Perfection Paint & Body

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/10/07) */
On 5-20-15 we towed the customers car from the shop Caliber in Redlands to my business Perfection Paint & Body Shop at the customers request. The car had parts removed and they were placed in the trunk and in the back seat of the car, the tow...

truck driver was told everything was in the car that had been removed by Caliber. There was no spare tire. This was an insurance claim under State Farm insurance. When talking with the insurance we were told to work off of the Caliber estimate and call back for any additional supplements. The customer requested the insurance check in the amount of $8447.30 be sent out to her. She said she did not want to pay the full balance upfront, so I requested a down payment of $6000.00 to cover the cost of parts. The customer sent her brother in law with a personal check for the amount of $5000.00. The bank denied to cash the check due to insufficient funds. I called the customer and explained the situation asking if she could bring in cash, cashier's check or a money order for the amount of 6000.00. She sent her brother in law again with a cashier's check in the amount of 5000.00 on 5-28-15 and sent another personal check for 1000.00 on 6-1-15. While working on the car the workers discovered an additional supplement was necessary. The insurance company told me to send in the invoices for the parts needed and they would sent out the checks to cover the costs. Also there was an issue over the wheel, on the estimate it was to be reconditioned but the customer was demanding a new wheel. The insurance did not want to cover this cost and took a few weeks to decide on this issue. The customer called me laughing stating that she threatened the insurance company with getting a lawyer and they approved the new rim. The additional supplements at this time totaled to 995.99 plus her balance owed of 2447.30. She again requested that the insurance send out the checks to her. At this point the work was done on the car but we needed one more supplement for hoses we found missing from the motor when we took the car into a shop to have the A/C refilled. An adjuster came out and wrote a supplement for the amount of 901.75. We completed the work but the customer refused to pay the balance claiming she had not yet received the checks. She was complaining about the rental car fees that later we learned were covered by her insurance, so as a huge courtesy we allowed the customer to pick up the vehicle with partial payment of the balance owed with an agreement to pay the balance as soon as she received the checks. She picked up the vehicle from the shop on 8-10-15 and left a payment of 1440.00. We do not usually take payments but did so as a courtesy to the customer for the car being at our shop for this amount of time. We also discounted her 1047.30 for this inconvenience although we were covering the additional supplements until the checks arrived. Which later we learned through the insurance that she had received them quite a while before. On 8-17-15 I received an email from the customer to the shop and State Farm stating her unsatisfaction with the car. On 8-22-15 she brought back the car at our request to examine and fix any damage needed. On 8-29-15 the customer brought a receipt for her rental car for the amount of 214.09 and demanded we discount the amount from her balance. As another courtesy we agreed and the customer left a payment of 781.90 in the form of 2 personal checks. An adjuster was again called out to assess the damage the customer was concerned about. The adjuster wrote an additional supplement for an ABS box in the motor that was not included in any prior estimate for the amount of 3088.31 but the customer told the shop and insurance she did not want Perfection to make the repairs and she would take it elsewhere. The check for 901.75 was sent out to the shop but the customer had her insurance cancel it and resend it to her along with the ABS check. About a week after she made the payment for 781.90 the customer came to the shop with a male companion demanding that we release her vehicle with no payment and her male companion began to physically threaten my 60 year old shop manager. They threatened to call the police if the car wasn't released. The Sheriff's dept contacted the shop manager and told him there was a complaint the shop was holding a car illegally. The manager informed the officer that there was a balance owed on the vehicle and that was the reason we were not releasing it at this time. The officer told him that was perfectly legal and he would let the customer know she needed to pay before the car could be released. I again had the insurance send out an adjuster to go over all the work completed on the vehicle to let us know if more work was needed, due to the customers complaints. They approved all work and told us there was no more work needed on the vehicle and it was ready to be picked up by the owner. We informed the owner of this. On 9-12-15 The customer came in to pay the balance owed of 901.75 with a cashier's check. She again had her male companion with her and he again began to make threats saying they were going to sue Perfection Paint & Body and then began to physically threaten my 60 year old employee again. I told them they needed to leave or I was going to call the police. We extended every courtesy we could to this customer and did all the work correctly that was needed. I have receipts for all work done on the vehicle, parts replaced, and all payments made by the customer.
Thank you for your concern and time,
Perfection Paint & Body Shop
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 8, 2015/10/18) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I do not agree with any of the things that were said by Perfection. They have blatantly lied many times in their response. Perfection negelected to put their own estimate together which directly affected the amount of time that it took to complete the work on my vehicle. State farm sent me the checks for the work that was done because Perfection is not a perferred shop. My first payment to perfection was a $5000.00 cashier's check and my second payment to them was $1,000.00 personal check. I paid them exactly the amount they wanted when they wanted. There was never a dispute for the amount or time of payment until now. The car is a new 2015, and I had spoken to the Insurance company about using new Toyota parts only. Perfection was well aware of this since the beginning. The new wheel was requested on 6/12/2015 and approved by insurance on 6/15/2015. Not weeks went by like they are saying. Perfection took their time with repairs, there was never any issues with payments or approvals from either myself or state farm at any time. I have checked with Toyota of San Bernardino and they informed me that no parts were even ordered until almost 2 months after perfection took possession of my vehicle and payment. By perfections own admission there was several supplements done. All of these things could have been caught and remedied if perfection had done their own inspection. Everything that I have stated in my response can be confirmed with State Farm and Toyota of San Bernardino. State farm recommended that I take perfection to court. The car still has several issues. Which perfection is refusing to fix. There are fisheyes and orange peel through out the paint job that was done as well as small chips. The body parts that were installed are misaligned. There is over spray on my headlights and my interior was left completely dirty when it was not in that condition when it was dropped off. I believe the spare tire was in the vehicle and Perfection misplaced it or stole it. The vehicle had a flat tire and the spare tire would have had to been used to move the vehicle properly. My husband called Perfection and spoke to the manager after almost 3 months of them having the vehicle. The manager was rude and unprofessional on the phone with my husband. I happened to be in the area with my daughter one day and stopped by the shop to check on my vehicle. At that point the manager informed me that he had saved my husband's # and was trying to find out where we lived because he said no one talks to him like that. When the vehicle was finally ready we called the Sheriff Dept. to come out. They said that it would take them several hours to come by so they called the manager to inform him that we would be stopping by. When we picked up the vehicle the manger's wife told me that she wanted to take me outside and beat me up, the manager went next door and brought another person to intimidate my husband. They were very rude and unprofessional. At no time was either one of us physical with anyone. All we were asking for was for the vehicle to be fixed properly. We never asked for any discounts or rebates. Any money that was deducted was taken off because of the time it took for them to fix my vehicle. I dropped off the vehicle to have Perfection fix their work and was told that the chips were not that big of a deal and that I was being picky. It was not at their request, it was at my own request. The insurance company never said that the work was completed satisfactory. They have documentation that Perfection has been lying to them as well as myself. I was the one that initiated the vehicle to be inspected by my insurance not perfection, so again they are lying. This can be verified through my insurance.