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Rant: A customer brought in a 2018 F-150 with a 'simple' dent that turned into a full quarter panel job
Last week in the shop, a guy came in with a big dent on his truck's rear quarter. He said he hit a pole backing up and thought we could just pop it out. Once we got the trim off, we found the inner structure was bent and the spot welds had cracked. My boss quoted him for a full section replacement, which was over $2,800. The customer was not happy at all. How do you guys handle explaining that kind of hidden damage without making people think you're just trying to get more money?
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fiona_cooper7mo ago
Yeah, that's always rough. I had a similar thing with a door ding on my own car last year. Looked like nothing, but the paint was cracked right along a body line. My buddy at a shop showed me how the metal was actually stretched, said filling it would just crack again in a year. Ended up needing a whole new door skin. Sometimes the damage just goes deeper than it looks.
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zara_garcia7mo ago
Honestly, showing them the actual damage helps a ton. Tbh, people get it when they see the bent metal and broken welds for themselves. It turns it from a story into a fact they can't argue with.
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abbyg147mo ago
Ugh, that's the worst part of the job. @zara_garcia is totally right, you have to show them. Pictures don't even cut it sometimes, they need to come look at the car on the lift with you. Point at the cracked spot welds and say "see, this is why." It turns it from your word against theirs into just a simple fact. Makes them way less likely to blame you for the bad news. How do you get people to actually come back and look, though?
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