IAfter an accident, tow truck driver flags me down saying my wheel is wobbling and it looks like my car is leaking fluid. He says he's a AAA driver (hah!) and he'll take me to a VW-approved body shop that he knows will stay open for me.
What I thought was luck was actually an incredibly predatory business practice. Yesterday I discovered that the tow truck driver was NOT with AAA (they have no record of me being towed). I'm pretty sure he works either for or with these people. This body shop is NOT a VW-approved shop (called VW of downtown LA, apparently these guys buy parts from them, but that is the extent of their relationship).
Now let's get to the "service." It took a week to get my first estimate, which came out to $6,000, even though I told them I only had liability insurance. I immediately informed them that that was way too high, and they said we could work it out, just let them work on a lower estimate for me. This second estimate NEVER materialized, even though I called them every day for the next two weeks. After those two weeks I called them to say I really needed to just pick up my car, and Joe told me he was sorry and that he was going to do everything in his power to get all of my fees waived, he just had to call the owner for approval and he would call me right back.
Unsurprisingly at this point, Joe never called me back. To this day (40 days after my accident) I have not received a single return phone call from anyone who works at Sunset Auto Crafters. I called Joe at least 4 times a week for the next two weeks, all the time operating under the assumption that he was going to get my fees waived as he promised.
Two days ago I spoke to a guy named Johnny, who admitted that they had completely dropped the ball regarding my car and my service, and that he would explain it all to the owner and get the charges down to maybe 4 or 5 days of storage. Today—after I called him and went in to the shop he said the only way I can get my (still unfixed) car back now is to pay them almost $900, the equivalent of 2 weeks storage, like they're doing me a favor
(they're also threatening to put a lien on my car and sell it.) I told him that legal action is my next option. He went in another room to call "the owner" (no one ever refers to this shadowy figure by name, and they certainly won't tell you who he is,) and came back saying something along the lines of "well, if that's what you're gonna do then that's what you're gonna do, we have some big lawyers."
They're basically holding my car hostage and now, and it's not right. After finding out about the tow truck driver, I'm not even sure my car was as damaged as they said! I'm very seriously considering legal action.
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