Someone redesigned my car :(
- Thread starter selavia
- Start date
Update...
Well, it's been over a week since when the shop initially promised the car would be finished. Went down there to look at it and make sure they hadn't been bullshitting me about progress. I took a look at it and it seems like they did a lot of needless tear-down. The whole car is finished with body work and painting and it just needs to be assembled, but they took the door panels off, all the rubber moldings on the inside of the door, all exterior trims, all window trims, and a bunch of stuff that got painted seperately.
Am I ignorant to what needs to be torn-down, or are they billing for unneccsary labor?
Am I quite frustrated with this whole experience and am just hoping it will be over soon and they aren't screwing me too bad. Supposedly I'll get my car back Wednesday....we'll see.
Sean
Well, it's been over a week since when the shop initially promised the car would be finished. Went down there to look at it and make sure they hadn't been bullshitting me about progress. I took a look at it and it seems like they did a lot of needless tear-down. The whole car is finished with body work and painting and it just needs to be assembled, but they took the door panels off, all the rubber moldings on the inside of the door, all exterior trims, all window trims, and a bunch of stuff that got painted seperately.
Am I ignorant to what needs to be torn-down, or are they billing for unneccsary labor?
Am I quite frustrated with this whole experience and am just hoping it will be over soon and they aren't screwing me too bad. Supposedly I'll get my car back Wednesday....we'll see.
Sean
SO I went to get my car back today...supposed to be a joyous reunion; I've bee n separated from her for over 2 and a half months. I take one look at it and I'm in horror!!!!!!!!!!!
THe Motherf(*ker painted the side sills gray after I SPECIFICALLY STATED I WANTED THEM TO MATCH THE CAR. His Response, "It was a mistake and I thought it looked better this way anyway so I left it that way hoping you'd like it" I hate the guy; what an arrogant son of a bitch. Then starts saying that, "he's not trying to get out of it, but he thinks that if I want the side skirts to match, I should buy the m3 ones and put them on. What a jerk.
THEN, my gas door doesn't close flush anymore. One mechanic fixed that on the spot, so I really shouldn't complain about that.
THEN, the key would not come out of the trunk lock; it is sticking now, everytime I lock the doors with the trunk lock; when I asked the owner about it, he said, "I worked on the lock myself and it wasn't sticking with him."![[nutkick]](/images/smilies/icon_smile_nutkick.gif "Nut Kick [nutkick]")
Then he said, "but I'll look at it for you;" he siad it as if he's doing me a f(*king favor; he f^%ked it up in the first place! ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!
Then he puts a white pinstripe on my car; I had a tan/gold color one that I liked; it looked distinct in that color. I forgot to approach him about that issue. but I'll be sure to when I got back to have him fix the rest.
So now I have to go back to that asshole on wednesday to get him to do the job right.
AND you know, I wouldn't mind that bad if he was cheap, but he raped me in cost; I ended up paying triple digits in money out of my pocket and my car looks like shit. Looks like my old camry with that fugly white pinstripe.
Oh, and the paint has like 5 blemishes!??!?!?!?!?! He refused to fix that stating, "it's expected."
F*cking bastard.
NEVER EVER TAKE YOUR CAR TO CARSTAR COLLISION REPAIR. BASTARDS.
SOrry for ranting, but I'm very angry about this ordeal.
Sean
THe Motherf(*ker painted the side sills gray after I SPECIFICALLY STATED I WANTED THEM TO MATCH THE CAR. His Response, "It was a mistake and I thought it looked better this way anyway so I left it that way hoping you'd like it" I hate the guy; what an arrogant son of a bitch. Then starts saying that, "he's not trying to get out of it, but he thinks that if I want the side skirts to match, I should buy the m3 ones and put them on. What a jerk.
THEN, my gas door doesn't close flush anymore. One mechanic fixed that on the spot, so I really shouldn't complain about that.
THEN, the key would not come out of the trunk lock; it is sticking now, everytime I lock the doors with the trunk lock; when I asked the owner about it, he said, "I worked on the lock myself and it wasn't sticking with him."
Then he said, "but I'll look at it for you;" he siad it as if he's doing me a f(*king favor; he f^%ked it up in the first place! ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!Then he puts a white pinstripe on my car; I had a tan/gold color one that I liked; it looked distinct in that color. I forgot to approach him about that issue. but I'll be sure to when I got back to have him fix the rest.
So now I have to go back to that asshole on wednesday to get him to do the job right.
AND you know, I wouldn't mind that bad if he was cheap, but he raped me in cost; I ended up paying triple digits in money out of my pocket and my car looks like shit. Looks like my old camry with that fugly white pinstripe.
Oh, and the paint has like 5 blemishes!??!?!?!?!?! He refused to fix that stating, "it's expected."
F*cking bastard.
NEVER EVER TAKE YOUR CAR TO CARSTAR COLLISION REPAIR. BASTARDS.
SOrry for ranting, but I'm very angry about this ordeal.
Sean
welcome to my world! sorry to hear that you are less than ecstatic with the results, but i had a feeling. i'd get a copy of their warranty and the corporate office number. the telephone can be used as a weapon. the better business bureau might be a place to start the war, they like to get answers. they put the chrome grills in the front of my car and i told the guy it looked like shit. he wanted to paint them black. i have a set of chrome grills in the garage i'll never use.
Finally got my car back for good. I have to say that I am still not 100% satisfied, but I give up. I'll just live with it. The guy gave me a few bullsh*t reasons regarding some of the stuff. Oh and this is funny....he got grease all over my speaker tray, so I asked him to clean it up; he did, and when I sat in my car there was white soot on the stick shift, steeringwheel, door handles, etc..
I would honestly not recommend this shop to anyone in MD; find some other place, you will not be satisfied.
What made the experience worse is the way I was treated. Maybe they treated me like that because I'm young, but I definitely did not like being talked to like I am oblvious to all things and like I'm a bumbling moron. I was talked down to and insulted several times. Their insults were not direct, but basically they said I must be wrong because they are so detail oriented that they never make mistakes.
Whatever, hopefully one day they will get their just desserts.
I'll post pictures of my car after I clean it up and shine it (cause they didn't even wash my car before they gave it back).
Thanks for all the comments regarding this fiasco; I appreciated each and every comment and suggestion; now maybe I'll let this thread and experience drift into oblivion.
Sean
I would honestly not recommend this shop to anyone in MD; find some other place, you will not be satisfied.
What made the experience worse is the way I was treated. Maybe they treated me like that because I'm young, but I definitely did not like being talked to like I am oblvious to all things and like I'm a bumbling moron. I was talked down to and insulted several times. Their insults were not direct, but basically they said I must be wrong because they are so detail oriented that they never make mistakes.
Whatever, hopefully one day they will get their just desserts.
I'll post pictures of my car after I clean it up and shine it (cause they didn't even wash my car before they gave it back).
Thanks for all the comments regarding this fiasco; I appreciated each and every comment and suggestion; now maybe I'll let this thread and experience drift into oblivion.
Sean
Well what I have to say will no doubt piss you off even more but here goes....If you recall a couple months ago I also had damage done to my 5er. The entire passenger side scraped a guard rail at about 30km per/h in the rain. I fortunately have full coverage and my deductible is 500euro(4000euro repair cost). I happily paid that amount and took my car to the BMW dealer and let them handle the rest. When I got my car back one and 2/3's weeks later it was washed, vacuumed and repainted. They even repainted a couple of nics I had on the hood and front spoiler(at no extra cost). My steering wheel had a "cute" little BMW napkins gracefully draped on the steering wheel...LOL. No paint blemishes, no white residue, no grease residue. Granted they did forget to get my cover for my tow link from the paint shop and the rubber stops for the passenger door handles but that was minor and fixed relatively fast......I guess this goes to show you what real service is like versus what you went thru. Maybe the paint will look evened out once you wax because of the clear coat.........???
Nah, your comments don't piss me off; in fact I'm kind of happy to hear that all places are not the same; that there is in fact some good shops out there who care enough to treat you and your car well. I like the BMW napkin thing.
The dealership near me has a cover they put over the steering wheel, stick (looks like a condom if you ask me, always makes me laugh), seat, floor, etc. Unfortunately that dealer does not do body repair. And what burns is I paid good money; the shop was by no means a cheap or non-reputable shop; they are very well known for BMW repair.
Yeah, after my exams this coming week, I'm gonna spend a day or two cleaning and detailing my car. I also bought a new radio so I got install that as well. I'm sure it will look much better once it's all cleaned.
You make me want to move to Germany. You got the autobahn too....lucky.
Sean
I hate to bring up such an old thread, but I thought it better to bring this one up rather than starting a new one and referring to this thread.
Okay, as anyone can read (or remember), in 2004 I was rear-ended and I had a terrible time dealing with the shop. My car was not painted the right color, the gas door gave problems, and a host of other issues. I remember thinking, at least the repair work was all right. Boy was I wrong.
Last night I began tearing down the interior of my trunk. I was removing all the panels, etc to the installation of my new suspension go faster on Saturday. Well, when I removed all the body panels I found:
(1) The welds that were done on my vehicle were separating
(2) That there was huge amount of rust all underneath the paint of my vehicle
(3) That the frame of rear (that piece of metal underneath the rear lights that goes all the way across) is completely rusted from the inside.
(4) That the paint right above the rear lights is chipping because the weld separated and it is completely rusted
I was horrified and disgusted. I stopped the tear down. I don't know whether to do the install anymore or not.
Here's what I have done (And anyone with pointers or suggestion on how to handle this, PLEASE chime in):
(1) Spoke with the repair shop who did the repairs; he told me, make an appointment, bring the car in, let him see if there is a workmanship claim, and then 'we'll discuss it;' he also said that it has a 5 year / 50,000 mile warranty of the work performed.
(2) I do not trust this man. I believe he will try and feed me some cock and bull story of how it has nothing to do with his work and that the rust is normal for a 12 year old car. But he tore down, sanded, primed and painted the entire back side of the car, so rust like that and welds separating is (or least shouldn't be) not expected. Given that I expect this nonsense to spill out of his mouth, I called my insurance company and informed them of the situation and asked them if I can take it to their adjuster, along with his work order (list of the work he performed on my vehicle) and get an estimate of cost of repair and whether he believes it is workmanship related. The person I spoke with also told me that he is referring me to an adjuster who has alot of experience, especially with BMW/MErcedes and will also give me the names of 5 repair shops that can offer me an opinion as to cost and whether the damage is poor workmanship.
After I receive several letters in writing from independent sources as to the cause being poor workmanship, I am then going to Jeff Scholtz of Car Collision Carstar of Baltimore and see what he says. If he admits and fixes, no problems. If not, I'm planning on leaving a copy of all the statements I will gather that state it is poor workmanship and giving him one chance to change his mind before taking him to court on a breach of warranty claim.
Dan, or anyone else, do you know when the Statute of Limitations runs on a warranty claim? I know the SOL is 3 years on most K disputes in MD, but I don't know when it starts running for warranty claims. I would imagine that so long as I am under warranty, I won't run into a SOL problem if it goes to court, but I want to make sure. I received the warranty in August of 2004, so I'll have to move fast if that is the case.
Any thoughts, additional suggestions, comments? Please. The more minds, the better!
Okay, as anyone can read (or remember), in 2004 I was rear-ended and I had a terrible time dealing with the shop. My car was not painted the right color, the gas door gave problems, and a host of other issues. I remember thinking, at least the repair work was all right. Boy was I wrong.
Last night I began tearing down the interior of my trunk. I was removing all the panels, etc to the installation of my new suspension go faster on Saturday. Well, when I removed all the body panels I found:
(1) The welds that were done on my vehicle were separating
(2) That there was huge amount of rust all underneath the paint of my vehicle
(3) That the frame of rear (that piece of metal underneath the rear lights that goes all the way across) is completely rusted from the inside.
(4) That the paint right above the rear lights is chipping because the weld separated and it is completely rusted
I was horrified and disgusted. I stopped the tear down. I don't know whether to do the install anymore or not.
Here's what I have done (And anyone with pointers or suggestion on how to handle this, PLEASE chime in):
(1) Spoke with the repair shop who did the repairs; he told me, make an appointment, bring the car in, let him see if there is a workmanship claim, and then 'we'll discuss it;' he also said that it has a 5 year / 50,000 mile warranty of the work performed.
(2) I do not trust this man. I believe he will try and feed me some cock and bull story of how it has nothing to do with his work and that the rust is normal for a 12 year old car. But he tore down, sanded, primed and painted the entire back side of the car, so rust like that and welds separating is (or least shouldn't be) not expected. Given that I expect this nonsense to spill out of his mouth, I called my insurance company and informed them of the situation and asked them if I can take it to their adjuster, along with his work order (list of the work he performed on my vehicle) and get an estimate of cost of repair and whether he believes it is workmanship related. The person I spoke with also told me that he is referring me to an adjuster who has alot of experience, especially with BMW/MErcedes and will also give me the names of 5 repair shops that can offer me an opinion as to cost and whether the damage is poor workmanship.
After I receive several letters in writing from independent sources as to the cause being poor workmanship, I am then going to Jeff Scholtz of Car Collision Carstar of Baltimore and see what he says. If he admits and fixes, no problems. If not, I'm planning on leaving a copy of all the statements I will gather that state it is poor workmanship and giving him one chance to change his mind before taking him to court on a breach of warranty claim.
Dan, or anyone else, do you know when the Statute of Limitations runs on a warranty claim? I know the SOL is 3 years on most K disputes in MD, but I don't know when it starts running for warranty claims. I would imagine that so long as I am under warranty, I won't run into a SOL problem if it goes to court, but I want to make sure. I received the warranty in August of 2004, so I'll have to move fast if that is the case.
Any thoughts, additional suggestions, comments? Please. The more minds, the better!
What a drag, so sorry to read your story Sean, but glad you are AOK!
Whether you are entitled to rental car costs may depend on coverage in your policy ... if it is, then your insurer has to pay it regardless of what insurance the other guy carried. But I'll bet that you will only be covered for actual costs, so if you are covered, get yourself a rental now! You might even be able to make a deal with a BMW dealer to rent a nice one.
Rules no doubt vary, but the only way you could get reimbursed for recent expenses over and above market value is for something truly additional, like maybe a super high end sound system, and even then only if it were clearly covered.
One more thing to watch out for: the insurance company won't pay to repair rusted out components that were, of course, already there. I ran into that problem some years ago when a woman broadsided my Celica. The repaired door wouldn't hang quite right, and the repairer told me that the reason was that the post was rotten (and it was) and that that wasn't covered. (I sold the car.) Hopefully you have no rust anyway.
Finally, if you go for a replacement, surely you will consider an E38 convertible? I love my E36 but covet an E38 (OK, what I really want is a retractible). Check on eBay (do an Advanced Search, with Completed Sales box checked) and you will be pleasantly surprised.
To reduce photo size, either edit it using something like Picasa / Export to folder, or use photobucket http://photobucket.com/ -- post your pix there and navigate through shrink function.
Hang in there.
Whether you are entitled to rental car costs may depend on coverage in your policy ... if it is, then your insurer has to pay it regardless of what insurance the other guy carried. But I'll bet that you will only be covered for actual costs, so if you are covered, get yourself a rental now! You might even be able to make a deal with a BMW dealer to rent a nice one.
Rules no doubt vary, but the only way you could get reimbursed for recent expenses over and above market value is for something truly additional, like maybe a super high end sound system, and even then only if it were clearly covered.
One more thing to watch out for: the insurance company won't pay to repair rusted out components that were, of course, already there. I ran into that problem some years ago when a woman broadsided my Celica. The repaired door wouldn't hang quite right, and the repairer told me that the reason was that the post was rotten (and it was) and that that wasn't covered. (I sold the car.) Hopefully you have no rust anyway.
Finally, if you go for a replacement, surely you will consider an E38 convertible? I love my E36 but covet an E38 (OK, what I really want is a retractible). Check on eBay (do an Advanced Search, with Completed Sales box checked) and you will be pleasantly surprised.
To reduce photo size, either edit it using something like Picasa / Export to folder, or use photobucket http://photobucket.com/ -- post your pix there and navigate through shrink function.
Hang in there.
The car had no rust before I originally sent it in. And even if it did, he charged me to sand blast the whole freaking back end. And I saw the whole back end (from doors to rear and C pillars) were sanded and bare metal was exposed for some time before repainting. So I cannot see how he can say the rust was already there. If it was, then he shouldn't have painted over it after sanding it.
Finally met with the shop owner. He said, "this work is definitely covered in the warranty... if there is something in our process which cause such a bad result, I'm going to back and correct it. I'm definitely going to find out who worked on this car and have a talk about it."
He seemed like he was going to handle it without issue. And he said that he'll put everything in writing. Although, I think he is still not going to lose money on this. Here's why. There is hit and run damage on my car, and I asked him for an estimate. His estimate was 3 times the highest of my other estimates. If insurance is going to cover the hit and run, I'm just going to have him fix it. But if he gave me a figure that is 3 times the amount of the highest estimate, I think he is putting in his cost to do the warranty work. I can't prove it, I don't really care. At least he owned up to the warranty work. Taking it in on July 30. Hopefully this will be resolved well.
He seemed like he was going to handle it without issue. And he said that he'll put everything in writing. Although, I think he is still not going to lose money on this. Here's why. There is hit and run damage on my car, and I asked him for an estimate. His estimate was 3 times the highest of my other estimates. If insurance is going to cover the hit and run, I'm just going to have him fix it. But if he gave me a figure that is 3 times the amount of the highest estimate, I think he is putting in his cost to do the warranty work. I can't prove it, I don't really care. At least he owned up to the warranty work. Taking it in on July 30. Hopefully this will be resolved well.
Yes Sir Mr. Daddy! Been driving my mom's minivan (Honda) for who-knows-how-long and I'm a bit tired of (1) ridiculous gas consumption (2) Having to slow down on a curve (3) Not being able to do a quick head turn to check my blind spot before changing lanes (4) Automatic transmission (5) and the random noises and creaks the thing makes every time I drive it.