I have waited for some time to "cool off" before writing this review but recent events have prompted me to go ahead and post my experience. First, I have read all of the other review posted here. My experience sounds similar to what others have expressed. I agree, they have some dedicated, knowledgeable employees. Denny, the Body Shop manager was extremely nice, professional and trustworthy. However, what started out with an "estimate" of $15,000 and 3-4 WEEKS turned into 4 months and over $50K. Yes, that's right, 4 times as long and over 3 times as much as their original "estimate".
How is this possible you ask??? Well, I'm not sure. To start off, they make you sign a piece a paper that says "Don't believe a single thing that we tell you because it is all a lie" and "we will bill you on a time and material basis every week and if you want to see your vehicle in one piece again, you will pay whatever we demand". That's right -- once they had my truck torn down into a 1,000 parts, they pretty much held it for ransom. Every week, I had to drive there and make my ransom payment, not knowing how much it would be until they handed me an "invoice". And I use the word "invoice" very generously. They would tell me how many hours the staff had worked on my vehicle in the prior week . . . no documentation, no signed time slips, no nothing . . . Zip, nada. Just a typed out piece of paper. They threw out a number and I had to pay it without arguing, questioning or complaining -- otherwise, my truck would stay in 1,000 pieces and they would remind me that I signed the "Don't believe a single word that comes out of our mouths" piece of paper. They shoved this in my face at least 3 times -- and they would threaten to stop working on my truck. I swear, there were weeks when they said they had over 100 hours on it . . . I'm here to tell you, they just made the number up.
I would stop by at random times to see the truck and often, there would be NO ONE working on my truck, or maybe 1 guy, and there were weeks when they looked me in the eye and said they had the equivalent of 3 FT people on my truck every minute of every day of the work week.
They had all the power and leverage and short of showing up with a UHaul and boxing up all my truck parts and then trying to find another shop to put it all back together again, there was nothing I could do other than smile and pay their bill.
Ultimately, my truck got finished and I think they did a "OK" job. I had to have it towed back to the shop 3 times in first 5 days after they said it was "done" due to sloppy work -- a radiator hose fell off driving it home and I lost all my antifreeze / coolant, my gas tank leaked gas all over while filling it up after the radiator hose was reattached and most of my lights did not work (which I didn't find out about until the first time I wanted to take the kids out for ice cream after dinner). Each time they fixed all of these items - for no extra charge even -- but a little QA would have prevented all of them from happening in the first place.
The way they run the place should be illegal, it is very disorganized and the owner is nice guy but a big talker. I believe that is the way he likes to run the place. I ran a successful business for 20 years and I believe their business model is to extract as much $$$ as possible from every sap that walks through the door, right up to the point of being sued (at which point they will back off a little) and they have no interest in having long term or repeat customers.
After spending over $50,000 in the spring of this year on a full restoration, I recently them called them -- twice -- asking for a 5 minute conversation with the Body Shop Manager and they said via EMAIL that he was too busy to talk to me.
Nice, huh?
So run, don't walk away . . .before it is too late.
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How is this possible you ask??? Well, I'm not sure. To start off, they make you sign a piece a paper that says "Don't believe a single thing that we tell you because it is all a lie" and "we will bill you on a time and material basis every week and if you want to see your vehicle in one piece again, you will pay whatever we demand". That's right -- once they had my truck torn down into a 1,000 parts, they pretty much held it for ransom. Every week, I had to drive there and make my ransom payment, not knowing how much it would be until they handed me an "invoice". And I use the word "invoice" very generously. They would tell me how many hours the staff had worked on my vehicle in the prior week . . . no documentation, no signed time slips, no nothing . . . Zip, nada. Just a typed out piece of paper. They threw out a number and I had to pay it without arguing, questioning or complaining -- otherwise, my truck would stay in 1,000 pieces and they would remind me that I signed the "Don't believe a single word that comes out of our mouths" piece of paper. They shoved this in my face at least 3 times -- and they would threaten to stop working on my truck. I swear, there were weeks when they said they had over 100 hours on it . . . I'm here to tell you, they just made the number up.
I would stop by at random times to see the truck and often, there would be NO ONE working on my truck, or maybe 1 guy, and there were weeks when they looked me in the eye and said they had the equivalent of 3 FT people on my truck every minute of every day of the work week.
They had all the power and leverage and short of showing up with a UHaul and boxing up all my truck parts and then trying to find another shop to put it all back together again, there was nothing I could do other than smile and pay their bill.
Ultimately, my truck got finished and I think they did a "OK" job. I had to have it towed back to the shop 3 times in first 5 days after they said it was "done" due to sloppy work -- a radiator hose fell off driving it home and I lost all my antifreeze / coolant, my gas tank leaked gas all over while filling it up after the radiator hose was reattached and most of my lights did not work (which I didn't find out about until the first time I wanted to take the kids out for ice cream after dinner). Each time they fixed all of these items - for no extra charge even -- but a little QA would have prevented all of them from happening in the first place.
The way they run the place should be illegal, it is very disorganized and the owner is nice guy but a big talker. I believe that is the way he likes to run the place. I ran a successful business for 20 years and I believe their business model is to extract as much $$$ as possible from every sap that walks through the door, right up to the point of being sued (at which point they will back off a little) and they have no interest in having long term or repeat customers.
After spending over $50,000 in the spring of this year on a full restoration, I recently them called them -- twice -- asking for a 5 minute conversation with the Body Shop Manager and they said via EMAIL that he was too busy to talk to me.
Nice, huh?
So run, don't walk away . . .before it is too late.