Vandergriff Chevy Collision - Arlington, TX

[Steve]

Anyone have any experience with Vandergriff Chevy collision repair in Arlington? They're the nearest Chevy dealership to my house and I'd rather go to a place when I know they will use GM OEM parts (http://www.gmpartsclub.com)if they can get them instead of cheap aftermarket stuff.

This is in reference to my 2002 Chevy Trailblazer neeing to be fixed. Anyhow, I'll probably have it towed out there tomorrow or Friday.

Trailblazer Parts (http://www.gmpartsclub.com/chevy-trailblazer-parts.html)

[tbplus10]

Not Collision repair.
Our new HHR had a shipping ding in the right rear fender. They were proffessional and fast with the repair.

[Steve]

Well, I'm going to take it down there. They fixed my wife's old Pontiac like 5 years ago and did a good job after a low-speed fender-bender. I think that it's an all-inclusive GM collision repair shop. I'll let everyone know how it turns out. It looks like they might try to repair the TB afterall, personally I'd rather have a check for the actual cash value.

[Steve]

Actually, this is a different place, but they seem to do good work (I guess - we'll see).

It looks like they're going to fix it after all. It's been back and forth with everything, but now the insurance company said to fix it. My experience will show that I'm more critical than most I'm fairly certain that I will not be satisfied right off.

Expected repair date: early January.

Thankfully, my guys are GM are going to let me do some more test drives, so I'll have some trucks to drive during this down time.

[Cableguy]

Once its done, see what they'll give you for trade in :rofl:
Time to dump the ole girl...You couldn't pay me to keep a wrecker. They usually have little bugs pop up after... This stops working, that stops working. I will put in my offical "I told you so" now :lol:

[Megasaurus]

I've heard good things about vandergrif in arlington. it's on the other side of town from me, probably about 60 minutes or more i guess, but i've heard they go good work.

[Steve]

They seem to be pretty responsive. They even have a website where I can go get the repair status of the TB as they're working on it.

[Steve]

The folks at Vandergriff still have my truck. They're pretty good at finding stuff as they look at the truck more and more each step. I'm glad that they're doing it right, even if it is taking longer. It's mostly delayed becuase the insurance company has to approve each new thing they find.

Oh well, I'll get my truck back someday.

[Steve]

I got the Trailblazer back today. There are obvious issues with it. :-( I wish they would have just totalled it.

1) As I drove off the repair parking lot, there was an incredibly loud roar under the engine that was 50x louder than anything I'd heard before. I think it's very obvious that the fan clutch was damaged. The fan was replaced as it took a hit, but not the fan clutch. (I'm assuming that it's the fan clutch, it could be the water pump I guess or

2) The steering got sloppy when getting into the upper speeds. It didn't seem to be that bad when I drove it the other day, but it does not. It's going to have to be looked at.

3) There is a point of damage under the hood on the insider of the engine bay, where the left fender was replaced! WTH! How do they think that's acceptable?

4) There is at least one point where there is a paint chip gone that I think is reasonable to assume it was from the accident. It wasn't repaired. Sigh, I would have overlooked that to avoid the hassle if that was it, but as long as I'm going to have to get more stuff fixed.

I'll try to get some photos posted in the next day or two.

At this point, I can't recommend Vandergriff Colission in Arlington, Texas.

[Steve]

Ok, things have taken another turn, isn't it funny how stuff like this happens?

I took my Trailblazer BACK into Vandergriff Collision South almost TWO WEEKS AGO. I printed out a list of what I think needed to be looked at. I guess the vehicle has just been sitting there, they were going to look at it on Monday of last week ... but guess what ... the appraiser that was contracted by the insurance company no longer works for the appraiser that did the work. So voicemails to him fell on deaf ears, and he never contacted Vandergriff.

Ok, this may be a bit of a weird situation, but someone dropped the ball on this one. If a guy isn't doing work for you anymore, you would think that they would be monitoring his voicemail? Or he would put a forwarding message on there? Something. I need to get this Trailblazer looked at and either the insurance company is going to buy it from me, or they're going to get it fixed and return it to me. But two weeks, come on.

Chevy Parts (http://www.gmpartsclub.com)

[GM_Guy]

I would find that appraiser, and open up a can of whoop a** :slap:

[Steve]

Here's some of the damage that was probably done when they tried to straighten up the inner fender body panel, that makes up the inside of the left-fender.

[dwill3015]

Unsatisfactory. Unless that area was hidden by something, it should have been touched up as to not show any damage. If you were to sell the TB and that kind of damage was visible, good luck getting what you want for it. I'm glad this hopefully is being taken care of for you.

[Steve]

Unsatisfactory. Unless that area was hidden by something, it should have been touched up as to not show any damage. If you were to sell the TB and that kind of damage was visible, good luck getting what you want for it. I'm glad this hopefully is being taken care of for you.

That's my main concern. Once I saw that, I was like ... whooa! I wouldn't buy this vehicle if I saw it on a lot for sale.

[GM_Guy]

who trained their people, Maaco???

[Dan]

now you need to go after the insurance company for depretiated value since yuor truck now worthless on trade in or out right sale

[Steve]

Well, my insurance policy doesn't cover the concept of depreciated value. I have to sue the woman that hit me, which I will do in the near future in small claims court, and that will be a big part of the case.

[Steve]

I'm still waiting on this. Has it been three weeks or was it almost a month that I took it back into Vandergriff for them to fix this? I've lot count of time. The accident was November 13th, and it's now March 6 --- almost 4 months after the accident --- and I do not have my Trailblazer back from Vandergriff yet. Granted, they got it in December (if I remember correctly), but still they've had it for about 3 months now and it's not back to me yet. :-( Very disappointing.

[GM_Guy]

I'd contact the better business bureau, the chamber of commerce,and any consumer affairs offices you can find

good luck,and hope you get your TB back soon

[Steve]

I finally got in touch with someone from Vandergriff on Friday who is going to try to take ownership of the problems that I brought up. I think that overall they're a good orginazation, but I think they must have just fallen behind the curve on this one due to some weird circumstances. Anyhow, hopefully it will all get resolved next week! ;-)

Trailblazer parts (http://www.gmpartsclub.com)

[Steve]

Vandergriff Collision is starting to be more responsive. I think it just may be a total cluster problem! There were mechanics that were sick, estimators that were sick, the insurance appraiser quit in the middle of the job ... then after they turned it back to me the first time there were some issues like a busted fan clutch, paint scratches, and the gouges inside the fender that I didn't see. Not to mention steering problems that couldn't be noticed until we were driving it.

[Steve]

Vandergriff Collision has a pretty cool system to communicate with customers. It's called the myrepairtracking.com (or myrepairtracker.com) and it allows them to update the status and show all of the stages of the repair process.

You can also submit questions or whatever directly in the web interface. It's pretty cool actually.

[Steve]

Well, like I said, there were more problems. I went to pick it up yesterday and there were some good issues like the new bumper had a large 3-4" spider crack in it, bad overspray, missed paint spots, they actually missed a huge secion of paint on the inner fender they were supposed to paint. (Like a 3/4 inch by 2 foot section) and a sratched oil filler reserviour. Anyhow, I think I have been very patient, but I lost my cool when I went in this last time. Won't say that I said, but just wasn't happy.

Anyhow, then it was told it would be ready today, I called in and it's not going to be ready until tomorrow. That's not that big of a deal, but I'd like to just get this over with, but I don't want to accept sub-standard work, especially after they've been paid nearly $9,000 for thsi.

[Steve]

Had to put the Trailblazer back into Vandergriff. You can read about it here. (http://www.gmtruckclub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11649&page=2)

They put me in a rental car, mostly becuase they're going to tear down some stuff to take care of the overspray.

[Steve]

I guess I'm just about done with Vandergriff. It took over 4 months to get the vehicle fixed. I am NOT fully satisfied that the vehicle looks as good as it did before the wreck.

Overall, I give them a 3.5 out of 10 rating.

After almost $9,000 worth of repairs, there are still body panels that are slighly off, and I think I was misled (lied to) on a potential door-damage issue where the body shop manager said that it was not possible that the door could have been damaged in the wreck. (WHA? A 30+ MPH wreck to the driver's front end, pushing straight backwards, couldn't have tweaked the door just a bit? -- I mean, I can hear wind whistle through the top of the door now and I couldn't hear that before the wreck. I can see the top of the door bent ... granted, it's bent like 1/32 of an inch, but that's enough. I guess I'll try to bend it back myself.)

Anyhow, that's my take on Vandergriff Collision, take it or leave it.

[Steve]

Just wanted to update this. They used such poor replacement aftermarket grill parts that it's starting to pull apart. :-( Hope that they replace it under "warranty", but it's been 18 months, may have only been a 12 month warranty. (I noticed it was coming apart in December of last year actually)

[Grizzly Guy]

do I understand that the insurance company didn't write U'r off truck and opted to have it repaired,nasty.

[Steve]

do I understand that the insurance company didn't write U'r off truck and opted to have it repaired,nasty.

Yeah, the total repair was $9500 and the vehicle was MAYBE worth $9500 at the time. Not a good one to get fixed, but it does seem to run and drive good. The repairs were NOT satisfactory to the way they look, but the fan clutch was replaced and the steering was fixed, so it's god some plusses and minuses.

[Steve]

Just to be clear, it was Vandergriff Collision South (http://www.vandergriffcollision.com/) that I went to.