Hi guys,

This is a continuation for a thread I created several months back:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...shop-woes.html

My car was in a severe accident last year and it involved both the front and rear passenger doors needing to be replaced. The B pillar and quarter panel was to be replaced too. After having the car at the shop for 2 months, I finally picked it up in early December but found several issues when I was there at the shop. The passenger side doors were hard to close, doors seemed to be misaligned from the outside of the car, scratch on the rear passenger glass that was to be replaced, globs of clear coat in the door jamb area, along some other small issues. When I asked the shop owner why the car wasn't done properly, he said to make a list of the items and he'll fix them later on.

Fast forward about a week and I drop the car off again, he was able to align the doors so that they look better on the outside but they still required some effort to close them. Nowhere near the smooth opening and closing like the driver side. At this point, I just wanted the car back so I picked it up and there was the still the door jamb area that wasn't sanded properly. Through out the 2 months after this, I've been back another 4 times to have those issues fixed but even after him telling me that he adjusted the doors, they still require more effort to close them.

I just got back today (2/17/14) from having him adjust them but they're still the same. When I complained to him about it, he said that the car will never be the same since it's been in an accident (kind of weird for a owner of a body shop to tell me this) and that I was being too picky. This is when I left and told him that I was going to contact the insurance company and have the doors aligned at the dealer. On the way home, I dropped by a local body shop and told the shop manager there what I was going through. He came out to look at my car and asked for details on the accident and he went through and peeled back some of the plastic covers and told me a lot news I didn't want to hear; the welds for the B pillar were dirty, a lot plastic clips for wiring harnesses were broken and never replaced, the paint job had too much clear coat drips, and finally, the chance that my quarter panel/B pillar wasn't installed properly.

After getting home and calling the insurance company to tell them the news, they said that since I was the one who chose the shop, there's not much they can do.

Any help on what I can do next besides bringing the shop to court?

*Edit* Insurance emailed me back today and wrote that they will forward my info the the regional quality control guy to inspect the car against the estimate. This probably won't happen for another 2-3 weeks though.

-Rog

Right after accident:



After picking it up the first time:









Door hinge on B Pillar:

 

do you have pictures? If so, post them up.. if you decide to go to court, you'll want pictures.

 

Wow this sucks, yeah you need facts and pictures of those issues before you bring him to court. Other than that I would say trade it but I think a dealer will see the major mistakes and probably be scared to take it or low ball you.

 

I took pics of everything but some of the problems don't show up on camera very well. I'll need to upload them.

 

did you take this to the Gerber shop in Kent? I took my wife's highlander there and their repair job is ****astic to say the least. I had to take it back 3x before everything was fixed correctly and I still think it's a **** job but insurance won't authorized another shop to do more work on it.

 

Yeah, my old Corolla was hit in the same spot some years ago and that door was never the same. Sold it and bought a brand new Camry. Once a car is hit, it will never be the same, no matter how good the body shop is.

 

Wow, I almost forgot about this post.

It was a shop called Kiet's Autobody. I brought it to another shop called Haury's Collision for a post repair inspection. They found that Kiet didn't replace the quarter panel in the original repair but used bondo instead. He even bent a brand new rear door to get it to fit on the car. B pillar was hammered and never sectioned off and replaced.

Long story short, I ended up hiring an attorney and independent adjuster to sue the shop. While this was going on, I paid out of pocket to re-repair all the work that Kiet's did but even more damage was found that was caused by the accident. A few years later, I won the case out of court and Keit's shop insurance and my own insurance ending up footing the bill.

 

Just sold the car a few weeks ago after 9+years of ownership.