Remember my run in with a deer? Or shall I say the time a deer ran into me, because I certainly did not hit it. Anyways, that was back on December 13th. I dropped my car off at the shop on January 3rd and after the shop and my Progressive agent checked it out I was told it would be ready that following Friday. A week ago today, the shop called and told me that my car was all set and ready for pick up. I figured that since the car needed to be painted a number of pieces replaced that instead of picking it up in the dark after work Friday night, I would head back to the shop Saturday morning and bring Erik as a extra set of eyes. We pulled into the shop and Erik wandered around the car while I happily gathered all my things from the loaner. While I am very happy that I get to drive a FREE loaner, I have come to really miss my little car. I drive 30 miles each way for work every day and visiting Erik every other weekend means LOTS of highway miles. The worst thing about this loaner is that there is NO CRUISE CONTROL. Yes, caps are necessary! I drive on city streets for about 2 miles, total a day...cruise control is necessary for my sanity. Do I sound bratty? Probably, but I thought every car by now had cruise control, especially this 2013 Kia Rio I'm driving. I don't mind my car rides home where I sit and listen to NPR and relax, but trying to navigate hills and the highway without being one of those people that drives at 10 different speeds instead of one constant one is difficult. I feel like I should apologize when cars need to pass me up hills because I can't maintain a constant speed.
Anyways, as Erik is checking things over, he doesn't look that happy. I wander over and the first thing I notice is that the hood is bent down in one corner. Then I move over and notice the the area around the headlight looks pushed in where all the panels meet up. The real kicker is that under the passenger door there is a rocker panel...
and that rocker panel has a nice crack in the paint and paint missing from being bent on impact from the deer. Well apparently when "fixing" the rest of my car they never even saw that...so that was left untouched. It became quite clear that who ever "fixed" my car at the shop needed more practice and that my repair was in no way acceptable. It kind of reminded me of when little kids try and do puzzles but insist of jamming a piece that doesn't fit into a spot and the corners all get mashed up.
When we finally decided to go find someone to talk to the receptionist pulled out all the paper work and asked for my signatures and deductible. I mentioned that I wouldn't be signing for anything today and that I needed to talk to someone from the shop about how the repairs were handled. After waiting around for a little bit we headed back outside with a estimator. He read off all the "fixes" that were made and then I pointed out all my concerns. They were so bad that he didn't even try and argue with us...he just told me to stay in the loaner and they would go over everything on Monday and assured me that they would be corrected.
I was pretty annoyed that no one from the shop OK'd everything before they painted, because once you paint you can't go around adjusting the fit on pieces like the hood because the paint will crack and you'll be repainting. I won't pretend that I know everything about cars, but when a untrained person can look at one side of the car and compare it to the other, the sides should match up. It's simple.
After another weekend in the loaner I was pretty antsy on Monday to hear what the plan of attack was to fix the repairs. My progressive agent who works at the shop three days a week assured me that everything would be taken care of and I would have my car back Thursday, or Friday at the latest. My dad agreed to come look at the car with me when it's ready since it's always nice to have a extra set of eyes...and a male...to check things over. Of course, things don't go as planned and here I am ready to start another weekend in a loaner car. I find it funny how the repairs of the repairs take LONGER than the original work done last week so hopefully this shop doesn't want a recommendation from me because I have nothing nice to say currently.
Fingers crossed the car is done on Monday and looks perfect or else someone is probably going to loose her shit.
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