Consumers are Duped Into Accepting Unsafe Collision Repairs
Last month Toby Chess wrote an article in Autobody News (see Dec. 09 issue) that was about two repairs on completed by two different shops on Mercedes Benz vehicles that were not only repaired in a substandard way but safe to say in an un-safe manner. I want to add to what Toby had to say because this is not the exception but the norm.
With our economic downturn, shops and consumers are struggling. One (shops) to make a buck, and the other (consumers) to save a buck. There has been a giant step backwards in accountability from both shops and insurers that guarantees that a safe vehicle is put back on the road. The consumer is becoming the victim because they are deceived into thinking that a guarantee is the same as a safe repair.
I believe that we reap what we sow, so to think we will get away from accountability just because we haven’t been caught is wrong. To hide something from the customer will only come back to bite you in the end. Selling the job back to the customer should never be anything more than explaining to them what you have done and reassuring them that they can count on you because you care about them. It should never get to the point of talking them into accepting a repair that you know is substandard.
