I just got my car back from a shady body shop and i just discovered it's riddled with problems. The shop owner had my car parked outside in the rain so the paint was wet when I inspected it. It appeared fine so I payed for it and took it home.

A week later I took it out for a wash. Once it was dry and in the sun, I noticed several problems. The tape that is behind the door cap (which he charged me to remove) has overspray on it. The bumper which was also supposed to be removed also has a spot of overspray right next to the quarter panel they painted. There are runs in the paint, fish eyes and over spray all over the car. He also painted my front fender without my knowledge.

Not to mention he charged me a 3% credit car fee he only told me about when I picked the car up. The total for this mess was over $1,700. So my question is: Can it be fixed or does the whole job need to be redone? I'm not interested in taking my car back to this place I'd rather get it fixed elsewhere.

So I don't know what state you live in.....but here in Ohio our vendors laws are kind of specific about how services must handle problems like this. Here, you would have to take it back to them so they can "fix" their problems. Other paint shops that are reputable around me would take one look at that and say, "Take it back to the guys that made the mess." Itis indeed pretty crappy work.....

I'm in California. My experience has been if a shop can't do the job right the first time they can't do it at all. Besides I don't trust them now. Who knows what they might try and pull next. They could damage other parts of the car or even just say the car was stolen or some other shady stuff. It's not worth the risk at this point.

I don't know all the particulars of the job. but you should take it back to the shop that did it and speak to the OWNER and see what he has to say. just maybe he's not aware of the job and what happened. 1700.00 for that amount of work seams low to me especially in CA dollars, sorry, but sometime you get what you pay for.
Jay D.

badsix wrote:I don't know all the particulars of the job. but you should take it back to the shop that did it and speak to the OWNER and see what he has to say. just maybe he's not aware of the job and what happened. 1700.00 for that amount of work seams low to me especially in CA dollars, sorry, but sometime you get what you pay for.
Jay D.

Are you kidding?! Get what you pay for!? I definitely didn't pay for this garbage! I can't believe your defending this scumbag! I dealed directly with the owner! This ended up being the highest price by almost $200 compared to the other quotes. I only went to this shop based on their great reviews.

He originally quoted me $1,300. When I dropped the car off, he said he needed to remove my rear bumper so the quote went up! Then as the work was being done, he called trying to get another $260 out of me to put some filler on a small ding which can easily be popped out by a PDR guy. When I said no, he just hung up on me. Then he charged me a 3% fee to pay with a credit card. (Of course no mention of that before I dropped off the car).

This is why us consumers HATE body shops! I have never had a good experience with one. From price gouging the insurance companies to installing used parts and charging for new ones, taping parts off instead of removing them..rushing the job, and finding broken and missing interior parts when I pick up my car....I've experienced it all!

To answer your initial question, yes it can be fixed.

Fixed correctly by someone new to the job would entail completely redoing everything that was previously worked on. Simply don't know exactly what was done in the process of fixing before.

Curious, you never stated if this was an insurance job but I noticed at the bottom of your job sheet it does show "Insurance pay" of $1664.85

If this is true then I'd be handling this issue with the Insurance company. Insurance companies work within certain body shops. Ones that are (for the most part) reputable. You need to have them look at the work that was done and I'd think they would not accept this as acceptable work.

If this was not insurance work, then you're pretty much on your own.

And lastly, no one on this forum would ever side with anyone specially with dishonest body shops. Many many times folks come here looking for answers and the situation isn't explained in its entirety.

Good luck

deez28 wrote:To answer your initial question, yes it can be fixed.

Fixed correctly by someone new to the job would entail completely redoing everything that was previously worked on. Simply don't know exactly what was done in the process of fixing before.

Curious, you never stated if this was an insurance job but I noticed at the bottom of your job sheet it does show "Insurance pay" of $1664.85

If this is true then I'd be handling this issue with the Insurance company. Insurance companies work within certain body shops. Ones that are (for the most part) reputable. You need to have them look at the work that was done and I'd think they would not accept this as acceptable work.

If this was not insurance work, then you're pretty much on your own.

And lastly, no one on this forum would ever side with anyone specially with dishonest body shops. Many many times folks come here looking for answers and the situation isn't explained in its entirety.

Good luck

Jay D.

deez28 wrote:To answer your initial question, yes it can be fixed.

Fixed correctly by someone new to the job would entail completely redoing everything that was previously worked on. Simply don't know exactly what was done in the process of fixing before.

Curious, you never stated if this was an insurance job but I noticed at the bottom of your job sheet it does show "Insurance pay" of $1664.85

If this is true then I'd be handling this issue with the Insurance company. Insurance companies work within certain body shops. Ones that are (for the most part) reputable. You need to have them look at the work that was done and I'd think they would not accept this as acceptable work.

If this was not insurance work, then you're pretty much on your own.

And lastly, no one on this forum would ever side with anyone specially with dishonest body shops. Many many times folks come here looking for answers and the situation isn't explained in its entirety.

Good luck

Thank you I appreciate it! That's the other thing, I told him I was paying out of pocket. Why would he put the total as if Insurance was paying for it? Also after I paid I asked for the bill. He said he already gave that to me but what he gave me in writing when I dropped off the car says "preliminary estimate." I am going to go back and ask for the actual bill.

Is it possible to manipulate the final bill I signed after the fact? In other words can he go back and in the computer and change it so it says he charged for the fender he painted instead of the parts he didn't remove? Or even print up a new estimate and say that is the one he gave me when I dropped off the car? Is there some kind of time stamp your billing software uses that can't be altered?