turned on my wipers for the rain and the right one flew off. Mark had already left for a tow, but thankfully another worker of his was able to fix it. My radio was not even reset properly and I had to put in the code myself. When I back home to NY, I took my car to get it checked over since my headlights seemed dim and not aligned properly. When my trusted mechanic went to adjust the headlight, he said the adjusters were never put back in.. When we called to ask Mark about the adjusters, he told me to contact insurance, even though it was his shop's fault for not putting the adjusters back in!
Please let my story serve as a warning that you should not take your car here to be repaired. I wish I had went with my gut instinct and taken it out of there ASAP. It would have saved me a lot of time, headaches, and money in the end. This place just tells you what you want to hear and they don't do their job properly. read more
