lawsuit begins tomorrow...
06-27-2010, 06:11 PM
#1
lawsuit begins tomorrow... This is my CTS-V.
Here's the story why I'm suing the body shop.
I purchased the car October 6th 2010. I got it from Ohio, and I drove it home from there.
October 14th I learned something. My reverse lights were blacked out, and I didn't see the phone pole too well.
Buckled the quarter panel, scraped up the bumper, smashed the tail light and my dignity.
Turned it into insurance, and the guy asked me "How would you like to fix it, we can put a new quarter on it, which will be about 2,700 dollars, or I can pay a guy to pull, skim coat and paint it for 1,436". I had a body man in mind, he was a friend of the people at my dads garage, and some of the putty work I'd seen him do looked phenomenal. I asked him, "Jeff, the insurance company said we can do a new quarter panel or we can skim it, they'll pay for either or", and he said "I've pulled and skimmed way worse than that if you want to we'll do it that way.", which I agreed to as my policy would not go up if the damage claim was under 2,000 dollars. The insurance company wrote me a check for 936 dollars, which I took to him and he agreed to work with, and I paid separately for the taillight.
About a week later I have this:
He was better than I expected. Body lines were in tact, the blend was smooth, and the work looked phenomenal. I was stoked.
I park the car in the garage for a few days due to the upcoming snowfall, and I drive my Aurora around for the time being. The Aurora has no tint on the reverse lights. The snow passes, and I'm still excited about having the V. I go get the V out again, and naturally my visibility is low. (AKA I'm a stupid ****-up), and I back my nice new quarter panel into my grandmothers black mirror on her green milan, put a crease in the metal, and cracked the putty below it. I called Jeff up again, and he checked it out and said "That sucks big time man, I'll tell you what, leave it here and I'll have it done for you in a few days for 250 bucks" and we laughed it off, and I left the car there. My dad goes and gets the car for me, and I get it the next day, and am not fascinated by the work. There's runs in the paint, sanding marks, a poor blend job, and a really crooked body line.
I call him up, and he says bring it down, so I do. He wet-sands a lot of the blemishes off, and it admittedly looked OK at that point, then one of his associates gets the buffing wheel out, and takes paint off of one of the shitty body lines.
That's his idea of touching it up.
I explain to the owner that I am not satisfied with that, and he said, "you're getting it wet-sanded and buffed after winter aren't you?", and I said yeah, and he said "well i'll tell you what, since you're parking it soon I'll just take care of if when you get it buffed", and I was OK with that.
I parked the car in my grandfathers garage for a brutal Pennsylvania winter, and pulled it out in February to find this:
In the safety of a warm garage, the putty has cracked. Somewhat upset, I call him and tell him what's going on, and he says to bring it down (in the meantime the tint on my taillight has flaked away, but I opted to sand them and buff them back to stock anyway), so I did. He told me we'll set it up and get everything taken care of when I get my wet-sand and buff done in a few weeks, as he's busy. I'm a reasonable man, so I said that's fine man, thanks.
Fast forward to Tuesday night.
I drop the car off and write him a note saying I want the car wet-sanded and buffed, the cracks in the putty fixed, the runs in the paint fixed, and the spot on the bumper that was never even touched repaired.
I let the car sit there till Thursday, and I notice the tail light is out of my car, and the car looks especially shiny from the polish job he's been doing, but the cracked putty is still there. I'm satisfied. I drive away and give him a call the next day, and it went like this:
Me: Hey Jeff it's Kevin, I'm wondering when my car will be ready for pickup.
Jeff: You should be able to pick it up around 3 PM today.
Me: Oh wow, you got all that putty taken out, fixed and painted in a day?
Jeff: I'm not fixing that, you hit something, putty doesn't magically just crack like that.
Me: It does if the job isn't done right.
Jeff: Well like I said, I'm not fixing it, I know you hit something. The wet-sand and buff is going to cost you 300.
Me: So you're not going to stand behind almost 1,000 dollars in work?
Jeff: I would if you didn't hit something.
Me: So you're saying you're NOT standing behind your work?
Jeff: Oh god, hangs up phone.
My dad (who runs a garage who refers him to many customers for work) calls him and asks what is going on. He talks to a guy named Vincent, who swears and yells at him on the phone, threatens to charge me an extra 50 dollars per day I don't get the car after 12:00 noon (even though the car was supposed to be done at 3?), and slams the phone in his ear.
I called back later, apologized to Jeff for the way everything has went down, regretted that I would no longer be using him because of his poor customer service, and told him "it's a shame too because I know you do good work, and you're a very nice guy, I just don't like the way this situation was handled. I received the car on 04/02/2010 buffed and polished, the tint on the tail light reapplied (but far heavier than the other tail light), and the body work still lacking.
I've contacted Nationwide Insurance about the claim, and the claims adjuster Jim said he will appear in court if subpoenaed. Took pictures of body work at my job and called me to tell me how poor the work was. The company who did the powder coating work on my wheels and front grille told me the body work on my rear quarter panel was "an absolute hack job", "a slap in the face of auto body", and "a crime to charge you that much for that work"
A man at another body shop (who will be doing the repair work, wrote me an estimate for 637.50) told my dad on the phone "I've never spoken poorly about someone else's body work, but this was just bad", and "I should estimate a lot more for a job like that, but I feel bad about everything that happened" (he sends all his cars to my dads shop for alignments, he doesn't want the extra work from his shops referrals because he's too busy as is)
A man at a car show saw it and informed me "There was too much puttying done too quickly, he should have tried to bend the metal out more and use less putty. It dried over more time and shrunk causing the cracks"
I contacted a lawyer yesterday who is willing to represent me and help me through the process for no or little charge in exchange for some computer work (setting up outlook on 3 laptops, installing a new CPU fan in a laptop, and networking his law office which is only 3 wireless computers) and he will be sending him a letter of intent tomorrow.
I would like to get from the auto body shop the amount in the estimate given to me by the other auto body shop, and if not, I will be suing him in court for the full amount paid for both repairs, plus court costs.
Thoughts?
Here's the story why I'm suing the body shop.
I purchased the car October 6th 2010. I got it from Ohio, and I drove it home from there.
October 14th I learned something. My reverse lights were blacked out, and I didn't see the phone pole too well.
Buckled the quarter panel, scraped up the bumper, smashed the tail light and my dignity.
Turned it into insurance, and the guy asked me "How would you like to fix it, we can put a new quarter on it, which will be about 2,700 dollars, or I can pay a guy to pull, skim coat and paint it for 1,436". I had a body man in mind, he was a friend of the people at my dads garage, and some of the putty work I'd seen him do looked phenomenal. I asked him, "Jeff, the insurance company said we can do a new quarter panel or we can skim it, they'll pay for either or", and he said "I've pulled and skimmed way worse than that if you want to we'll do it that way.", which I agreed to as my policy would not go up if the damage claim was under 2,000 dollars. The insurance company wrote me a check for 936 dollars, which I took to him and he agreed to work with, and I paid separately for the taillight.
About a week later I have this:
He was better than I expected. Body lines were in tact, the blend was smooth, and the work looked phenomenal. I was stoked.
I park the car in the garage for a few days due to the upcoming snowfall, and I drive my Aurora around for the time being. The Aurora has no tint on the reverse lights. The snow passes, and I'm still excited about having the V. I go get the V out again, and naturally my visibility is low. (AKA I'm a stupid ****-up), and I back my nice new quarter panel into my grandmothers black mirror on her green milan, put a crease in the metal, and cracked the putty below it. I called Jeff up again, and he checked it out and said "That sucks big time man, I'll tell you what, leave it here and I'll have it done for you in a few days for 250 bucks" and we laughed it off, and I left the car there. My dad goes and gets the car for me, and I get it the next day, and am not fascinated by the work. There's runs in the paint, sanding marks, a poor blend job, and a really crooked body line.
I call him up, and he says bring it down, so I do. He wet-sands a lot of the blemishes off, and it admittedly looked OK at that point, then one of his associates gets the buffing wheel out, and takes paint off of one of the shitty body lines.
That's his idea of touching it up.
I explain to the owner that I am not satisfied with that, and he said, "you're getting it wet-sanded and buffed after winter aren't you?", and I said yeah, and he said "well i'll tell you what, since you're parking it soon I'll just take care of if when you get it buffed", and I was OK with that.
I parked the car in my grandfathers garage for a brutal Pennsylvania winter, and pulled it out in February to find this:
In the safety of a warm garage, the putty has cracked. Somewhat upset, I call him and tell him what's going on, and he says to bring it down (in the meantime the tint on my taillight has flaked away, but I opted to sand them and buff them back to stock anyway), so I did. He told me we'll set it up and get everything taken care of when I get my wet-sand and buff done in a few weeks, as he's busy. I'm a reasonable man, so I said that's fine man, thanks.
Fast forward to Tuesday night.
I drop the car off and write him a note saying I want the car wet-sanded and buffed, the cracks in the putty fixed, the runs in the paint fixed, and the spot on the bumper that was never even touched repaired.
I let the car sit there till Thursday, and I notice the tail light is out of my car, and the car looks especially shiny from the polish job he's been doing, but the cracked putty is still there. I'm satisfied. I drive away and give him a call the next day, and it went like this:
Me: Hey Jeff it's Kevin, I'm wondering when my car will be ready for pickup.
Jeff: You should be able to pick it up around 3 PM today.
Me: Oh wow, you got all that putty taken out, fixed and painted in a day?
Jeff: I'm not fixing that, you hit something, putty doesn't magically just crack like that.
Me: It does if the job isn't done right.
Jeff: Well like I said, I'm not fixing it, I know you hit something. The wet-sand and buff is going to cost you 300.
Me: So you're not going to stand behind almost 1,000 dollars in work?
Jeff: I would if you didn't hit something.
Me: So you're saying you're NOT standing behind your work?
Jeff: Oh god, hangs up phone.
My dad (who runs a garage who refers him to many customers for work) calls him and asks what is going on. He talks to a guy named Vincent, who swears and yells at him on the phone, threatens to charge me an extra 50 dollars per day I don't get the car after 12:00 noon (even though the car was supposed to be done at 3?), and slams the phone in his ear.
I called back later, apologized to Jeff for the way everything has went down, regretted that I would no longer be using him because of his poor customer service, and told him "it's a shame too because I know you do good work, and you're a very nice guy, I just don't like the way this situation was handled. I received the car on 04/02/2010 buffed and polished, the tint on the tail light reapplied (but far heavier than the other tail light), and the body work still lacking.
I've contacted Nationwide Insurance about the claim, and the claims adjuster Jim said he will appear in court if subpoenaed. Took pictures of body work at my job and called me to tell me how poor the work was. The company who did the powder coating work on my wheels and front grille told me the body work on my rear quarter panel was "an absolute hack job", "a slap in the face of auto body", and "a crime to charge you that much for that work"
A man at another body shop (who will be doing the repair work, wrote me an estimate for 637.50) told my dad on the phone "I've never spoken poorly about someone else's body work, but this was just bad", and "I should estimate a lot more for a job like that, but I feel bad about everything that happened" (he sends all his cars to my dads shop for alignments, he doesn't want the extra work from his shops referrals because he's too busy as is)
A man at a car show saw it and informed me "There was too much puttying done too quickly, he should have tried to bend the metal out more and use less putty. It dried over more time and shrunk causing the cracks"
I contacted a lawyer yesterday who is willing to represent me and help me through the process for no or little charge in exchange for some computer work (setting up outlook on 3 laptops, installing a new CPU fan in a laptop, and networking his law office which is only 3 wireless computers) and he will be sending him a letter of intent tomorrow.
I would like to get from the auto body shop the amount in the estimate given to me by the other auto body shop, and if not, I will be suing him in court for the full amount paid for both repairs, plus court costs.
Thoughts?
06-27-2010, 06:57 PM
#3
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Stop backing into **** for starters... secondly if the insurance will pay for a new quarter always do that! Bondo belongs on sub-par cars not Cadillacs..... lost interest half way through the story either way good luck.
06-27-2010, 07:37 PM
#6
I wish he would have told me about the problems with puttying.
Hind sight is always 20/20.
The question is, what would he have fucked up if he put a quarter on it? And the amount of putty would likely have been the same for the seams where the quarter meets the car.
Hind sight is always 20/20.
The question is, what would he have fucked up if he put a quarter on it? And the amount of putty would likely have been the same for the seams where the quarter meets the car.
06-27-2010, 09:01 PM
#8
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Um. no way. A little bondo over quality metal repair is way better way better repair especially for us rust belters. I don't care how good your bodyman is. The pinchweld seams will not be sealed as well as OE. And there will usually be a little bondo even on a new quarter-panel.
06-27-2010, 09:55 PM
#11
Um. no way. A little bondo over quality metal repair is way better way better repair especially for us rust belters. I don't care how good your bodyman is. The pinchweld seams will not be sealed as well as OE. And there will usually be a little bondo even on a new quarter-panel.
He told me on the phone actually on april 2nd that the quarter should have been replaced, and he didn't know if someone told me it could be fixed, to which I replied "yeah, you did".
I also forgot to mention how the bumper wasn't properly reattached when I took it back after crash 1
06-28-2010, 01:04 AM
#12
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Um. no way. A little bondo over quality metal repair is way better way better repair especially for us rust belters. I don't care how good your bodyman is. The pinchweld seams will not be sealed as well as OE. And there will usually be a little bondo even on a new quarter-panel.
06-28-2010, 05:01 PM
#14
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I'm old enough to realize that I will go through a bunch of cars in my life. The $3,000-$4000 extra the car will be worth when I sell isn't worth the trouble to me. I bought my car at 4.5 years old, and it was worth well less than half of new. What will it be worth at 10 years old? IMO opinion when you put cars up, you are saving the enjoyment for someone else. I'm using my V up. When I'm done I'll buy a V2 (hopefully someone will eat the depreciation and put it up winters 'till I buy it).
07-02-2010, 08:11 PM
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After it's over come back and talk as much **** as you want, but until then I would try to be as low key as possible. The less information he has the better for you.
