The good old insurance companys eh, they don't give a rats arse, cheapest price is all that concerns them but they love to take your hared earned money .
State farm is good insurance, The shop prolly fixed it the best they could, however their best on your car just is not good enough, So i would not let them do anymore to it if it were me. Did they pull a pattern of your flames before they just primed over them? I would bet not! They prolly deal in quickie late model cars, and for the most part prolly do a fine job on them. However they totally hosed you on this deal, the part about not being able to match the old primer is in part true, But they could have got a hell of alot closer than they did. primer can be tinted just like paint, I would say they just used some leftover grey primer they had on hand, and never even tried to match it. Anyhow i hope this turns out for you.
not sure why they didn't just tape off the flames or somewhere close... My advise would be to go after them for causing damage to a part of your car not involved in the wreck... Flames in particular.
When dealing with Insurance adjusters and body shops in this situation you need to take time to clear your head and above all sharpen your negotiating skills..Heres my story...In 2010 my fresh 1936 Plymouth roadster was damaged by an uninsured show vendors awing.. Because she had O insurance I was forced to turn the damage into my own company..They send what they claimed was "a collector car specialist" out to look at the Plymouth and I was not impressed..I had written a $2600 estimate on the car knowing it was painted by the former owner with some weird DuPont commercial coating that was no longer available to the public and explained that to him..He excepted my estimate and told me that because I owned the shop I would receive 60% of the claim and have to subtract the 500 deductible! I now wanted nothing to do with the repair and contacted a "REPUTABLE" shop and directed the adjuster to them..He did receive an estimate from the shop at $1600 and off the car went for the repairs,,, This is where the story really begins after 2 weeks the shop calls and says they cannot match the finish..so they contact my insurance company explaining the situation and they say try blending out the car keep track of the time and we will pay the bill! Keep in mind the car has $1500 worth of hand stripe work..fast forward ahead 2 more weeks now my roadster has been in the shop for 30 prime summer days when the shop owner calls me and says there is absolutely no way he can match my car and now most of the car needs new pin striping! He has contacted my insurance company and they have agreed to refinish the entire car!!..but it gets better if they delete the hand stripe and put the cost of the stripe into the car they will paint the roadster any color I want!!! They completely tore the car down painted it the color I picked and get this ,my share was the 500 deductible ..How sweet was that!! If you deal with real car guys and they know you will tell everyone about their service and quality most good shops will bend over backward to satisfy their customers...I have added pics of the Plymouth both before and after the incident...I would like to thank Bill and Randy at BRB auto body in Wausau Wi for the great amount of time and effort they spent to make everything just right..Thanks again guys!!
Ready to start the battle again tomorrow. Kept getting sent back and forth between the insurance company and the shop to straighten things out. Went above the adjusters to a supervisor who talked a good story for satisfaction. Said he would contact the shop on Friday. I checked to find out one guy in the office went to the ocean for the weekend and no one else knew anything or could help. Went to a local cruise of around 300 cars to show off the mess and let them know who sent it out of the shop as finished. The longer it goes on like this, the more people locally in their work area are going to find out about it. Something solid will happen this week or higher steps will be taken.
You should let the shop know that you attend every cruise and car show in the area and you're getting a display sign made up giving credit to the shop for their great "undetectable collision repair and computer color matched paint". They can't sue you for being honest.
Sounds like the shop is paying under the table to the insurance company to refer people to get suckered on taking cars to them. Call the news station,they love to humiliate business on tv.
I tend to go overboard giving second chances and more, but it get's to the point that I'll no longer protect someone who isn't even trying to do right. Took the time yesterday to replace the battery cut off swith that they didn't even acknowlege as broken. Guess they didn't know what it was or that it was broken when it looks like this. Yep, they get the receipt for that tomorrow to pay for too.
As an appraiser for Hagerty and Grundy, I'm sorry you've run into this much of a problem. State Farm and Allstate are the cheapest of the cheap and none of their adjusters know a thing about vintage cars. Going to one of their DRP shops (Direct Repair Shop) is foolish. These shops all fancy themselves as 'production' shops. Get the car in and get the car out. On rear bumpers, they blend paint and repairs even on new cars. That color is unacceptable. Neither Hagerty or Grundy have ever told me how to repair a vehicle. I raise my rates so that a shop will take their time doing the repairs. I allow extra time to do the job right. The goal of any insurance company representative should be to make the car look like it did before. The insured (car owner) picks the shop. If I pick the shop, who will you blame if the shop screws up? And every shop makes mistakes. The difference between the good shops and the bad shops are how they take care of their screw ups. There should have been a test spray before shooting the whole car. The flames should be there. This wasn't the right shop for the job. I'm surprised they even took the job.
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