FW: body shop experiences

[RYAN ALAN HOITINK]

List,

I also have an experience with this sort of thing that I thought some might find interesting.  About a year ago, I went a little crazy with a buffer, and needed a spot on my paint to be touched up.  Not a big deal, I thought, and since I work part-time at the local euro import dealership, I brought it to one of the body shops within the company.  They did a great job on what I asked for, but when I walked up to the car to pick it up, I noticed that they had damaged some trim pieces slightly, and refused to take responsibility.  That slightly pissed me off, but I was willing to live with it.  Then I got in and started up the car, only to hear the worst exhaust leak I've ever heard.  I mentioned it to the service manager, and brought it to my workplace to check it out.  It turns out that, on this "test drive", the clown that was driving the car had apparently hit a chuck hole or the like, and broken an exhaust manifold stud on each side because the cats bottomed out so badly.
 Both cats and downpipes were bent and touching each other, obviously damaged beyond repair.  Needless to day, I was PISSED OFF.  I returned to the shop the next day, and since the car was, in my opinion, undrivable, demanded a rental car until it was fixed.  They agreed to fix it, but never claimed responsibility.  It took over 2 weeks to get parts and repair it, and it ended up costing them about 7x what I had paid for the body work to repair the damage they caused.  The worst part for me was that they thought they could get away with giving the car back in that condition, and that I wouldn't notice.  What a crock of shit that was.  I kept my composure, as this still was a part of the business for which I work, but I'd still like to have a word with the person who did this to my car.   FYI, I'm located in Madison WI, and the body shop is a major one on Fish Hatchery Road, I'm sure you can figure it out if you're local.  I would strongly
advise against having work done through them.  Had I not worked for the company, I really believe that I would have had to take the matter to court.

-Ryan

----- Original Message -----
From: Brian O' <briano_72 at yahoo.com>
Date: Wednesday, May 7, 2003 8:10 pm
Subject: Re: FW: brought an s8 home today, wow !!!

> --
> [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
> hey, we have never got a car back from something happening after
> the customer took it, and we kinda have a thing that if a car is
> over 10 grand, or if its had major suspension work, it goes home
> for a nice long test drive. all cars at least get drove around the
> township, the nice cheap rotors of nowadays get so rusty, just
> being in the shop for a week or 2 !!
> i always find at least one thing i do not like, im kinda crazy
> like that !!
>               brian o'
> Enzeder <enzeder at comcast.net> wrote:On the other hand, I'd hate to
> get my car back, mash the throttle, and have
> something go kablewy!!!