At the beginning of this month i got into a minor fender-bender. An old lady hit me from behind while i was sitting at a red light. Her insurance agreed to pay for the damages. The rear bumper was pushed in about 2 inches, i figured it was an easy fix, a new bumper support and cover and i would be on my way.

I dropped my car off a little over two weeks ago at the GEICO suggested body shop and they told me it would take 4 days at the maximum to fix it, 15 days later i got the call to come pick it up. The shop manager tells me that they could not get some parts for the car so they fixed it as best as they could and this was the reason for all the delays.

The guy was a idiot, he told me that my body style civic was pretty rare and thats why they couldnt find any parts. I just looked at him like he was the most retarted person on the planet but didnt say anything.

At this point I start to get pissed, what does as best they could mean? well when i took a look at it it looked worse than when i dropped it off. there was a huge gap in between the bumper cover and the top filler piece








I did not really argue with the guy or anything because if this is the best work they can do then I just want to get my car and go.

I plan on talking to GEICO and seeing if i cant take this car somewhere else to get it fixed.

 

Also My car is missing very bad in the upper rpms and smoking more than when i dropped it off, i guess maybe they put some shitty gas in it or something because it ran fine when i dropped it off. I forgot to write down the mileage when i dropped it off (it was snowing),but i wrote it down about a week later and they didnt drive it around during the second week for sure.

Btw the car in question is the 240whp civic in my sig.

 

Custom!

 

I would get on the phone with BBB about that and Im sure they drove the **** out of your car theirs no reason why you car should have more then a mile on it unless the lot where they keep customer cars is far away. I would also yell at the body shop guy and tell him to fix it wright or pay for someone else to fix it. Snaps you should of fix it urself

 

did u not tell him your mother could of done a better job?

 

Your right, it looks like they did a Mickey job on it. The baloney that they couldn't get the right parts and they did the best they could is garbage. I'd call Geico and then if they won't do something, I'd see if you can file a claim in small claims court. If the bodyshop tell's you they can't get the parts, they don't know what they are doing.

On the engine running, I wonder if the fuel picked up some water or something and it's running rough because of that. You might try putting a can of injection cleaner through the fuel tank, to get any moisture or garbage out of it.

 

i feel yea man i just got back my crx from the body shop from a hit and run...and i did the bodywork myself to save money then i had them just paint it..so i get a call that it was ready.. took over a week...so i get their and their untapeing the car and the ****'s forgot to paint the sunroof and driver side door...im like wtf did you not see the primer black sunroof and faded *** door...so they are like ummm sorry we must have forgot to pint it.... we can paint it for you next week...so i drive around for a week with a brand new paint job except for the sunroof and door...so i drop off the car again for another 4 days.i get a call that it was ready so i go and pick it up.... i get their and the bitchs painted the door and sunroof a darker red then the rest of the car..im like wtf...they said they didnt notice till they got the car outside in the sun...so i was going to bother bitching about it and just took off...but yea with shitty body shops..

 

i work at a body shop.. im no expert but that is horrible.. if the car is that old you shoulda just done the work yourself.. and if they are a good body shop they should be able to find any parts they need.. is that a new bumper or did they fix the old one? take the car back tell them to fix it for free or go to court.

the painter at my body shop mixes up the paint colour alot.. its not easy to get the right colour some times.. but they should repaint it for free.

 

I would have left the car there. Now they can say thats now it left their shop. The parts are still all available from honda (the bumper and support) the problem is shitty geico would probably only spring for aftermarket parts not more expensive honda ones. This shop pocketed the money bent the support bar back and reused the bent bumper, they didnt even paint the spot for you on the side that you had primered! You should have gone to the junkyard got some stock used parts bolted it on and just paid for the paint and pocketed the rest, now it looks like the shop pocketed the money, you got screwed. I can not believe a shop would give a car back like that. That is some shady shop. take some pictures and give it to geico with pictures of someone else's hatch so they can see what its supposed to look like. whatever you do dont let them make you bring it back to the same shop they will probably fuuck it up worse, bring it to the shop YOU want, not them. It is your right to get it fixed where you want. Geico will most likely stop payment to the body shop and you should now get 4 or 5 estimates from other body shops to fix what they screwed up. Make sure the other shops put honda parts in the quote not aftermarket. Then give geico the 2 highest quotes, make them make the check out to you, fix it with junkyard parts, get it painted and pocket the money! If that was me I would have been pissed, I could have fixed it better with a sledge hammer and a heat gun

 

yeah im going to talk to the adjuster tommorow and tell him the work is not acceptable. I definetly do not want to take it back to that shop. the shop manager said those parts are not available, which i was guessing was b.s.

I usually always do all the work myself when it comes to my cars but it seemed like the body shop would have an easy time of fixing the problem, i also need the car for work and geico gave me a rental.

Ive never had to deal with insurance companies/accident claims before so i guess im learning my lesson the hard way.

btw the primered areas are from rust i had repaired like a year or two ago(metal welded in) and never bothered to get painted.

 

its a new bumper cover, so they told me anyways.

 

im pretty sure that bumpers still avalible from honda . i work there and they have the ones for my 89 crx in stock. that looks like ****. geico isnt going to like that call them..

 

No, f*ck that man. There is absolutely no reason they can't get the parts.



That's my totalled CRX, and it could have been fixed. All parts were found for it, although it woulda cost 5.5k. The parts are there and if they aren't they should have called you and you drive around to junkyards until you do.

Go to the Better Business Bureau website; http://www.bbb.com and you can look them up online and see if they have lawsuits pending or previous problems. Then call Geico and tell them it wasn't done to your satisfaction and that you want them to pay for it again b/c their place was sh*tty. If they won't I'd go back to the body shop and lastly like you said, small claims court.

 

if thats a new bumper i would like to know what they did to it.. must have left it under a heater or something.. if a body shop messes up something like that they have to fix it no matter what.. its not exceptable to give a costumer something back that looks like that. maybe they had a bumper lieing around and just used it to save money.

like the one guy said you should have just got a used bumper from a junk yard put it on and got it painted.

 

You need to tell them to fix it. A mechanic can fix a motor, a doctor can fix your body, a taylor can sow, but a body shop cant fix a carbody?????

 

you mean sew?

 

are those V dub rims I see?

 

Same thing happened to me, it's a long story - cliffs - stupid girl on a cell phone hit me. Her fault. Her insurance told me to take to their "recommended shop". Car is in the shop for a month. I go to pick it up, it looks like *** (sound familiar?). I refuse to accept it. The insurance co. sends an adjuster, he says "what's wrong with it?". I get pissed, threaten legal action, write a letter to my state's insurance comissioner. After I put up a huge fight over it the insurance co. lets me take the car to another shop of my choice. New shop fixes the car perfectly, insurance co. paid to fix it twice.

Lessons learned -

1. Never use the "recommended shop" esp. if the other person's at fault. These shops do cut rate work. I guess most people don't care if the panels don't fit correctly or colors don't quite match.

2. These same shops don't use OEM parts they use "like kind and quality" parts that fit like crap. I put up such a fight the insurance paid for OEM Honda parts.

3. Insurance Co. is betting you get tired of fighting and give up. Apparently most people do.....

Good luck, after having lived through it I don't envy what you're about go through....

 

i would also only take my honda to a honda dealership. dealerships dont let cars out of the shop looking like that.

 

Also to add to my first post - the best advice I can give is - be a pain in the *** to the adjuster/agent (and their bosses) handling your case. Call them, write them, email them cc. their bosses constantly. Do what it takes to just make them want to get rid of you. It took forever but the agent in charge of my case hated me so much by the end he probably would've paid for my repairs out his own pocket to get rid of me.......

 

Body shops, the whole autobody repair/refinish industry is run by insuranance companies. So.. bodyshops must finish the work in the time/price alotted to them. Thats it. So what happened here is, the insurance company didnt give them **** to fix it, OR they gave them enough but the shop skimped to make money. So..... looks like you got the latter. Not much you can do. You signed the papers.

 

yes.. but the body shop has to do good work.. dont konw if you can still get it fixed if you signed anything though.. i wouldnt have signed **** if i saw that. i woulda kicked the guy in the teeth and told him to fix it right.

 

plus you have to remember .. youv got an old car so the body shop probably didnt care what it looked liked.. i see that alot.. if the car is older they wont take as good of care of the car as a new one.

 

Yeah, I'm not sure the insurance co. will give a crap since he took the car. In my case I refused the car and immediately called the guy handling my claim. I left the car at the body shop. Not sure there's much you can do if you accept the car..........

 

wow. thats terrible ! this is what it should look like !
The bodyshop probably located/ and used junkyars parts on your car and said they used new parts , just so they can make the difference in profit !!