In March my husband and I were involved in an accident in his 1999 Silverado 1500 ext cab. After filing with insurance we chose to have the vehicle taken to Carl Blacks body shop. My husband had called ahead to ask about repairs (we knew the frame was damaged and were concerned) and warranty. They originally told my husband that the work would be warrantied by any GM dealer, we trusted them more than allstate. The first estimate was for $7181.
My husband went to the dealer and signed the insurance check so they could start work.in the accident the passenger air bag deployed, but the drivers did not. Also there was a redish brown gooey substance that sprayed out of the airbag on the passenger side and dumped from under the steering column on the driver side. No one could explain what this stuff was or why the airbag didn't go off.
The dealer later told us that the driver airbag malfunctioned, yet they did not replace the driver airbag because it didn't deploy. They can't prove that it will work if ever needed. Anyway, on June 14 we went to pick up the repaired vehicle.
What a mess. The frame had deep gouges and bare metal showing. The alignment of the bumper and grill were off. The chrome bumper was scratched. Supposedly they were going to rebuild the driver side headlight assembly.
They had replaced both headlight with cheep plastic keystone headlights, and The passenger side headlight was scratched all the way accross the front. They denied they replaced the passenger side headlight at all until I told them I would be more than happy to send them pictures of what the original lights looked like. When we drove the vehicle the cd player made a scratching sound when accelerating (the cd player had been replaced under the factory warranty in January). The brakes were not working properly (my husband says he believes they got grease on the rotors when replacing the rims and it caused the rotors to warp, this I don't know about). Needless to say we refused to accept the vehicle.
We live in Florida. The rental car to go pick up the truck was $75 and it came out of our pocket as the insurance would not furnish one because the vehicle was repaired. So we call the insurance company. They said they would inspect the vehicle and Carl Black said they would paint the frame and replace the bumper. They also did not replace the chrome trim, they said it wasn't available and they would cut us a check for $27. They did not do this, but that wasn't really an issue. Also the driver front tire had deep gouges where the fender was pushed into it, and then all the way around when it was pulled onto the wrecker. We got allstate to furnish a rental car and went home.
On July 2 an allstate adjuster called and said the vehicle was ready, they had additionally replaced the cd player and the passenger grab handle that had been bent, replaced the bumper painted the frame etc etc.
On July 5 we went to the body shop again. The first thing we notice is that the headlights had again been replaced, this time with the correct lights. The bumper had not been replaced at all. We went in to the office and asked why. They said they did replace it, so we all went out and looked. They said the bumper must have had a scratch in the same place.
How stupid do they think we are. I honestly don't think they should have been able to charge the insurance co for the radio considering that it had been replaced only 4 months previously, and should have been under warranty itself. They replaced the bumper while we waited and printed out copies of the work done and the supplementals. This time I got a full copy.
The first time in June they only gave me half of the insurance supplemental missing was all the warranty info. Surprise surprise. Then they tell us the warranty is only good at their shop. They knew when we we had the vehicle brought in that we lived out of state.
We took the vehicle home without major incident. I spent the entire 6 hour trip going over all the paperwork. The part prices from the dealership were very different from those reported on the insurance supplemental. Yet somehow the dealership and the insurance company came to the same total. The total was $10,200.96 70% of the vehicle value.
We got home late that night. The next day after work my husband got out his creeper and checked out under the truck. The frame has buckles in it, gouges where they attached the frame machine, and we are not confident at all that it was properly repaired. The transmission is out of alignment and one of the transmission mounts is broken. There is at least one broken motor mount. At least 4 of the parts on the list were not replaced at all.
The driver side sway bar is bent from the impact. They wouldn't replace the tire because it still holds air, but they were only 1 1/2 months old when the accident occured and now have deep gouges in the tread. Also, the bed of the truck is bent toward the passenger side, very obvious.
They also completely left off the side molding on the back quarter panel they were supposed to take it off the old panel and put it on the new one. There is a vibration when driving the vehicle that we can't explain. We called allstate since we live 350 miles from the dealership, an adjuster met with my husband, agreed that these were all problems, and related to the accident, but that they paid carl black and it was up to carl black to fix it.
Our rental reimbursement is exhausted as it took them 3 weeks to replace the grab handle, headlights and cd player. I firmly believe that the body shop and the adjuster purposely gave a low estimate to avoid totaling the vehicle and losing the repair money.
I have searched and searched for information on the air bags, the frame work and the problems with taking the vehicle to the original repair shop. Does anyone know if we have any recourse at all? Or are we stuck with an unsafe damaged vehicle. Allstate did pay a diminished value claim of $197, but this was before the extra $1100 in supplemental damages. We are going to dispute this also.
I appologize for being long winded, but so many times I have read others complaints and not understood where the problem is. I went to this company because I thought that they were a reputable dealer and would do a good job.
Now I find that they have a bad rating with the BBB because of refusal to acknoledge complaints, and other complaints online. Being from out of state I don't know who to be angrier at, carl black for lying and screwing up the job, or allstate for not helping their customer.
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