ComplaintsforMichael's Collision Center

• Initial Complaint

  08/30/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unresolved

  More info

  Brought car in for a 'free estimate'. Once I told them 'no, thank you' on their estimate, they sent me an invoice for $1,500 for 'secure storage' (unsafe neighborhood), Admin Fee, Shop Supplies, and an egregious credit card fee of 12%, saying 'that's what they have to pay the CC company'. They held the car hostage until we paid a negotiated $1,000. We were never told in advance of these expected fees. This shop should be penalized for unfair business practices.

  Business response

  09/15/2023

  To whom this may concern,

  this person has a public history of negligence and fraud. his wife brought their vehicle in without notifying her husband. it seems the husband and wife are divorced and she decided to act on her own and we had no knowledge that **** was even in the picture. nonetheless, the wife requested an estimate for a severely structurally damaged vehicle. we offer free estimates. and when we attempted to provide the first estimate ( free of charge) **** wanted to ****** and dime his way into a discount. he was absolutely relentless on expecting an extremely reduced cost on an estimate. afterwards, we told him we would need to set the vehicle on our frame machine and measure the vehicle. we dont work for free. no other body shop or any other business works for free. yes our estimates are free, but we dont ever bring a vehicle into our repair center and set it up on our frame bench and measure the car for free. we explained that to him plenty of times verbally. his wife (ex-wife) understood. but it seems he is going out of his way to contact his bank and perform a stop pay on his credit card and also report us to every entitiy known to man. regardless of his negligence and abuse, we chose to act professionlly in the light of his oppression. we charged him for 2 days of storage, his vehicle was here for 1 week. we didnt charge him to transport the vehicle here when the transport company dropped the vehicle off without notification or an appointment. he is mad to think that any repair center would work for free. irrelevant of his ******** ways we will continue to act like the grown *** in this situation and we will absolutely support our stance on this matter. thank you for the opportuninty to explain these circumstances and i hope this concludes this witch-****.

   

  we dont hold any vehicles hostage nor do we act in any type of bad faith business practices. we are prepared to support our stance on this matter for as long as need be. 

  Customer response

  09/21/2023

  1) this person has a public history of negligence and fraud. his wife brought their vehicle in without notifying her husband. it seems the husband and wife are divorced and she decided to act on her own and we had no knowledge that **** was even in the picture. nonetheless, the wife requested an estimate for a severely structurally damaged vehicle. 
  [slanderous and false.  where's the proof to this ridiculous claim.  it's humorous and a deflection]
  2) we offer free estimates. and when we attempted to provide the first estimate ( free of charge) **** wanted to ****** and dime his way into a discount. he was absolutely relentless on expecting an extremely reduced cost on an estimate. 
  [see the emails attached.  We were polite and never negotiated pricing.  the only thing we asked for was for the shop to do a small portion of the work, for which they declined]
  3) afterwards, we told him we would need to set the vehicle on our frame machine and measure the vehicle. we dont work for free. no other body shop or any other business works for free. yes our estimates are free, but we dont ever bring a vehicle into our repair center and set it up on our frame bench and measure the car for free. we explained that to him plenty of times verbally. his wife (ex-wife) understood. 
  [they said that the estimate is subject to change since they never put the car up on a lift.  I asked them if they could do that and he agreed, but again, NEVER said that it would cost money to do so.  they then came back with an estimate that we $2,500 more]
  4) but it seems he is going out of his way to contact his bank and perform a stop pay on his credit card and also report us to every entitiy known to man. 
  [American Express was not happy about their egregious credit card fees and unfair business practices]
  5) regardless of his negligence and abuse, we chose to act professionlly in the light of his oppression. we charged him for 2 days of storage, his vehicle was here for 1 week. we didnt charge him to transport the vehicle here when the transport company dropped the vehicle off without notification or an appointment. 
  [I am not sure how to respond to this claim of 'negligence and abuse'.  Ask them to prove that in the email exchange]
  6) he is mad to think that any repair center would work for free. irrelevant of his ******** ways we will continue to act like the grown *** in this situation and we will absolutely support our stance on this matter. thank you for the opportuninty to explain these circumstances and i hope this concludes this witch-****.
  [I never asked for free work.  Where in the emails do I ask for that?  I did request that they be upfront about hidden fees like Storage.....which he claims is legal to charge.  and that's fine.....but you need to tell the customer UPFRONT, for which they didn't]
   7) we dont hold any vehicles hostage nor do we act in any type of bad faith business practices. we are prepared to support our stance on this matter for as long as need be. 
  [talk is cheap.  show in writing where you provided upfront notice of the superfluous fees]
  
  Please also note:
  *******'s never responded to our BBB complaint......the fact that they never provided us an estimate for Storage fees, Admin fees, Shop supplies.  We never received one, in writing or verbally.  The fact that they don't respond to that complaint says a lot.
  The 12% credit card fee is egregious and predatory, especially since they're holding the vehicle hostage.  I am sure they would have rather had us pay cash so they could hide these shady transactions.
  The estimate from *******'s was $12,300.  They missed some items in their estimate.  I had the entire vehicle repaired for $7,633, which included the items they missed.  My gut about their over-charging was correct and I am glad I took the vehicle elsewhere.
  

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩