dean1484 wrote:
You are paying your insurance to make you whole.
This is what insurance is all about. You suffered a loss. They restore you to the financial condition you were in before the accident. If they (or their agents, in this case the body shop) do not restore you to pre-accident condition, they are on the hook. You can sue them but if necessary, drive to one of their claims offices and have them look it over. They should see it your way. If they don't, get a lawyer and file suit. Or take them to small claims court if you're eleigible in your state. It will never see a courtroom if their smart and you can bill them for your legal expenses as well.
I had some time to think through about the steering wheel and it makes myself even more pissed off. They had to take the wheel off to replace the clockspring. So who in the shop was the dumbass that put the wheel back on with the wheels TURNED and/or without some sort of realigning witness mark?
Grrrrrr.....
I had my Accord fixed and 3 weeks later I noticed some weld slatter on the rear window. Minor but I got stuck since I missed it at inspection.
I am impressed that there are placed where you can get paid to do such poor work. I've worked at three body shops and if nothing else that crooked steering wheel could never get returned to the customer. Even the lowest budget place I was at worked at getting good panel gaps and finishes. With a bit of skill and time a competent metal man will get good results from most aftermarket pieces. I don't know how much recourse you have if you picked the car up and paid them but I would have held onto the check until it was completed to my satisfaction.
In reply to Ranger50:
That's just crazy. I mean really crazy. The most basic thing........alignment. Damn.
Jerry From LA wrote:
dean1484 wrote:
You are paying your insurance to make you whole.
This is what insurance is all about. You suffered a loss. They restore you to the financial condition you were in before the accident. If they (or their agents, in this case the body shop) do not restore you to pre-accident condition, they are on the hook. You can sue them but if necessary, drive to one of their claims offices and have them look it over. They should see it your way. If they don't, get a lawyer and file suit. Or take them to small claims court if you're eleigible in your state. It will never see a courtroom if their smart and you can bill them for your legal expenses as well.
Sigh...whatever. Pretty much everything in that post is wrong.
These threads crack me up. Such bitterness, such completely misguided anger...and the people who actually know the truth are wrong. So yes, clearly you all "know" that insurance companies tell body shops how to fix a car. Keep on believing that...
Insurance companies try to pay less by requiring body shops to do stupid stuff. The better ones have ways around doing that stupid stuff if you complain enough. For instance I had front end damage to a car and the hood was bent as hell. The body shop, per the insurance, tried to bend the hood back into shape. The first try was laughably bad, the hood was bowed up in the middle so obviously I had to wonder if they were serious. After that I could just tell it wasn't right on visual inspection even when they got it fairly close. Eventually they put a new hood on after I told them it wasn't acceptable and somehow they worked it out with the insurance.
That you have already paid these guys essentially out of your own pocket and they don't have a deal with your insurance to me means they just need to get their act together and fix the thing. I mean, how can you bring the owner of the shop to the car and he says with a straight face that everything is good with it?
Klayfish wrote:
Jerry From LA wrote:
dean1484 wrote:
You are paying your insurance to make you whole.
This is what insurance is all about. You suffered a loss. They restore you to the financial condition you were in before the accident. If they (or their agents, in this case the body shop) do not restore you to pre-accident condition, they are on the hook. You can sue them but if necessary, drive to one of their claims offices and have them look it over. They should see it your way. If they don't, get a lawyer and file suit. Or take them to small claims court if you're eleigible in your state. It will never see a courtroom if their smart and you can bill them for your legal expenses as well.
Sigh...whatever. Pretty much everything in that post is wrong.
These threads crack me up. Such bitterness, such completely misguided anger...and the people who actually know the truth are wrong. So yes, clearly you all "know" that insurance companies tell body shops how to fix a car. Keep on believing that...
I said nothing of the sort. The insurance company needs to make the insured financially whole again. The burden is on them. If the insured can prove the body shop did a E36 M3ty job of repairing the car (and in this case, that's not too hard), they have a case for either repairing the car to the proper standard (somewhere else) or providing monetary compensation to make up the difference. Body shops are going to do what they're going to do. Frankly, most of the public isn't all that discerning so the body shop probably relied on that fact when they spent as little time and resources as possible to fix the car so they can pocket more money.
Klayfish wrote:
Jerry From LA wrote:
dean1484 wrote:
You are paying your insurance to make you whole.
This is what insurance is all about. You suffered a loss. They restore you to the financial condition you were in before the accident. If they (or their agents, in this case the body shop) do not restore you to pre-accident condition, they are on the hook. You can sue them but if necessary, drive to one of their claims offices and have them look it over. They should see it your way. If they don't, get a lawyer and file suit. Or take them to small claims court if you're eleigible in your state. It will never see a courtroom if their smart and you can bill them for your legal expenses as well.
Sigh...whatever. Pretty much everything in that post is wrong.
These threads crack me up. Such bitterness, such completely misguided anger...and the people who actually know the truth are wrong. So yes, clearly you all "know" that insurance companies tell body shops how to fix a car. Keep on believing that...
Please explain how I am wrong as I was told that by my insurance agent of 30+ years.
I'm lucky enough to have a friend who owns a local body shop, and when i've had repairs to make, he's usually helped me get the quote sorted with insurance so we know what the parts budget is, and then I've gone out and hunted parts myself.
With some resourcefulness and forum hunting, I can usually find used OE panels for same or less than the aftermarket the insurance company wants to pay for. He gets better panel fitment from the get-go, it doesn't cost me any more out of pocket, and everything comes back together better. I make sure he ends up with a little extra cash to make sure he doesn't end up on the short end of the deal.
I do usually end up out the additional time it takes to source/gather parts, but I'm usually happy with the end result.
Sorry for the current situation OP. I have had other friends get repaired (poorly) OE parts replaced with proper OE stuff from insurance company after enough bitching. The shop got insurance to cough up additional money after some exchanges proving inadequacy of repair, and/or aftermarket fitment. Keep being the squeaky wheel.
You know I just had an idea. I wonder if a business could be started as a accident repair consultant (not sure of the proper name at the moment).
For the most part the general public does not know a good repair from a bad one and would not know if they got a new fender or a gallon of bondo on the old one. You would act as a car owners representative through the repair process of a car. And part of this service would be to inspect and issue a recommendation of acceptance or rejection of a car once notified that it is complete by the auto body shop. I don't know how this would be paid for but considering the $$$$$ involved with many car repairs and that in many cases the owner of the car will have to live with them for many years to me it seems to make cence. No different than highering a consultant for other things in life. In an at fault accident it is something that should be paid for by the party at fault. I am not sure on how this would work but I like the concept of having an independant 3rd party inspect the repairs to a car and advise the owner on acceptance or not.
The down side is you would be hated by both the auto-body shops as well as the insurance company's but it would take the car owner out of the battle for the most part (if there has to be one).
Hummmmmm interesting idea for a business. Kind of like being an attorney representing a car owner but with a very specialized skill set with respect to the auto repair business. I bet that many people would pay for this service.
dean1484 wrote:
Please explain how I am wrong as I was told that by my insurance agent of 30+ years.
I don't know your agent, so I can't cast judgment. I'll just say that 95% of the time, agents don't have any understanding how claims works. Best analogy I can give you is like going into a Honda dealer and asking the salesman to tell you how to rebuild a new Accords' motor step by step. The guy in the service bay can, but can the salesman?
So I just got back from dropping it off...
Omg. I got a very basic pass the buck kind of conversation and how the cover is used and that's how I get them and insurance doesn't give me anymore time to do anything but a basic scuff and shoot. Ok fine you want to play that game I can easily play the don't drop E36 M3 off here to be fixed because you get E36 M3 work back. Hood he'll easily align back out. The whole steering wheel he's all concerned over having to reset the module and subsequent alignment.... and I'm standing there thinking, "BFD. If you would have fixed it right in the first place I wouldn't be standing here."
The saga continues.....
Good luck man. I hate crap like this.
Not getting into a pissing match here but insurance agents may have a certain bias when it comes to this discussion. I've advocated for myself and others over the years and gotten work corrected. I did this for myself as recently as two years ago when my car came back from the body shop with a poorly-fitted hood and left front fender(I was run off the road). The car was also missing a couple of lug nuts and one lug stud was snapped off. I wrote letters, worked the phones, and started a small claims case. I called the manager of the body shop and asked him for some particulars regarding his shop for the small claims case I was starting naming his shop and the insurance company. We got into a civil conversation which resulted in his shop taking the car back and repairing it properly. I was not going to accept the work done on my car for an accident that wasn't my fault. It was easier for him to rectify the situation than it was to be dragged into court. In this case, the body shop owner conceded first. If that didn't work, the insurance company was next.
Nobody stands up for you better than you. To say "that's the way it is at the body shop" or "my insurance guy says it's this way so that's it" means you're defeated before you start. There's always a way, especially when you're right and they're wrong.
I don't have money squirting out of my ears so the losses I suffer at the hands of others are much more acute and worth fighting for.
Ranger50 wrote:
So I just got back from dropping it off...
Omg. I got a very basic pass the buck kind of conversation and how the cover is used and that's how I get them and insurance doesn't give me anymore time to do anything but a basic scuff and shoot. Ok fine you want to play that game I can easily play the don't drop E36 M3 off here to be fixed because you get E36 M3 work back. Hood he'll easily align back out. The whole steering wheel he's all concerned over having to reset the module and subsequent alignment.... and I'm standing there thinking, "BFD. If you would have fixed it right in the first place I wouldn't be standing here."
The saga continues.....
It could be worse, it could be completely finished with $14k worth of work on a $17k valued vehicle only to find out the engine cradle is bent. 
I have had my pickup back to the same shop (Doc's Autobody!) three times for minor damage and in one case pretty major damage. It is not possible to see the repairs they have done. Awesome job every time. So good shops are out there.
Car is back after sitting there for 7 hrs to adjust the hood and steering wheel without any explanation on repairs....
Still didn't even fix the bumper cover but I guess chalk this up to lesson learned and never return.
