A customer drops his Volvo off for a bumper cover repair. The bumpers come pre painted from Volvo, so the repair is scheduled to take one day if there is no hidden damage found.
When our technician removes the damaged bumper, he discovers that the reinforcement bar was also damaged and a plastic air intake was damaged as well.
So now what was once a one day job will now be delayed due to locating and ordering parts and then waiting for their arrival. We had to order those parts from Volvo directly, which took a week and a half to arrive.
If the customer wanted his car done fast, there are many shops that will replace the bumper with the damaged parts underneath and never mention to the customer what they found. The customer would never see these two parts yet one is a safety part and one is an air intake. Some shops would take a shortcut and just add some glue to fix the plastic and you never would have known the difference.
At Colorado Coach Auto Body, we are very thorough during the disassembling inspection of the customer’s car. Often times it is hard to determine the extent of the damage at first glance. Re-inspection occurs after disassembling the car, which often will reveal unseen damage that needs to be addressed.
Bottom line – If you want it done right, it takes time to get the OEM approved parts from the manufacture. The way cars are built today, most of the parts are hidden. So damage gets discovered upon disassembling. We don’t do fast, sloppy repairs. It’s not in our equation when your safety is at stake. We prioritize your safety first.
Awesome post! Keep up the great work