Maybe it's just me but does anyone else wonder how body shops stay in
business? I have now had the priveledge of working with three of the
supposedly finest body repair extablishment in the Twin Cities on four
separate occasions. In each case, they have cheerfully told me that I will
be very happy with the car when I get it back. In each case they have been
at least a week behind their longest initial time estimate. When called to
inquire about delivery it is usually said that a little extra time is
required to make sure that the car is perfect. Finally I get a call saying
that the car is done and effusing about the wonderful job that was done on
my very special car.
In every case the car has to go back for more work. Trim pieces not
attached, sunken bondo, pin holes in the paint, dents not taken out. This
last time took the cake, however. This is the first time that I have ever
gone back to the same body shop. I returned this time because they are
close to my house and they gave me a loaner last time when they had to fix
the sunken bondo and pin holes. Besides that they are a "direct repair"
shop for my insurance company so I don't have to mess around with quotes or
anything. Anyway I went to pick up my daily driver Saturday, assured that
the final bit of work had been done (they had to respray the rear hatch,
supposedly) and that I would swoon over their supperior work. Ha! There
were big scratches all over the rear bumper and quarter panels. It looked
like they dropped the bumper from 10 feet up during reassembly and that
whomever was doing the final buffing had a scredriver in his pocket as he
leaned over the car. Speaking of said buffer, there were swirl marks all
over. There was an obvious orange peal covering the entire car plus the
paint gun must have has some sort of virus because it left "paint snot"
drips all over the finish. I guess they thougt if the clear coated over it
I wouldn't notice. The topper happened this morning when my "customer
service rep" called my and asked why I had not picked the car up over the
weekend. He did not even know that I had rejected the work! If I treated
our customers like that I would be flipping burgers by now. I told him
that if I had wanted an ameteur paint job I would have done it myself. The
bill is well over 4,000 bucks so I should expect it to look decent,
shouldn't I? The fact that they tried to pass this garbage off as good
work really burns me.
Anyway the MGA has been drafted for a few more days at least as a daily
driver. 1100 miles so far in four weeks. This is supposed to be our one
week of summer with high humidity and temps in the 90's so it should be
interesting. On the other hand they haven't gotten the forecast right for
the first four weeks of MGA driving so why should they be right this time?
I'll keep the side curtains in the trunk just in case.
Sorry about the vent but this whole experience really burns my butt. I
could see if I was bothering them every day about getting it done how they
may want to hurry it out the door but I have never complained about the
amount of time. I wonder how many people just accept the crappy work and
walk away? I am sure that it isn't an easy job but at least they could be
honest about the way it looks when returning it rather than feed me some
line about how wonderful they are. What a load of hooey.
Regards,
Bill Eastman
61 MGA still performing admirably as my sole means of transportation
Generic Japanese hot hatch surrounded by gorillas with body hammers,
bondo, and a spray gun with a severe sinus condition.
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