Complaint Review: John's Auto Body - Minot North Dakota

I trusted my brand new, $70,000 Cadillac Escalade to John's Auto Body (owned by John Erickson) to have my front bumper removed, repainted and my headlight replaced due to someone backing into my vehicle. They promise to pay deductibles while performing top notch repairs. 

  My front bumper has orange peel all over it, and it's not set in properly. The left side of the bumper goes behind my fender, and my headlight was not replaced; they were told and it was written to be replaced by my insurance adjuster.

There was nearly a $900 allowance for it to be replaced and it was not done, yet they took the total amount of the check including the headlight replacement money.

  My tail gate ended up with a bad paint job cover up about the size of a half dollar, someone damaged it and did a poor job at fixing it. It looks like someone literally dipped their finger in black paint, and swirled it on there! 

  I went up to John's Auto Body with my insurance agent and spoke to the owner about the poor repair job, lack of repair and the extra damage done to my vehicle.

  Talking to this man was an awful experience. I was so upset from the disrespect I was shaking and trying to contain myself from letting him have it!

  The first problem I addressed was the obvious, the bumper paint repair and the lack of effort and care that was put into it. 

  Instead of simply apologizing and assuring me he'd take care of the problem, he was trying to convince me it was normal for this to happen, with much attitude in his voice and not showing the slightest empathy or remorse.

  Continuing on to the head light, I informed him it was to have been replaced, per the insurance claim. Yet, it was not done. 

However, Johns Auto Body still proceeded to take the money, for the light.

  The response John gave me was the start of the beginning of the conversation in which I began to feel my heart rate accelerate. I was filled with anger, dis belief and became highly offended.

  John looked at me with complete disrespect on his face and in his body language replying, "I paid your insurance deductible, I didn't have to do that. That is why your head light was not replaced. Do you actually think I am going to pay your deductible for nothing?"

  Wow! Did he really just say that to me? The slogan of this mans auto body repair shop is "We pay your insurance deductible. You will receive fast, professional, and courteous service. We provide the one-on-one attention that you deserve."

John then said This is how we recouped the cost of the deductible. We billed the insurance company for your headlight. (They did not replace it.)

I was not informed, nor did I sign up, with Johns to defraud the insurance company or myself.  

  I would have paid the $500, no questions asked if I had known this, or if his advertisement had not been so decisive. It was my first auto repair and I was oblivious.

  Maybe I was too naive or too trusting, to think that a so-called "professional" auto repair shop would be so unprofessional at the work they are certified to perform.

  I don't recall receiving any of these promises, and I surly do not remember reading any fine print stating "We pay your deductible, but will not complete the job if we pay it"

  How is it that my deductible they "paid" was $500, yet the job they did not perform was nearly $900?!

  I demanded for my head light to be replaced and he refused.  A few other words were exchanged at that time also.

  After that, I presented John with the extra damage done to my vehicle, the tailgate. I was not surprised when he tried to blame it on the dealership I bought it from. 

My insurance agent then stepped in saying "I know for a fact, this was not here when I inspected this vehicle!"

  Then he agreed "I'll be nice and fix that for you along with the bumper." It was obvious he was in denial that it was damaged at his shop, or he simply did not want to admit to it.

  We moved back to the front of the vehicle after much argument and I said, "I just don't understand how someone could disrespect and be so careless with someones brand new, $70,000 vehicle! My husband works hard, 140 hours a week for the things we have!"

  He replied "OK? And I have a $2.5 million shop that is paid for, I work hard also. I have only taken two vacations in 22 years! And your vehicle is NOT new."

  I stated back with much anger "It was bought three months ago with 22 miles on it. It IS new. I don't care how much your shop is! You have a shop because you are paid for your services, and they should be done with efficiency and respect!"

  Topping our conversation off is a stunner. He looked at the hood of my vehicle with disgust, turned to me and said "Did we repair your hood also?"

  "No. Why?" I said.

  "Thank God. You want to complain about the bumper repair; maybe you should take a look at the hood instead. It looks like crap."

  I asked him what he was referring to, because there is absolutely nothing wrong with the paint or anything else on the hood of my vehicle, and he says "I'm not even going to say anything, I'll keep my mouth shut."

  At this point the conversation was clearly over!! I had to get out of there. I told him I wanted a copy of every single piece of paper work from the insurance company AND from his shop. I saw the papers before copies were made, there were at least 6 or 7 pieces of paper.

  When he delivered the copies outside to me, I asked "did you make a copy of every single one? I want it all."

  He assured me that it was all there, that he copied every single page. 

  Funny, the pages had numbers at the bottom and all I had in my hand were pages 1, 3 and 5.