Hail damage repair rant

[RaftingDave]

Long story short...got clobbered by a hail storm in June. Adjusters came out, told me the roof would have to be torn off and replaced, hood replaced. About $7k.

OK.

I called one repair shop in early July - they did a good job on my wife's Jeep a few years ago after a pretty bad front end accident. They said they could schedule me for November 2019. A year and a half.

Called another, they said October this year. We took it in Tues Oct 2. Guy said they'd see if they could PDR the roof. Called me back that Friday - success, they saved the roof. They had the new hood and it would all go into paint that weekend. Might see it as soon as Tues Oct 9. He'd call.

Called me back Thurs Oct 11, "sorry for the delay, it'll go into paint this weekend...let's say done Wed to be on the safe side."

I called Tues, left a msg. Called Wed, left a msg...he called back Thurs, said, "eh, we're having trouble getting cars out of paint, we're going to have a meeting..." (Oh good, a meeting !!)

To make up for all this, he offered me a clear front-end bra for free. I declined. (Do you guys use these?)

I may get the thing back next Wed - 22 days later, after presumably doing the hard part (the roof PDR) in three days.

I understand this stuff isn't necessarily easy - but why do shops take business when they can't get it done?


(Then I turn the truck over to my dealership on Monday for the recalls...)

//RANT

 

[Hootbro]

Just about all body shops are the same way. Anything that requires a lot of hands on work and refinishing is hard to schedule around. Then if something goes wrong or a customers perception of outcome is different, then there is rework that is not in the original time schedule. Plus everybody wants theirs done yesterday.

Not excusing it but just the nature of the business and that will probably never change.

 

[RaftingDave]

Fair enough. I am presuming (although the guy there didn't say so) that it took two weeks to get my truck into the paint phase because one or more projects ahead of me went sideways and chewed up their techs' time.

My concern was that re-connecting all the electronics and the interior (headliner, etc) on MY truck was the delay. But transparency doesn't seem to be this shop's long suit. Where I work, you meet a deadline or tell your customer why you missed it and what the new deadline is.