Sigh
On the 25th of March a hailstorm rolled through north Austin. Unfortunately for me, I was at work that night and my cr took some damage as a result of simply being parked in the work parking lot. When I got home that Friday morning, I went online and filed a hail damage claim with my insurance company. That Sundya I heard form them and set up an appointment to have the damage looked at and an estimate drawn up. So far, so good.
I went to the appointment, to find a Caliber Collision center as the location of the damage estimates. They were quick and pretty painless at this step. At the time I didn't have a shpo I was definately going to use, so the insuance company noted that and mailed me a check a few days later. So far so good. Because of their professionalism at this step I booked my car in to a Caliber Collision center nearer me to have the work done.
I dropped my car off on Monday the 5th of April with a Cailber Collision shop for the hail damage repair. When I talked to the advisor who was assigned to my car he was friendly and understanding of a Mustang owner in regards to their car. He promised to provide regular updates as to what was happening to my car and if they needed to put in a supplemental claim for a hood replacement he would notify me as soon as possible. On Tuesday I got a call that my car had been moved to another Caliber Collision shop, and wouldn't be handled by the one local to me, the one with a Service Advisor that I trusted to keep me appraised of the situation. I received no other phone calls between then and Thursday at noon.
I called the shop that has my car around noon on Thursday to find that they had just begun to work on it. After three and a half days with my car they finally ask me for a wheel lock key so that they can pull the wheels to get into the inner fenders. So I drove over there.
The Service Advisor assigned to my car didn't seem to take my concerns seriously nor was she willing to give me a promise of returning my car in a timely manner. When I complained and ann0unced that they just needed to give me my car back, she went to get the shop manager. He was also less than helpful and didn't seem to see my point that they had failed in their duty to me as a customer to keep me apprised of what was going on. Apparently they hadn't even started on the repairs until this morning. Again I demanded my car back, and advised him that not only that, but I would see to it that they were not paid for anything they had done to this point. He promised to put the car back together, since they have the nose and headlights out, and that I could get my car this afternoon, but that it wouldn't be done. I walked out on him.
When I got to the rental car, I called USAA, my insurance carrier, to advise them of the current course of action.. Their representative put me on hold to call the body shop herself. I received my dimpled car back that afternoon and insurance agreed that I didn't need to pay anything for it.
On Friday morning, first thing, I went into the other shop that the insurance company recommended to talk to someone beore actually booking my car in for repair. Their shop manager came out and looked over the damage, and we came up with a plan. This afternoon their paintless dent repair tech is going to look over my car and make his determination as to what needs to be done. Since the only thing that Caliber told me was that the hood was going to need to be replaced, I put in an order myself for a good replacement hood, and told this shop that I would book the car in after I had the hood in my possession. To ensure that it could be in and out in a week and wouldn't spend two weeks sitting waiting for parts. He's going to put in the supplimental request with the insurance company for the hood replacement, so that ultimately that won't come out of my pocket either, just the $500 deductible.
This 2nd shop has an online update page on their web site. As a customer with a repair order number I can go online to look at their current progress every day until I get it back. This is what I want to feel good about someplace I'm going to leave my car with for work lasting more than a day.
I went to the appointment, to find a Caliber Collision center as the location of the damage estimates. They were quick and pretty painless at this step. At the time I didn't have a shpo I was definately going to use, so the insuance company noted that and mailed me a check a few days later. So far so good. Because of their professionalism at this step I booked my car in to a Caliber Collision center nearer me to have the work done.
I dropped my car off on Monday the 5th of April with a Cailber Collision shop for the hail damage repair. When I talked to the advisor who was assigned to my car he was friendly and understanding of a Mustang owner in regards to their car. He promised to provide regular updates as to what was happening to my car and if they needed to put in a supplemental claim for a hood replacement he would notify me as soon as possible. On Tuesday I got a call that my car had been moved to another Caliber Collision shop, and wouldn't be handled by the one local to me, the one with a Service Advisor that I trusted to keep me appraised of the situation. I received no other phone calls between then and Thursday at noon.
I called the shop that has my car around noon on Thursday to find that they had just begun to work on it. After three and a half days with my car they finally ask me for a wheel lock key so that they can pull the wheels to get into the inner fenders. So I drove over there.
The Service Advisor assigned to my car didn't seem to take my concerns seriously nor was she willing to give me a promise of returning my car in a timely manner. When I complained and ann0unced that they just needed to give me my car back, she went to get the shop manager. He was also less than helpful and didn't seem to see my point that they had failed in their duty to me as a customer to keep me apprised of what was going on. Apparently they hadn't even started on the repairs until this morning. Again I demanded my car back, and advised him that not only that, but I would see to it that they were not paid for anything they had done to this point. He promised to put the car back together, since they have the nose and headlights out, and that I could get my car this afternoon, but that it wouldn't be done. I walked out on him.
When I got to the rental car, I called USAA, my insurance carrier, to advise them of the current course of action.. Their representative put me on hold to call the body shop herself. I received my dimpled car back that afternoon and insurance agreed that I didn't need to pay anything for it.
On Friday morning, first thing, I went into the other shop that the insurance company recommended to talk to someone beore actually booking my car in for repair. Their shop manager came out and looked over the damage, and we came up with a plan. This afternoon their paintless dent repair tech is going to look over my car and make his determination as to what needs to be done. Since the only thing that Caliber told me was that the hood was going to need to be replaced, I put in an order myself for a good replacement hood, and told this shop that I would book the car in after I had the hood in my possession. To ensure that it could be in and out in a week and wouldn't spend two weeks sitting waiting for parts. He's going to put in the supplimental request with the insurance company for the hood replacement, so that ultimately that won't come out of my pocket either, just the $500 deductible.
This 2nd shop has an online update page on their web site. As a customer with a repair order number I can go online to look at their current progress every day until I get it back. This is what I want to feel good about someplace I'm going to leave my car with for work lasting more than a day.