Repair/Service: Repair after car accident

Hourly Rate: $1

Total Cost: $20000

After a car accident, I had my car towed to Lifetime Auto. The cliam was covered by my insurance company. Over the course of the last two years I have found out that Lifetime Auto took the money from Geico for new replacement parts but only provided me with used parts and/or temporarily repaired items instead of replacing them. Examples: Instead of replacing my radiator, they welded it. It has since leaked and I had to pay $700 to replace it. They put in the wrong air compressor. Within weeks it locked up and broke the the belt. I took it back to them several times and finally they told me I had to take it to the manufacturer of the air compressor. After taking it to the manufacturer I found out that they ordered the wrong one for my car, hence the reason why it kept failing. I had to pay $1000 of my own money to replace it. They were supposed to re-leather the seats. Instead, they sowed it up and painted it the original color. After a few months of sitting on the seats, the paint came off. I took it back and they basically did the same thing all over again. Also, they were supposed to replace the back bumper. Instead they installed a used red bumper (My car is blue). Since then the paint has started to chip and I see red paint underneath. They were supposed to repair the parking break. To this day, I have to put my car in gear in order to insure that it doesn't roll. I had a lot of damage to my car. In total, the insurance company gave them $20,000. I can only guess what else they cut corners on.

I suspected something was wrong when I picked up the car and the owner told me that I should think about selling it. Looking back on it, I think he told me that because I would figured out what he did in a couple of years.

by kenyamc on January 31, 2011