Complaint Review: Dave's Collision Center - Fort Worth Texas

Stephen Shepard brought his 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse into Dave's Collision Center for repairs on 10/14/09 with two separate claims.  Repair time, or cycle time as it's referred to in the industry, is never an absolute and is always based on working days.  Repairs are a process and variables exist which are beyond a shops control which can extend the total time it takes to repair a vehicle. 

In Mr. Shepard's case, his insurance company did not provide estimates or authorize repairs to begin until 10/18/09.  The original hail damage claim totaled $1305.00 and the original collision repair, the minor dent, totaled $1520.46.  Based on those estimates and understanding the repairs can not take place simultaneously it's my belief Mr. Shepard misunderstood the estimated 5 day maximum completion date to be 5 working days per claim.

In addition, both claims required us to request more repair costs and time from Mr. Shepard's insurance company for damage which was not visible during the initial evaluation by the insurance company's adjuster.  This is referred to as a supplement within the industry and is a common occurrence.  Work on a vehicle has to stop until the insurance company has an opportunity to review and approve any supplemental request.  This requirement would nullify any previous estimated completion date given to Mr. Shepard and extra time would have to be added.   We submitted the supplemental requests on 10/27/09 but did not get approval from the insurance company until 10/30/09.  At which time the final cost to repair the hail damage was set at $2,082.36 and the minor dent at $1,663.07.  Those repairs were completed on 11/6/10.

At the same time we were working on the Eclipse Mr. Shepard was trying to get Huggins Mitsubishi to repaint his entire car.  The paint on his vehicle was beginning to oxidize after only 3 years which would indicate something went wrong in the paint process when the vehicle was manufactured.  Huggins Mitsubishi eventually agreed to re-paint the car but wanted to perform the work themselves.  Mr. Shepard insisted we be allowed to do the work since the vehicle was already in our shop.  On 11/10/09 Huggins Mitsubishi finally approved Dave's to perform the work under the condition we provided Mr. Shepard with a lifetime warranty, he was satisfied with the final paint job, and they paid to re-paint the problem areas not the entire car.  They paid a total of $1350.00.

Between the insurance company and Mitsubishi a large majority of the vehicle was being repainted anyway so we agreed to paint the rest of the car, free of charge.  This gave Mr. Shepard a substantial cost savings and protection from other problem areas occurring in the future with the original manufacturer's paint.  In addition we saved Mr. Shepard $625.00 off his deductibles leaving him with a total out of pocket expense of $75.00 for all three repairs, hail, dent, and the all over paint job.  We even got his insurance company to extend his rental coverage through the entire process even though the repairs they paid for had already been completed several weeks prior to delivery.  Mr. Shepard's total monetary benefit was well over $1,200.00.

The vehicle was delivered to Mr. Shepard on 11/20/09 and he praised us for the way the paint job looked.  Only after having the vehicle serviced by Huggins Mitsubishi and being told by them "our" paint job was inadequate did Mr. Shepard bring his car back with complaints.  There were some very minor issues that required the vehicle to be buffed.  Not an unusual occurance in the industry with all over paint jobs.  Depending on the light and reflection some discrepancies, orange peel, debris in the paint, etc. are not always immediately noticeable.  These problems can be cleared up rather easily through what the industry calls denib and buff, a process that takes only a few hours. 

Chipping is not a result of a substandard paint job but occurs by rocks and other items being thrown against the vehicle during normal driving conditions.  Still in an effort to provide Mr. Shepard with excellent customer service we agreed to touch up those areas as well.  However, that process can take more time and since several days were needed Mr. Shepard was unfortunately at a loss for transportation. We completed the necessary warranty work and chip repairs.  Mr. Shepard again left satisfied with the results.

As stated before, Mr. Shepard received over twelve hundred dollars worth of discounts, several weeks of free rental coverage because we convinced his insurance company to extend his rental through the Mitsubishi repair, the chipping was not a result of poor quality work, we were fixing the chipping free of charge, and it was this work Mr. Shepard wanted done which left himself without transportation.  

At Dave's Collision Center we try our best to provide our clients with the best possible customer service, inform and educate them about the repair and insurance process, complete all repairs necessary to restore their vehicle to pre-accident condition, repair the vehicle as quickly as variables allow, reduce out of pocket expenses for our customers, and stand behind our work through a lifetime warranty.  In short we work for our clients and try to do what's in their best interests

In this case, Mr. Shepard expectations on how long the repairs took and his subsequent need for transportation seem to be the biggest complaint.  We regret Mr. Shepard's dissatisfaction but have done everything reasonable and even gone above and beyond to ensure Mr. Shepard a quality repair, performed in a timely manner, with very little out of pocket expense to Mr. Shepard.