J & B Body Works

Review: The establishment failed to repair my vehicle in a timely fashion. The establishment had possession of my vehicle for a total of 7 weeks for a minor repair. The establishment performed inferior quality repairs on my vehicle. The establishment was in possession of two checks for payment from my insurance company which were payable only after the repairs on my vehicle were completed. Moreover the checks had my name on them as well as the establishments name. Without my authorization the establishments representative forged my signature and cashed my insurance company's payment checks totaling over 3100 dollars even though they never completed the repairs. This action was carried out on January **, 2016.Desired Settlement: The full amount of the illegally deposited checks must be returned to me so I can have the repairs on my vehicle completed at another qualified facility.

Business

Response:

The business has responded. Please see below:We are in receipt of ID # [redacted] and the corresponding complaint from customer. In regards to the complaint of: 'establishment failed to repair vehicle in a timely fashion' and 'establishment had possession of vehicle for 7 weeks for a minor repair' We received the vehicle on Tuesday July [redacted]. We promptly called the Insurance Company (insurance) to have them inspect the vehicle. Insurance did not come to inspect the vehicle until Monday August [redacted], 10 business days later. We then ordered parts after receiving the estimate, and put the car into production. On Friday August [redacted] we called insurance for a supplement to address a right tail lamp and a few extra small parts that were not written by insurance on the initial estimate. We completed repairs on the car and the customer picked up the vehicle on 8/**/2015. We had the vehicle for ** business days. Less the 10 business days it took insurance to see the car, we had the car in production for 18 business days. We do feel this is a reasonable period of time. Customer called on Friday August [redacted] a few hours after picking up his vehicle stating that he was dissatisfied with the trunk and other areas of the car that were not covered initially by insurance. J & B received the car back on Friday September **, again calling insurance for supplement #2 to address the customer's concerns. The adjuster was unable to come until Tuesday September [redacted]. We then returned the car to the customer on Thursday October *. Again, we feel we address the customer's concerns, and returned the vehicle in a timely manner. The only outstanding issue at the time when the customer received the vehicle back was a trunk carpet. We ordered the carpet after it was approved by insurance but while the vehicle was at the shop. However the carpet was not locally in stock from Mercedes. We released the car to the customer with the understanding that when we received the trunk carpet in stock we would call to install it. We received the carpet on 10/*/2015 from the dealership, we have a dated invoice to support this. Joe I[redacted], the owner of J & B, attempted multiple times to contact the customer to install this piece. The customer did not bring us the car to install the carpet. J & B Body Works charged the customer for the insurance amounts only, and did not charge or collect from the customer for the deductible on the policy. J & B Body Works offered and conveyed to the customer on August [redacted] that the production manager offered to pay any rental overage if the customer had any, as we realized the delay caused by the insurance. We feel we repaired the vehicle in a timely manner consistent with the damage. In regards to the complaint of: 'performed inferior quality repairs to vehicle' Please be specific as to what was inferior quality in the repair we performed. The only item we were aware of was when the vehicle came in on 7/**/2015 customer mentioned a right front wheel repair that was peeling from a prior repair we performed. We were able to pull that file from archive and see the work was done by a vendor we no longer worked with due to workmanship quality issues. We repaired that wheel and corrected the issue at our expense. The trunk carpet cannot be included as inferior quality repairs as the customer did not make the car available for install. Please be aware J & B Body Works also has a customer service survey from customer that states the paint refinish and body repairs met the customer's expectations, the customer rated the overall quality of repairs as excellent, and all other areas that concerned the repair facility were positive. Our impression was that he was satisfied. This form is available for viewing. In regards to the complaint of: 'establishment in possession of two checks for payment...payable after repairs completed...without authorization signature was forged and cashed even though repairs were not completed' Our standard operating procedure is to have our customers sign an "authorization to repair" and a "direction to pay". Please be aware we have these forms signed by this customer on 7/**/2015 available for viewing. In part the forms state: • I understand that payment in full will be due upon release of the vehicle, including additional supplemental charges. I authorize J & B Body Works to act as power of attorney to sign insurance checks to pay for damages to above vehicle. • I understand that J & B Body Works cannot be held responsible for any delays caused by unavailability of parts or delays in parts shipments by the supplier or transporter. • I authorize payment for repairs to above vehicle to be sent directly to J & B Body Works. I authorize J & B Body Works to act as power of attorney to sign insurance checks to pay for damages to above vehicle. • The car was released to the customer. The customer gave authority to the shop for checks to be signed. There was no forgery involved. If the customer would like we can install the carpet at his convenience. If the customer prefer we can reimburse him for that portion of the funds paid by insurance to furnish and install the carpet. Please be aware we tried our best to be proactive to settle this before it escalated. We attempted to meet with the customer prior to the situation getting to this point. The customer has told the shop owner he no longer wants the carpet.