We took our car to "Joe Hudson's Collision Center Auto Body Shop - Flat Rock, NC (2028 Spartanburg Hwy, East Flat Rock, NC 28726) (828-693-6483 flatrock@jhcc.com)" to have right side tail light replaced. The estimator looked at the car, took many pictures, and prepared an estimate that we thought was acceptable. They wanted us to leave our car by 8:30 am. We chose to drop it off the night before. Even though the estimator said the job would only take 10 minutes, they wanted half a day for the work due to their internal work flow. They said they will call us when it's done, before noon tomorrow. The next day at noon since they hadn't called yet, we called and they said they had just finished it.
An hour later we went there to pick up the car. Upon inspecting the new tail light (installed fine), we noticed immediately a PAINT CHIP ABOUT THE SIZE OF A WASP near the top of the back trunk door near the tail light, it is very visible as it is at the eye level, our car is a cross-over vehicle, white color. We told the office person Sasha, she immediately pulled up the photos that they took before the repair, compared it with current condition, she acknowledged that on those photos our car didn't have the chip, agreeing that the chip was new. Then she said the Manager, Aaron is still out for lunch at 2:30, that he will call us about it when he comes back. Not hearing from him, an hour later, we decided to call them. I was told he had just come in from lunch and that she would get him. After waiting on hold for nearly 10 minutes, I hung up and called again. This time he was available, but said the chip looked to him like a "bubble" in the paint and was not his responsibility, but he wanted to look at the car himself. So I drove back to the shop and he looked at it carefully and he concluded it was a bubble. At this point I pointed out that it wasn't there when we brought the car in and I did not know nor care how the damage was done, just that we now have a large chip in the paint at eye-level in the back of our SUV. He suggested I buy some touchup paint from the dealership and he would touchup the spot, but acknowledged the spot would still be visible.
The manager says the damage occurred between the time the estimate pictures were taken and when it was dropped off. I think this is extremely unlikely, nevertheless, the lesson, since one cannot trust them, is to take pictures of the car together with the shop when the car is dropped off. If he is right about there being a bubble in the paint, they should have noticed the fact, if the damaged occurred between the time of the estimate and when we dropped it off, they should have detected the fact and notified us. At very least, they could have ordered the touchup paint to at least partially address the problem.
We trusted Joe Hudson's Collision Center Auto Body Shop - Flat Rock, NC with our car. They don't honor our trust, they don't value us as customers. Instead of seizing the opportunity to show their customer how they handle problems, they have permanently put us off for any fixes in the future. This was our second disappointing experience with this shop, the first time was for much more extensive work, which mostly went well except the work took much longer than promised and they did not clean the interior before giving us back the car. There was dust all over and glue in spots on the interior of the car, plus they had to order a part, fine, but never notified us that it was in. After several calls, we finally found that it had arrived. read more
