300C Back from the Repair Shop

After a week, and almost $4000 later, I finally got my 300C back from the repair shop. After riding around in a Nissan Sentra, getting back into the more aptly sized 300C was a welcome relief.

They did a good job on the repairs, which were mostly not cosmetic. The trunk had a small dent in it and the rear sensors were knocked out on the passenger side. I also had a few small dents/scratches repaired on the front driver side fender and hood. Looks like new. It should for $4000 freaking dollars.

While the repair shop people were very nice and did a good job, the one thing I thought sucked was this. I recieved an estimate from the repair shop to fix everything for $3000. The insurance company of the person that hit me sent an adjuster and they gave an estimate of $3400. So I was sent a $3400 check. Then the repair shop called to say there was "additional damage" underneath. They said the additional costs for that would be paid directly to the repair shop. Fine.

When they called to tell me the car was ready, I asked what the total damage was - pun intented, and they said $3400, just like the estimate. I corrected her, looking at a printout of the only estimate they ever gave me, that should have been $3000. Her response was that they always go by the adjuster/insurance company estimate.

Now that's a load of crap if you ask me. Not because I was trying to make $400, but because if the insurance company estimate would have come in under the repair shop estimate, guess who would be paying the difference? Me.

But when the insurance company estimate comes in over the repair shop estimate, they get to keep the difference. Ha, smells like pain and suffering to me.

No matter how nice the repair shop people were, and the work they did, I will never go back to them again because I think it's slimy to play this situation the way they did.

I'm not so annoyed as to mention who they are, since this blog gets about 500 visitors a day on average. But word of mouth, good or bad, can be a lot more powerful.

In the end, I'm really just happy to have my car back.

Tags: 300c, chrysler 300c, 300c damage, 300c repair