Now that I have my car out from under the hands of the "insurance approved" body shop I can now say..........

Anyone in the state of Georgia USA should RUN and RUN FAST
from any CUSHMAN's "HI TECH" Repair and Body Shop

I have never in my life met a more incompetent bunch of baffoons in my life!

They had no idea what they were doing, My poor MINI

Not to go into all the HORRENDOUS details of my repair....
I will say this much, To add insult to injury - When my husband went to go pick the car up from them today (done or not!)
There it was sitting out in front of the shop and the guy was wiping her(This NEW LESS THAN TWENTYFOUR HOUR OLD PAINTJOB) with a paper towel to get the dust off of her - AND SHE WAS DRY AND UNWASHED !!!!

That my friends was just literally the icing on the cake.


I wanted to loss my breakfast when he told me that.


We will be taking her home to our car guys expert hands. The one who has done all our restoration work on our other british babes that we own.

Just Un Be Leeeave Able!

 

Ah...but now you've got your car back and can treat her/him/it to the care it deserves. You've rescued your MINI! Well Done!!

...Les

 

Makes you wonder how a place like that can keep the lights on year after year.

Insurance jobs I guess

 

First of all why did you use an insurance company approved shop?I would have you shop go over the repair with a fine tooth comb and check item by each operation that is on your final bill/estimate. Any repairs that were not done to standard should fall back on the insurance company to make right.

 

i think the only way to know a bodyshop is either by previous
experience or word of mouth. that's about the only guarantee you have.

even so, the guy could mess it up if he was having a bad day. start
with your "MINI/BMW certified" shops and see if any locals have
dealt with them.

 

I was five states away from home and didn't have any idea where to have her go to. I went on the advice of the Sherriff that handled the accident. It just turned out that when we reported the accident the next day the Ins. Co. told us,.....:Oh Good that is an approved shop

So for real, the hood isn't lined up right, the bumper (custom mod) isn't done right, the steering wheel shakes back and forth, they SOMEHOW lost the little black ring on my door lock inside, ...And that is just at first glance

Now keep in mind, It took SEVEN weeks to get to this point, and I had to order parts and pay for them on my Student loan Credit Card because they had NO IDEA how to order off of the internet. DO you think that he should have told me that when I gave him all the ordering information for the parts, NO IT TOOK ME CALLING HIM A WEEK LATER TO CHECK ON HOW THINGS ARE MOVING ALONG FOR HIM TO TELL ME....."Oh I didn't get that ordered because I haven't been able to get ahold of anyone in that England Place" I was like....It is an INTERNET BUSINESS that is how you have to order the parts!
OMG
THEN when parts from california still had not arrive two weeks after it was ordered > I said, did you look the tracking # on it, HE SAID>>>."OH I guess that would have been a good thing to ask for Huh? OMG

I WILL have a list of things to turn into the Insurance Company to make right FROM HOME THOUGH

 

You're absolutely right. I've been in the car business for 9 years. One of my employees had a car that was almost totalled. He took it to the a car dealership's body shop and six weeks later got about the same thing you've experienced. After picking the car up, he immediately called his adjuster to come look at the car. They ended up sending the car out to another body shop to repair the repair. Since it is an "approved shop" it will be between them and the insurance company to figure it out. The insurance company should be willing to have the vehicle repaired right at their expense. Don't settle for anything less. We pay enough for insurance. They should be willing to make things right when we need it.

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles, but don't even get me started on the shoddy paint care most body shops do---despite me having a very good friend that owns a body shop, it's a fact that a great percentage of my paint polishing jobs are botched body shop work. It's a production outfit that isn't focused on quality. They have a ton of cars to work on, so get them in, and get them out is their motto. Most people who take their cars to body shops don't notice or care about the details that we do as MINI enthusiasts Good luck on getting things fixed right the second time around.

 

Sorry that a Georgia body shop did a lousy job. When you get back home, let your insurance company know what transpired and request that a competent body shop evaluate and make it right.

 

I have to deal with insurance companies all the time at work. I am a CPA who mostly handles people in entertainment and in that line of work you do almost everything financial for them, including making sure they have the right types and sufficient amounts of insurance. The job is usually known in the trade as a "business manager". If any of you watch “Entourage” they have had a scene or two depicting one of these types of advisors.

In selecting companies for a client’s auto insurance, cost is not usually an object, so we generally take the best companies who NEVER give you grief over who to take a vehicle to (like Chubb or Fireman’s Fund or AIG or Travelers), but over the years I have had occasion to run into this problem, especially with direct writers (companies you contact directly, where you do not apply through an insurance broker, such as All-State or State Farm or Farmers or GEICO) when I just got the client from some incompetent competitor who was doing the nickel and dime act on the auto coverage and an accident occurred before I could get the coverage changed. I also have dealt with this sort of nonsense on my own vehicles, because, unlike my clients, I do shop price as much as coverage quality.

The bottom line is that JustGo4It gave the right advice above; you are NEVER required to use the insurance company's approved shop. You may make things go quicker, but if getting your car back right the first time is important to you, then use a shop you know you can depend on and trust.

DO NOT LET ANY CLAIMS ADJUSTER OR OTHER INSURANCE COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE scare you with tales like they will not fully cover it or the claim will not paid or you will have to advance the funds and wait for reimbursement. It is all a bunch of BS.

If you force the issue your company will have to work it out with the shop of your choice. Your shop may have to take a rate cut someplace, but usually they will get enough to do the job right usually by arguing the amount of time being allotted will not fix the damage properly. I have never seen a stand-off of this sort NOT get resolved, so stick up for your rights.

 

I had a similar experience with a local shop that was 1) insurance company approved and 2) recommended by everyone I asked. The hood was misaligned, horn didn't work, fuze box cover was missing (along with two fuzes ... "it must have been like that when you brought it in"), my strut bar was ruined, the black painted areas were almost glossy, ETC!

When I picked it up the guy told me to give the paint a month to cure before applying any wax. Then I pointed out that there was wax on the black plastic wheel arch. I told him I'd never gotten wax on there and that it was clean when they took the car in for repair.....meaning someone there had to have done it. The best he could come up with was "try a wire brush." I then pointed out swirl marks in the paint they'd just applied to the new hood and he said "when the paint cures they'll be gone."

At that point I decided I needed to just get my car out of there.

Word of mouth isn't always enough. If you can, you need to look at the finished work that's waiting on their lot to be picked up by customers. You DEFINITELY need to let your insurance company know what happened so they will hopefully at least take them off the "approved" list.

 

blackie is right. Stick to your guns.

However, it was a Geico recommended body shop that introduced me to the best body shop that I have ever had the need to use. Just because a body shop is recommended by an insurance company does not mean that they are not an excellant shop.

The shop I found is Traynor Collision Center in Milford, CT. These guys are great. They are fast and on time and the repair was undetectable. The color match and quality excellant. When I got the car back it had been cleaned inside and out. Even the black trim all around the car had been brought back to original black color from a slightly neglected dark grey.

Seek personal recommendations from friends and relatives to find a good shop if you have not already found a good one.

kurvhugr said; "Word of mouth isn't always enough. If you can, you need to look at the finished work that's waiting on their lot to be picked up by customers. You DEFINITELY need to let your insurance company know what happened so they will hopefully at least take them off the "approved" list."

I agree with this also. Great advice.

 

As you may remember from other threads, I'm an auto underwriting manager for the world's largest insurer. Here's something for everyone to remember:

You NEVER have to take your car to a repair shop the insurance company recommends or is on their list of pre-approved shops. When it comes to your car, YOU should decide what shop is going to do the repair.

The advantages of taking your car to the shop they recommend:

1. If you don't, they'll likely ask you to bring your car to one of their shops or claim centers for an estimate.

2. If your chosen repair shop finds more damage while their doing the work, you have to go back to the insurance company for the additional amount of the claim.

All in all, I can't imagine those inconveniences outweigh the importance of having your vehicle repaired by competent people.

It's your choice, always.

 

My last car, purchased new, was hit after I had it only 4 months. I took it to the body shop that does the repairs to the new cars that are damaged during shipment to the local dealer. Those cars have to look like new! They took care of everthing from estimate to final repair, which was undetectable. They didn't straighten and refill the damaged door. They reskinned it! Paint was absolutely perfect. Not a penny out of my pocket. Absolutely, choose your own body shop.

 

Too bad you didn't post here before the debacle as opposed to after .
Now that you have your car back, be sure to go over it with a fine toothed comb. I would also take it for an appraisal to get a diminished value claim started.
Things will look up, be positive!
Annette

 

Well, Just to back up how I was saying about THEE worst body shop ever -
So Just to make myself clear
RUNN from Cushmans in Georgia I believe they have more than one shop but I got burned at the Evans place

Got blackeyedsuzie back to the Dealer and the diagnosis is
Paint was contaminated, Shimmy in the front end was from a twisted belt (Tire of the opposite side of hit), They screwed up the windshield wash stuff - only one side was working (opposite side of the hit)


Hello -!! Every action has an opposite and equal REACTION
Duhhh

After they broke my fog lights and once they put the new ones in pointing directly to the pavement ....
For a "High Tech Repair Place" they couldn't figure out how to clear the codes on the car (ABS and DSC)

All that wrong and It is Two months and I still don' t have my car while the Dealer continues to go through the repair!
We had to pay thirteen days on the rental because they dragged their feet on thier crap repair, Telling us from Georgia - to Ohio - that they
"had priority customers they had to work on so ours got put out of the shop" AS IN OUTSIDE!!!!!

OMG

I had to pay so much money already because suddenly my insurance is not going to pay for ANY aftermarket parts AND LABOR Past 1000 bucks
which is like ONE PART

After this experience I am seriously tempted to just park my car and make her a weekend driver! I can't deal....
It has been Two months so now getting her back is going to feel like I am receiving a crystal
One little bump and my bank account will crash

 

Where in Georgia is this shop?

 

Your story reminds me that insurance in the USA makes the Russian system look appealing. In St. Petersburg, if there is a rear-end accident, both drivers get out of their cars, swear in angst at their misfortune, and then get back in and drive away. There is no blame-game, your only option is to accept your misfortune and get on with your life. To my knowledge, there isn't any insurance in Russia, and if there is, no one has it. It's a sort of "drive at your own risk" world over there, and the more expensinve your car is, the more you stand to lose if it's involved in a accident regardless of who's fault it is.

The system works about the same here in the USA, the only difference being that the insurance companies have bought off all the state legislatures to insure there are laws requiring drivers to be insured. And then the insurance companies themselves do everything they can to abdicate any responsibility in the event of a claim. Car insurance is about the biggest fraud around, and what you are experiencing is just a symptom of the problem.

 

BocRon, what is a diminished value claim? What is the value of getting one?

 

Two words: Civil Action.

 

It is an additional sum that you can demand from the Insurance company that is based on the drop in value that the car now has because of an accident.

Say a clean history car is worth $20K, a car with accident history may be worth $18K, some people go after the insurance company for that additional money.

 

don't even get me started on the scam that the insurance industry is.
Nothing can get me swearin and cussin like that

The shop was in Evans Georgia.

I tell my insurance agent every time we talk HOW DOOO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT
Knowing that you are ripping off a poor working schlep like me?

Can you imagine if Drivers in the United States demanded action....
An Entire industry would bankrupt!
Imagine if you will..... A World where we insured DRIVERS and not Cars
I mean Lets Face it does the accident not involve human error at the very root!!!!

 

I recently had a $1900 damage repair on my 03 MC and their insurance company also paid me $735 in diminished value. Got a Mymini exhaust and a flat panel monitor for my computer.

 

This diminished value claim thingy.....
Can you only file it if you were the victim>>>
I was at fault in the accident but was not cited by the police.
This claim you speak of might be a way for me to .....pardon the expression..."re-coop" some of the unexpected out of pocket money I had to fork over. I really was not expecting to find out that 1000 dollar ceiling on OEM parts BS~
Tell me if I am considered to be the responsible party... can I still file this claim?