1 day short of 2 months after dropping it off I got the call today that the car was ready to be picked up. Ran over pretty much immediately and it’s all shined up sitting inside under all the bright lights of their inspection bay. It looks good, at first. I start going over the panel gaps and they look good, not seeing any blending issues. Open the passengers side door and the jams all look good, window pops down the way a frameless should as you pull the handle etc. I run the really complicated power top down and back up and that’s working fine.
Open the trunk and I hear a loud rattle, like something is loose inside the trunk lid. Open close it a few times and yeah, something is bouncing around inside the lid. I pop the access cover off for the tail light bulb and one of those metal push clips falls out. It didn’t belong to the access panel so no idea where it’s supposed to go. While they’re calling back to the shop to ask about that I start noticing the orange peel on the small panel that meets the rear window. Start looking over the passengers fender/door that were repaired and the orange peel is really noticeable. Go look at the driver’s side and it’s typical Audi paint and smooth as glass with zero peel. So I asked the front desk person going over it with me to go grab the manager I worked with when I brought the car in and explain I’m not happy with the peel and point out the difference between the original paint and this repair. I never get a “we’re sorry” or “you’re right, that’s definitely noticeable”, just an “Ok, you can leave it and we’ll get it back to you next week”. The whole vibe was, “We’re annoyed you’re being picky about this”. At no point was I as asshole or even acting upset, just calmly said, “Hey would you mind grabbing Mike because I’m not happy with this orange peel”.
So how much orange peel on a collision repair would you accept? Mind you, this isn’t some shitty factory paint from 90’s GM where the peel came from the factory. Audi factory paint is very good.
I dont think youre an asshole.
We bought an ATS new in 2016 and 1 year later it needed rust repair where the rear window meets the roof. I went to pick it up and all of new paint had orange peel. They were good about it and had me bring the car back after a month so that there was no issue with the clearcoat hardness when wet sanded.
See, now that’s a concern now too, because they didn’t even mention that. It went into paint on 4/25 and I got a text that it was in reassembly on 4/29 so I guess it’s had a couple weeks to cure so it’s probably fine.
I probably should have taken a picture but at the time I didn’t even think about it. They ended up calling me a little after 4 Friday and said it was ready for me to come take a look. They addressed the orange peel and I took it home. Manager was there but didn’t even come outside, just let the front desk person handle it. No one apologized for the state they tried to give it back to me in. That night I went to take my snow brush out and noticed a piece of trim inside the trunk for the convertible top has the carpet over the top of the trim instead of behind it like it should be. I’m just going to fix it myself because it’s doesn’t look like it’s going to be too bad to take off and put back on right but just another example of them doing half assed work. Would definitely not recommend this shop. Next time when Ken over at Aero Collision tells me he’s backed up 3 months I’ll just tell him to put me on the list as long as the car is driveable. There’s a reason he’s backed up… he does REALLY good work.
i think this is also a good case for going OEM ceritified even though there was no one in your area.
all of the euro certified programs need to expand but there are very few qualified folk that would make the investment to go through to get certified. it costs a grip in time and $.
Sorry you had an issue, I’ve sent countless vehicles there and never had a single negative feedback. Maybe it’s an isolated issue or you could be more picky than others. Either way, you have your car back.
Just because it OEM certified doesn’t mean they do any more quality work than another shop. End of the day it’s the person working on the vehicle and if they actually give 2 fucks about your vehicle.
