so there was a tornado near my house august 18th ish, my car got some damage, dents and random scratches all over. i called the insurance company, they sent out someone to appraise the damage and told me to take it to what ever collision shop i feel comfortable with. I decided the best place to take it to is to the meade lexus dealership near my house. They take the car, august 30th and send it to their collision shop meade collision. i call twice a week every week the guy keeps telling me the end of every week its going to be ready. I finally got my car back yesterday october 8th. He tells me there are still some scratches on the car, so he has to go back through the insurance company and get it approved, so i can take it or they will hold it there until they are done. i missed my car too much i picked it up on my break(didnt have much time to look at the car). i get it and turn the key, my fob breaks off from the key? i get to work and examine the car some, i notice about 80% of the scratches from before are still there, and there is still a couple of dents. I see the detailed page of what they did to my car, and the total was $2,600.

What should i do,
-call meade collision, and talk to a manager?
-call insurance company and tell them what happened?
-take it to another collision shop and ask them for an estimate?
-tell my story to local channel 4 news?

 

call manager first and tell them they missed a lot of stuff.

 

top two - contact insurance and the dealer both... make sure you talk to someone with some pull at the dealership, manager or service manager...

too late for you, but, every time I've even known anyone to have an experience with a dealer body shop, the results have been horrible... all body shops take time, but dealers seem to be the worst...

for anyone that has to deal with repair of this nature (cosmetic), my advice is to first get a list of insurance approved repair facilities, and then shop through them until you find one with an amazing reputation...

because they are on the insurance's approved list, they will have to follow the insurance guidelines for repair, and you will have more recourse if something is not right... also, they can contact the insurance directly, leaving you out of the equation and generally all you have to do is drop the car off and sign for it when you pick it up, plus pay the deductible...

there are many many shops out there that are able to refinish a car much better than dealer techs will be able to - they always have business because they are the dealer - independents survive on word of mouth and quality of work (or cheap prices, but we all know who those are anyways)

 

I have to agree that there are excellent body shops on the market that are often better than the dealer-operated ones. Basically, mitsuguy has given some good advice here......there isn't much I can add to it, except to say that I don't carry any deductible on the comprehensive part of my policy (which includes weather-related stuff like the tornado you experienced). With my insurance company (GEICO), they have good low rates to start with.....and increasing the deductible doesn't drop the premium enough to justify it, IMO.

And, in your case, if you dont get satisfaction from the Lexus shop, (and if they are your insurance company's approved list of shops) they'll have to deal with your insurance company...and they may not get paid (over and above your deductible, of course) until you ARE satisfied. That's a pretty powerful incentive for them to get it right.

 

the car looked great when i got it but it was just because of the detail, after looking at it theres scratches on the hood, roof, trunk, rear bumper, side mirror, just all over. For me to be without my car for a month i would at least expect more then a detail. so you guys are saying to call the insurance company first and tell them? or call the manager and tell them i want it fixed right?

 

1. Call both of them and let them know that you expect the repairs to be done correctly.

2. Even YOU stated in your OP that they told you that there were still scratches and such still on your car and that they would have to get auth to have it repaired. Right then and there a full visual inspection would have been done on the spot and the car would not have left the facility.

3. Bodyshops are a PITA to deal with sometimes, especially ones that are not recommended by your insurance company. The mentality with them is,,"It's an insurance claim, we aint making no money on this job, put it to the side and we will get to it when we do." (have friends who work in a bodyshop,,this is not the first time I have heard them use that phrase). They take FOREVER getting work done and in alot of cases, the delay WILL inconvenience you quite a bit.

4. Take pics now, if you haven't already done so, of the visual repairs which STILL need to be completed. Also, ask them to point out and show you where the $2600 in repair work was already done.