Here's a warning to anyone thinking of using the Ferman Body shop on 19 - DON'T! I swear I'm finding new things wrong every day! Long story short I had a pipe hit my roof and put a small dent in it between the sunroof and windshield, and it took off my antenna. I got a quote of $900 and dropped it off for 4 days. When I picked it up, I did an inspection and immediately found they failed to install the top windshield molding! The front desk guy, Martin, was very nice, but that doesn't help the situation. BTW, he's gone, the day I picked it up was his last day there.

So he goes back to talk to his manager, who says that they had contracted the 'glass work' (removing some moldings) to a local guy. Great. I'm paying top dollar at a supposedly top BMW servicing body shop, and I get local Joe Blow who can't do diddly right the first time. It was 5:45 and the guy couldn't do anything about it, but they called him and said he would come the next day to me, and replace the molding. OK, fine, I just want to go. MY MISTAKE for not going over the rest of the car in more detail! To my defense it was drizzling, and dark, I certainly couldn't catch everything right there. I was so pissed I just left, glad to have the car back without a new dent or scratch at least.

So the next day rolls around, and in the sunlight I see the entire car, inside and out is covered in a fine white dust. Yup, some a-hole left the car open while someone was sanding. I have this film EVERYWHERE even in the dash vents. Dirty fingerprint marks all over the headliner in the back and on the piller covers. Real nice, guys, way to be professional - don't freaking wear gloves or anything!

Today I notice a blue pen mark on one of my seat cushions! Then I push the sunroof button back to open it, and the whole trim peice holding the switch moves back off the headliner! Those *******s broke all three trim retainers there, and not only didn't bother to replace them, left one with the head broken off in the hole! Unfortunately none of the clips at the auto stores match, as the hole is larger than all the door trim clips, and it needs to have a cap nearly flush with the start of the tree. So now I get to go to the parts counter and hope they have some - it's rigged up there right now. They also didn't bother to put the rest of the trim up right, it was all mis aligned and wasn't fitted to the slots correctly. I took it all off and rehung it the right way.

Some of you might ask why I don't take it back and them fix it - simple - I have ZERO confidence that it would not incur some other type of damage by doing so! My goal is to have the car back to new, not get the work done by someone else. If you want something done right DO IT YOURSELF!

So bear this in mind if you need any work done - go to Downtown in Orlando if you need a Mini specific shop, don't put your car in the hands of unskilled uncaring POS bodyworkers and substandard cheap local contracters.

By the way, here it is going on day 5 and STILL no windshield trim. I called today and was assured I would be contacted shortly for install. NOTHIN, NADA, ZIP.

 

Sorry to hear about your bad experience!! I was in the auto body field and my old work is a auto body supply distributor for the body shops. Having worked there for a few years has taught me a huge deal of how much work goes into doing body work as well as who i can trust and cant trust to take my car to. Plus i still get cost on anything i need for body work etc!!! But i wish you the best of luck and i hope you can get your baby back together and not have any more worries.

Garrett

 

Well tonight I clayed my roof outline fresh paint. While not much came out, there are a couple tiny dots of contaminate in the paint - it's smooth, but about a pin head black dot in the white. I'm not going to take it back - they would certainly just screw more up on the car! While I was washing the rest of the car I found a few square inches on the passenger door and quarter panel of slight white overspray (on hyper blue) too!!! God I hate incompetant dealers! Those bastards even charged me $10 for a freaking car cover while they painted! I wish I knew exactly who the ******* was that sprayed my car - I'd like to take my frustrations out on HIS car, see how he likes it! While cleaning the PAINT DUST from the inside, I also found a nice 5" surface scratch on the side plastic panel in the back - and a nice self tapping screw laying on the floor. Makes me wonder if they left something out, or were just sloppy and carying screws around with them while WALKING on my rear seats - yeah the footprints were a nice touch!

So At least I got the roof clayed and Zaino back on it, got the interior much cleaner...but next time I now have to clay part of the car to get the overspray off, and go over the rest more carefully to examine it.

FERMAN SUXS STAY AWAY FROM THEIR BODY SHOP AT ALL COSTS!

Oh yeah - I have YET to get my widshield molding! Ferman passed the blame on to theri 'outside glass man' and said the molding came in Moday, and the glass guy has it to install. I have called him EVERY DAY and he has not ONE answered his phone NOR called me back! He called me once the Friday after I picked it up, to let me know he was waiting ont he part and would install it ASAP. At that point I was satisfied, but now I am disgusted! FERMAN is responsible for this and is NOT standing up as a professional business to rectify the situation, even though they ASSURED me with two handshakes that everything would be done to get this taken care of ASAP. They are getting calls ALL DAY tomorow until my part is on my car, period. If I get any guff at ALL, my MA, Victor, the GM and owner are getting copies of a very nasty letter! I'm also taking pictures of the overspray, missing molding, scratch, interior filth, broken trim retainers and anything else that comes up tomorow - in fact, they are getting letters regardless, this is REDICULOUS!

Oh one more thing I just noticed tonight - the driver seat belt height adjuster is broken! It only goes to the lowest and middle setting, so obviously they screwed up that reinstall as well!

 

kaelaria,

Be sure to cc: your letter to MINIUSA, too. They need to know these things. It is really unbelievable how sloppy the techs are in manhandling our MINIs. Sorry about your lousy experience.


Clover

 

A very good point, thank you I will do that.

 

I've got my wife/step-sons Accord in the shop at Tom Bush in Jacksonville for lots of vandelism damage. I'll let you all know how that turns out. Please let us know how Ferman address's the issues you have. Good luck.

 

We'll see what happens now - I just mailed out letters to the Collision Center Mgr., Victor at Ferman Mini and MINI USA.

 

Kaelaria, sorry to hear about your bad experience. Typical second class body shop operation. I hate them all!!

 

Here are some pics from this morning:

 

Pathetic.

Unfortunately, bud, all you can do about jackasses like that is keep being the squeaky wheel, and let everyone know about the substandard performance.

Hope you get things straightened out. . .

Man, that sux.

 

That is SO not acceptable !!!

I think you're being too nice. They mess it up, they have to fix it !!!
First, you need to take pictures of all the damage they've done. Only deal with the manager and/or the owner, forget the middle men.
If you paid with a credit card, call your credit card company and withdraw the payment (you didn't pay for your car to be messed up, therefor it's a dispute. I've used that method before to get a dealer to finally fix their wrong doing).
If you can, have a lawyer send a letter, they'll know you're serious. Or cut to the chase and take them to small claims.

You can tell a lot by someone's attitude about fixing wrong doings. If they drag their feet from the get go, it will never get better.

Best of luck.

 

This is the reality of body shop work. Unfortunately there is not a system in place that forces bodyshops and insurance companies to have the cars fully inspected for proper repairs and quality of work by an independent entity. When someone performs work in the roof of your house, the county sends an inspector to check the work and approve/disaprove. Such thing does not exist with auto bodywork repair.

To me the auto bodywork repair business is one of the filthiest most deceiving industries around. Cars that should have never been repaired are currently driven on public roads

I hate bodyshops because I too experienced the pain of shoddy body repair work back in 1996 when my then 1 year old '95 Acura Integra LS was hit by a Ford F-150 truck that ran a red light. Over $9K worth of repairs, serious frame damage and the insurance co refused to total the car. I had too many problems with the car after it was "repaired" and in despite of the many attempts to correct the many problems I had with the repair itself, the car was never the same. In the end I dumped it and lost $5K in the process but I could not stand the car, the noises, the blotchy paint, the rust developing in the repaired area and the virtually nil resale value.

Kaelaria's story is a daily occurrence in the world of bodywork repair. While his damages were not nearly as severe as the ones I had in that Integra, still posts like this make my blood boil with anger.

I really HATE bodyshops!!!!!

 

The problem is that as long as the insurance company covers the cost of repairs, he has no much legal recourse there. The insurance policy commits to return the car to a "Like" condition prior to the damage, not to a 100% perfect factory finish. That is very hard to enforce from a legal standpoint. As long as the bodyshop performs the required repairs and the insurance company covers for the loss, they both have delivered on what the law expects from them.

Talk to a lawyer just in case.

 

And that's the key - a "Like" condition - not more damaged.

Just because most people keep their cars filthy and loaded up with Big Mac wrappers doesn't mean that someone who actually keeps his car detailed has to expect to have it returned in a slovenly and damaged condition. IMO, the car was damaged while it was in to be repaired (??) and it needs to be made right. If that means that the body shop loses money on the deal because they have to make things right, so be it. Maybe they'll be more careful on the next car. . .

 

I will see what happens with the letters, and if I have not heard back in a couple days, I will take the car to the Dealer and have the parts replaced there - not at the body shop - they will never see the car again!

And this wasn't an insurance job - it was only a few hundred bucks, under my deductible.

 

Absolutely

The great majority of bodyshops out there don't give a damn about quality repair work and only make things worse by introducing more damage.

This is pretty much an unregulated industry and these businesses feel free to pretty much screw up people as they please.

I really feel Kaelaria's disgust with these people because I too went thru a similar ordeal 9 years ago.

 

If the letters don't work, call your local news TV station. They will love a story such as yours! With the prospect looming on Ferman about bad publicity, it is likely they'll do the right thing just to keep you quiet and send you away.

 

Ha! Good call - I LOVE those local TV exposé segments - HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Watching the local shop owners hide their faces, or tapdance for the camera. Almost makes ya feel sorry for 'em. NOT!

 

Day two after the shop and dealer received their letters...no contact yet.

 

Well, I gave Ferman 3 days to respond (still no call back from the Body Shop or 'glass guy' about my window molding either) to my letters, and Mini will probably receive their copy today. I just called ask-mini and spoke to a very nice gentleman who was pretty speachless after hearing the story. Anyway, he had me email him a copy of the letter and the pictures, and he said he will be calling Ferman today


For Mini once again!

 

Well I take back the thumbs up and give them one finger up. I get this from Mini via email after they said they would be calling Ferman today:

"Thanks for the reply. I have looked over the letter a photo that you sent. I am sorry to read about the concern that you have encountered with Ferman's body shop. Because you are claiming that these are issues that the dealer caused, this is an issue to work directly with dealer management on."

 

Not surprised.

Time to call the local TV Station and the friendly lawyer.

 

I'm stopping by the dealer on the way home. I want new fastners, the windshield trim and a new interior panel. I'll clean everything else myself. If they refuse that's it.

 

Just for the record, here is the letter that went out:

 

OK, thumbs up for the Actual Mini Ferman Dealer and specifically Victor. I stopped in just as they were about to leave and we went over the story and the letter. He looked at the car, verified everything and agreed it shouldn't have have gone down like this. Unfortunately the actual Body Shop manager is on vacation till Monday but Victor assured me I would get a call back then after they talk. Victor said he would *try* to get them to agree to pay for actual Mini techs to do the work but he said it wasn't likely. I am NOT happy about turning my car back over to the body shop, to say the LEAST. We'll see what transprires.