Complaint History & Business Rating for Eaton Paint Body Specialist Llc

Augie D. says: We took our car to this shop for an estimate. The owners inspected the vehicle and prepared an estimate knowing that it would be private pay (not covered by insurance). They assured us that they would repair, rather than replace some parts and then use aftermarket parts to help us out where they could. Within two days of dropping off the car we received a call from another employee of the business asking us if the job was covered by insurance. I told her it wasn’t an insurance job and she said that was too bad. She then told us that she was preparing a supplemental to the estimate and that it would be an additional $600.00. After discussing the parts that were to be repaired rather than replaced, I agreed to additional costs of about $309.00. She emailed the second preliminary estimate with supplemental and it was still showing aftermarket parts. She said the only additional costs would be some fasteners. I thought we were done, but was I wrong. When the job was complete we received a third preliminary and final estimate that was $200.00 higher than the second estimate. The estimate for two of the parts was still listing aftermarket descriptions for the parts, but the prices were original equipment (OEM) prices, so we questioned this. At this point we were told that aftermarket parts were not available so they used OEM parts. We were never contacted about this change. We requested receipts to prove that OEM parts were used. The dates on these receipts showed that the parts had already been ordered, if not ordered and received, before the second preliminary estimate was prepared for us still listing aftermarket parts. The job ended up costing $500.00 more than the original estimate!
CONSUMER BEWARE!! The bottom line with this shop is once you sign the repair authorization you are basically giving them a blank check to do whatever they want. They will hide behind the paper that you signed that says ALL estimates are preliminary estimates. After they complete the job you are on the hook for whatever the final preliminary estimate is because you know what…they have the keys to your car. Twice I asked to speak with the original estimator and I was always told they were unavailable. This was a case of very poor communications and customer service. This was by far the worst experience I’ve ever had as a consumer. Unless you have an insurance company to run interference and approve or disapprove their multiple preliminary estimates do yourself a favor and save yourself a lot of grief by going somewhere else.