Short story:
Body shop damaged my wheel and repaired it but i am not satisified. The wheel is good enough but it's not as good as when i gave it to them. They offered me 200 dollars (the cost to repair the wheel) off of my final bill. Is this reasonable? 200 dollars sounds so little to me...

Any advice would be appreciated!


Long story:
My car was keyed about 3 months ago. I spent long and hard deciding which shop i would bring it to. I eventually went with Alliance Collision here in Costa Mesa for reputation (they do Stillen's paint/body work), and convenience (it is close to work). The owner Steve told me "If you can tell we worked on it, then we didn't do a good job". They garuntee their work for life. So i aws confident the car would be PERFECT.

I finally brought it into the shop to be repaired about 5 weeks ago. I got it back a week and a half later after footing a 1500 dollar repair bill.

There are some minor imperfection on the rear bumper and there's still a NOTCH where the key made contact at the body panel that meets the door. The notch was not filled in to my surprise. The work would be a 8 out of 10 on my scale. The production manager there Ron seems like he's always full of ****. He didnt' stop trying to tell me how perfect the car was and how great of a job they did. But either way, they said they would take care of everything for me i would just have to bring it back once the paint is allowed to fully cure.

10 days later, the car is keyed again on the other side. Lucky me?

So i bring the car back and show them this. They quote me 1000 dollars to fix it. Two body panels (rear quarter and door). The first time was 3 body panels, entire pass side. So i leave it there and say take it away. I'm supposed to get the car back on a Thursday when i dropped it off Monday. They call me and say it won't be ready till Monday. That's fine. On Monday they call me and say the scratched one of my rocker panels and a wheel, they're going to take care of it. Car won't be ready until Friday. On Friday they call me and say it's ready. I head over there and half way there Ron calls me and says "Don't come, i'm not happy with the way it looks" I find out later that it was because he stuck the clear plastic protector on badly and he had to get a new one.

So FINALLY, yesterday (monday) I get the call saying the car is ready. I am pretty aprehensive since their track record has not been that great and the work was not as good as i expected. I get there, the paint and body work look good. I had no idea which wheel was the damaged one but i looked at all 4 of them and i immediately knew which one was the repaired one.

The paint is either running or kind of gathered on the edges of the lip like it was not sanded well before the clear went on. There's a quite a lot of dust and other particles underneath the clear. I don't know if someone else looked at it if they could tell, but i could tell. At the time the other owner Mike is the only one there and he agrees with me "the wheel guy didn't do a very good job did he? I'll have Ron take a look at it and give you a call tomorrow".

So today Ron gives me a call and spends the first 20 minutes trying to convice me how good the wheel is and how it's as good as it gets.. and eventually i say to him, "i'm under the impression that youre' just trying to convince me it's good enough and let it go" .. after that he FINALLY says to me it costs them 200 dollars to fix the wheel, and he'll give me a 200 dollar discount off of the repair bill.. i tell him i'll have to think about it.. and he sounds so fed up he just tells me to call Steve in the morning. I couldn't believe the nerve of this guy...

But i guess what i'm reallying trying to gauge is the 200 dollars reasonable? It sounds awfully little to me.

I mean, honestly, the wheel is not really that bad.. it's actually much better than the wheel that I paid to have reconditioned myself.. but the bottom line is that i didnt give them the wheel that way, i shouldn't get it back that way!

Either way, i'm never going back to this place again..

Thanks for any advice!

 

have you talked to the owner, steve? it seems like you have talked to him before taking your car in. if you have access to him somehow, i would take the compaints to them. otherwise, get some quotes from other places on how much it will cost to fix their fixes and take them to small claims court (if it is worth it to you). it usually isnt to most ppl. too bad. keeps letting places get away with bad work...

 

Actually a scratch on a wheel will cost no more than a $100 to repair at the place I go, "The Ole Wheel Shop" in MD.

 

Dang man, keyed twice? I'm worried about getting a G now...

 

I'm going to call the owner after lunch today.

Just wanted to see if i should take their 200 dollar offer. 200 dollars sounds so little!

 

Yea, perhaps u should stick with a Camry or Civic. You'll never get keyed in one of those !

 

I think it will be fair for me to ask the difference between the new wheel and a cost of a reconditioned one.