GEICO's bodyshop playing games?
 

I had a very minor accident on my '09 Z in which my door was hit and the windows stopped rolling down. I took it to Geico's recommended Express shop and after 2 weeks of working on it, they're telling me that they had ordered the new door shell (which I physically saw last week).. and then a supplement estimate was made ordering new parts etc. Fine...

It was scheduled for pickup today and now they're saying theres another part needed to make the window roll down but I can take the car now itself (I had insisted I want it for Valentine's and their estimates were also just in line for pickup today/tomorrow). . . and that it'll be a few weeks before that part comes from Japan so I'd be bringing the car back in later for this last thing to do.

Sounds shady to me - I have a high $1000 deductible so I told them that I want in writing that the work will be completed if I take delivery today and pay you the deductable. They said ok sure. . .

I'll be going to the shop tomorrow for all this, just worried maybe they will never have this mystery part arrive and just keep me running around..? Should I ask for an estimated shipping delivery date for that part + get another estimate of what has to be done? What if they don't make the paper work sound that detailed and just make it sound generic... "blah blah more work has to be done in the future"?....

Is this a normal scenario?.. OBviously it doesn't make sense to leave the car there sitting for weeks, specially when its perfectly driveable. But if I give away my deductible, I don't wanna be running after them later.

Also.. why did they have the door shell and fender in stock in USA but not this tiny internal part for the window mechanism that sits inside the door shell? Is that common too, specially for the car being 2009?

Just get it in writing and you should be fine.. I wouldnt really worry about it. Parts for this car can be on backorder and such. I had a problem with a steering wheel locking mechanism on my car and it was on backorder had to wait a week to get.

Personally, I wouldn't take my Z anywhere except to a Nissan dealer. Maybe they'll outsource it, but, at least there's the idea that it'd be fixed right.

More-so than the cost-cutting shortcut shops that insurance companies want you to go to.

Dealer doesn't do body repair and so he'd be sending it to an equivalent body shop where the same story would repeat. (Why will a dealer be involved in an insurance claim anyway? Its not his fault or problem). Regarding being fixed "right", Geico does give a guarantee if I take it to a body shop of their choice over my own body shop. My concern isn't about right or wrong. . . its about whether this bodyshop is just trying to pull a fast one one me and is going to forget me once I take delivery with a job half done?.. maybe say the parts will take months to come...

A. It's called supplement. It happens all the time. I wouldn't worry about it.
B. Nissan's vendors have gone under and a lot of parts are on back order and nissan is trying to find new vendors to build these parts.
Just get it in writing, call a Dealership and see if this part is on back order

Thanks FuszNissan! I talked to the guy again and he said mention that this part is on backorder and he said he will give me the part number if I want to check.

So lastly if you can confirm from experience, it is normal to "walk out of the body shop with the job half done" and pay my deductible upfront. . . and then bring it back in next month?

Typically we would wait for the part. But if you needed your car, we would work with you.

This is EXACTLY what happened to me.....Ultimately took 3 months for one critical part to come in so the repair was done in two stages. Front first, rear later.. Doesn't sound like anything shady going on. Everyone up the chain was working to get the part I needed for the repair. Get an agreement, withhold part of the deductible until the work is done to your satisfaction..

Regarding the deductible, he said he is willing to take off the value of this part, its around $150, but my deductible was an unfortunate $1000 ... but yeah, i'll only pay $850.

With the part being required to get the window up/down, wouldn't it be an issue since our windows do move up/down when the door is opened/closed?

I agree with Lou and the others... Nothing shady here.

But...

I would recommend that you find a good body shop that you can trust. Like I did with Artcraft they do all my work whether its my car/bike or even family member's rides. I know my stuff will get done right and I can work out better deals than the insurance company. Kinda like a VIP at the shop :tup:

From all the times I have had to use body shops in the past the insurance reccomended ones were always CRAP! *this is my personal experience* and the workmanship sucked balls! I found that they would skip corners buy parts that were meant for another car instead of buy an OEM replacement. They also sourced parts from wrecked cars and what not. All in all I dont trust to many shops with my pride and joy! For me Artcraft fought the insurance company to pay for brand new parts and they did extra work at none or little cost to me. Jeff is the owner and he works with a lot of car clubs locally and we all use his shop even though for me its a 45min drive. I dont mind cause I know I will get my stuff done right the first time!

Good luck and it seems like you got a good shop thats willing to work with you. Let us know how it pans out.

take home the store's entrace door as insurane.

tell them you'll bring it back when they fix your car door.

^^^^ :rofl2: great idea!!!

GEICO, nuff said! :thumbsdown: