There are a ton of ways to cut corners that a customer might not ever know about. Especially when its an “out-of-sight” area that your not going to see unless you take something apart to get to it.
We’d love to say we’ve seen it all but then something else comes in that totally surprises us! We’ve seen grabber screws holding plastic together. Wire holding body parts on because the holes won’t line up. Tape holding parts in place of covering holes in the engine or oil pan. 2×4 shims forcing plastic bumpers into shape rather than making sure the frame structure was alignment right. If the foundation (frame) is correct the next component will fit correctly and you can build it out from there, correctly.
All too often techs that are in hurry to make a the boss happy or make a check themselves, do stupid things that will get the car down the road to be someone else’s problem and not theirs.
They way you avoid this is create a culture of “doing-it-right” in the shop. They way you know if that culture exists is looking at the shop’s guarantee on their work. If they always stand behind it, even when it cost them money to fix it right then you know they are cutting corners when you can ’t see what is going on.
Ogden Body Shop, right here in little Ol’ Ogden, Utah has the only Lifetime Plus™ Guarantee in the country. What does that mean? It means that the work will last the life of the vehicle. Insurance companies typically require shops to offer a “Lifetime” Warranty. Now that sounds great but in reality when you look at what lifetime is, it’s not.
Lifetime in the regular body world is defined as while you own the vehicle. The average car in the U.S.A is owed for 3 years.
So now that lifetime warranty is designed to last for 3 years. There are a lot of way to cut costs to last 3 years as apposed too many more years.
If a shop as that culture and mentality every decision is approached with what is in the best interest of the client.
How do you know the repairs were done right, look at the warranty and you’ll know how the tech’s are directed to repair things.
