Recommendation for the best ICBC certified body shops

[knight604]

I know them personally, not as acquaintance.

[KDMofo]

I don't know where you are getting information from but you need to stop talking out of your ass. If you knew anything about the industry you would know that parts are sold to customer at retail price and shops only get a small discount from it. That means that profit margins on aftermarket goods are lower than OEM because they cost less.
Express shops are trusted by ICBC to make economical desicision on repairs. If you're making poor decisions and costing icbc more money they will either take your express accreditation away or lower your labour rates.

[VR6GTI]

Originally Posted by KDMofo

I don't know where you are getting information from but you need to stop talking out of your ass. If you knew anything about the industry you would know that parts are sold to customer at retail price and shops only get a small discount from it. That means that profit margins on aftermarket goods are lower than OEM because they cost less.
Express shops are trusted by ICBC to make economical desicision on repairs. If you're making poor decisions and costing icbc more money they will either take your express accreditation away or lower your labour rates.

I'm not gonna get into a pissing contest with an estimator.
I could tear your whole post apart, but i don't really feel like doing so on this forum. Lets take it to PM if you want to get pissy about only getting a small discount.
You keep bringing things that have nothing to do with what i said, i never said anything abour labour rates or making poor decisions.

[Noran]

It's fraud because you're cheating those (like OP) who have purchased an extended OEM policy that ensures any part replaced is manufactured by the original equipment supplier. How is it fair for you to have equal treatment to somebody that has paid for additional coverage?

There are ways to get OEM parts, but simply asking for them is not one of them.

I do agree that jobber parts are absolute crap and I do wish that all parts were OEM, but unless everybody pays a higher insurance rate that won't happen.

OP has his answer and there's not much point in continuing this any further.

[triplefive]

Originally Posted by roastpuff

For those people further out into the Valley, Bavara Auto Haus did a really good job on my vandalized GTI. Very happy with their work.

I brought my car into Bavara Auto Haus due to recommendations from Revscene but I had a very bad experience with them. They're actually bankrupt now.

The owner, Sean Dawson knew they were going bankrupt and did not pay for a bunch of customers' courtesy cars for ICBC claims. I was sent to collections by Hertz half a year later but luckily I was able to get ICBC to pay for it. ICBC even indicated many people had this problem with Bavara because they already knew they were going bankrupt and therefore purposely deceived their customers.

[roastpuff]

Originally Posted by triplefive

I brought my car into Bavara Auto Haus due to recommendations from Revscene but I had a very bad experience with them. They're actually bankrupt now.

The owner, Sean Dawson knew they were going bankrupt and did not pay for a bunch of customers' courtesy cars for ICBC claims. I was sent to collections by Hertz half a year later but luckily I was able to get ICBC to pay for it. ICBC even indicated many people had this problem with Bavara because they already knew they were going bankrupt and therefore purposely deceived their customers.

Oh, I didn't know that they went bankrupt. Sorry to hear that...

[AzNightmare]

Lol, damn. Didn't know my thread turned into a discussion/debate. Is all good though. I don't mind learning new things.

So when you guys say "aftermarket" in this context, you're talking about 3rd party built body panels, right?

Is there a way to tell if my part is oem or aftermarket?
Like I said earlier, my optiom plan says I should get oem parts only. The guy at fastrack said he will get oem fender for me. And repaint the bumper.

I forgot to ask him the estimate quote for repairs for my curiosity, but I'll ask him when I actually drop my car off...
1 month wait time... Lol. Oh well I can wait. As long as the job is done well.

[Suprarz666]

Most of the time OEM panels will be stamped somewhere with the manufacturers mark.
for example, the back of the bumpers would be stamped with Toyota if its OEM.

Also, the shop working on it would tell you if you ask.

[6thGear.]

Most dealers will match jobber/aftermarket parts these days. There's a lot of right answers in this thread but that depends on who you ask. At the end of the day as long as the shop stays within the allotted repair cost, ICBC won't care if it's an oem or jobber parts. ICBC will only consider it fraud when a shop asks for an oem part but instead installs a jobber/used or just repairs it. When a shop is a VALET shop (ones that actually write the original claim/estimate) ICBC trusts that shop to do a honest estimate.

[VR6GTI]

6thgear knows what's going on
Noran says that's fraud and unfair

[MK-EK]

Originally Posted by SkunkWorks

I'll be the first to say that I had a pretty poor experience at Fastrack (must be my luck).

Long story short, 5 seperate visits to resolve issues, missed deadlines, poor communication, poor workmanship (initially), additional damage done by tow truck while in their possession, and an epic alignment fail and engine oil overfill by Dynamic Performance Auto Centre.

The saga wasn't resolved until I escalated the case with ICBC who stepped in and I dealt solely with Andrew (who did do his absolute best to work with me) instead of Johnny who after the 2nd visit back wanted no part of resolving the workmanship issues.

I'm not here to bash, as in the end they did satisfy their end of the deal, but it absolutely should not have regressed as far as it did with a near 2 year timeline from start to finish.

Clearly I'm in the minority which, for the most part, should mean you're in good hands. Would I personally go back? Nope.

I frequently use Dynamic's services and i never had a problem with anything they have done for my car. My experience with them has been great.

[AzNightmare]

Ok, I re-read the thread again. I missed some posts earlier.

So if I ask and the shop verbally says, "yes, the fender will be replaced with OEM one"
then is that a verbal binding that it would be considered fraud if he doesn't follow through?

And since it's a fender, gonna be hard for me to see any stamping on the back to tell afterward, unless I pull the fender off myself.

[westopher]

Depending on the car you can usually see the stamping when you open the hood. If the car looks good, you are better than 99% of body shop experiences of anyone I have known. I wouldn't stress about it being OEM if the fitment and colour match was great.

[6thGear.]

Originally Posted by AzNightmare

Ok, I re-read the thread again. I missed some posts earlier.

So if I ask and the shop verbally says, "yes, the fender will be replaced with OEM one"
then is that a verbal binding that it would be considered fraud if he doesn't follow through?

And since it's a fender, gonna be hard for me to see any stamping on the back to tell afterward, unless I pull the fender off myself.

While you are waiting, a good estimator would call for price quotes while doing the estimate before submitting to ICBC. If all goes well, he/she will write in the comment box that dealer price matched. ICBC will know what parts prices are and if that comment is true they usually approve the estimate. As for stampings, its usually on the inside lip of the fender under the hood. If the painter is smart they will leave the decal on that reads "RDOT". If you are verbally told that the part is OEM replacement without him getting approval on your claim yet, he/she just isn't very smart.

Now before everyone thinks "Fuck this shit I'm not getting Replacement Cost Policy when I renew insurance cause I can still get OEM parts without it" still should understand that it's still quite useful especially when your car is in a major accident and on the verge of a total loss.

[AzNightmare]

OK. so this is an interesting turn of events. I'm a "regular" at the grocery store I park at. And I guess the asshole that hit me is a regular too.

I saw his car in the parking lot today, so I decided to take photos of his car and the area of impact.

Seemed like he barely suffered any damage though. You can kind of see my white paint, but there's also black too. Unfortunately, that bumper is matte, so it seems to absorb impacts well.
He also has 2 dents in his rear bumper on each corner... lol

I can now confirm it's a second gen Jeep Grand Cherokee.

You think I should submit new "evidence" to ICBC? They've already resolved it as hit-and-run.

[VR6GTI]

Unless they admit to hitting your car or have video proof you got no case

[M Speed]

If you suspect the party involved, you can submit your finding to ICBC. They will review the case and will call in the other party in for a measurement. If the marks lined up, you got a case.

I've done this before and won the case.

[AzNightmare]

Update:


So my appointment day finally arrives. I took my car in yesterday morning and they gave me a courtesy car.

In the afternoon, I get a call back saying there was a delay with my fender that they ordered. So since it won't arrive until next week, they can't work on my car. It would have been more convenient to just leave my car at the shop and keep the courtesy car for an extra week but the shop wanted me to return it ASAP so that they can lend it out to someone else.

So I gave them back the courtesy car and booked a new appointment for next week. When I got my car back again, I noticed the dash cam unplugged, with the cable loose and hanging.

TL;DR,
Is it proper procedure for them to unplug my dash cam? Can I request them not to touch it? My dashcam doesn't record audio.

[VR6GTI]

You can ask them all you want, they probably unplug it thinking the battery might die. They might also have a policy where they won't allow a dashcam to plugged in, incase of recording and they don't allow that.
Strange events with the fender, i would tell them to pound sand about the courtesy car. They should have ordered your fender 2 weeks ago. But you already returned it.

[AzNightmare]

Originally Posted by VR6GTI

You can ask them all you want, they probably unplug it thinking the battery might die. They might also have a policy where they won't allow a dashcam to plugged in, incase of recording and they don't allow that.
Strange events with the fender, i would tell them to pound sand about the courtesy car. They should have ordered your fender 2 weeks ago. But you already returned it.

Yeah, it's kind of messed up.
I think they ordered an aftermarket fender because my other insurance never contacted them. And then now it's been approved I get an OEM fender.

I've been trying to look into the dashcam thing, seems like a gray area

[nah]

Originally Posted by Jas29

Overseas auto body in Surrey did a great job on my grandpa's van would recommend them 100%

They were shit for my repair a couple of years ago.

Sangam Autobody is awesome for the repair they did for my Venza recently.

[AzNightmare]

Update/Review:

Post may be TL;DR, but I wanted to be a bit more in-depth than the generic "It was good! highly recommended. A+++"
So I dropped my car off at Fastrack on Tuesday morning. It was done and ready by Thursday late afternoon. I didn't have time, so I ended up picking up the car Friday morning. I didn't expect the job to be done so quickly, so that was great.

Initial examination:
Mostly everything was good. Paint surface was good, paint matching was done well, no issues with the paint job. On my fender, my car comes with clear "rock chip protection" film from the factory. So the only flaw I noticed was this:

Someone didn't wash their hands before applying it on, so now there's a dirty fingerprint underneath. The shop said they'll order a new film and fix that up. Unfortunately, I'll have to go back again next week. Shouldn't take any longer than 10-15 minutes.

Closer examination at home:
I did notice a few things... Firstly, the fitment. Although the fender is an oem replacement, the gap between the panels were smaller than "oem". So looking from a distance, the fender and bumper looks like it's one solid piece. It's pretty minor though and not really noticeable unless you're very attentive to detail.


---
Secondly, because the fender was replaced and repainted, the door had to be painted as well to blend the fender colour. The weather strip had to be removed, but it's a "one-time use" item, so the shop had to order in an oem replacement. It's quite minor, but the weather strip isn't flush anymore. I'm not sure if it's due to poor installation or if the replacement weather strip is flawed. Once again, no one would notice unless you're very attentive to detail. But the fact that it's uneven is kind of bothering me. I might bring it up when I go back next week to get my protective film issue fixed. Maybe they'll order a new weather strip?.. I'm not sure if it's worth the hassle though.


---
Thirdly, I removed my bumper (because I've been doing that regularly since I'm working on the car) and I noticed broken pegs. The part that attaches my bumper to the fender is held in by a few screws and there are 2 pegs on each side that help align up the parts. When I was removing my bumper, one side had a peg that was barely attached on and pretty much broken off. I eventually just pulled it off because it wasn't much use anymore. On the other side, the peg was completely gone.

I'm not sure how this happened or what was going on during the assembly... That being said, it's internal which most people wouldn't have ever noticed if they don't work on their cars, and it doesn't affect anything once the screws are in place. But it's still worth noting that this shouldn't have happened.

Overall Experience:
Despite these few problems, overall, I'm satisfied. This is actually my first time taking my car to a shop for repairs so I don't really have anything to compare with. They cleaned my interior, washed and detailed my car, and left a notepad and microfiber cloth on the dashboard as a gift when I got my car back. So the finished presentation was good. I would think it's usually hard to fix everything 100% as if it came straight out of the factory so I tried to be reasonable about it and I think they came pretty close. But like I said, this is my first time going to a repair shop. If these issues are things worth complaining about to the shop because many other shops would have been better, let me know.

[v_tec]

Curious, what kind of courtesy car did they gave you?

[AzNightmare]

Originally Posted by v_tec

Curious, what kind of courtesy car did they gave you?

First time, Prius C.
Second time, Prius V.

Prius C was terrible. The Prius V was decent in PWR mode.

[AzNightmare]

Update on my previous update:

So Fastrack gave me a call yesterday telling me my StoneGuard® protection film is ready. I brought my car back to the shop this morning.

I also pointed out all the issues I had from my previous post. So they went ahead and reapplied the film.



Pretty good... but there's a tiny blue lint stuck underneath. Well shit, that's life I guess. Not going to bother with that since it is pretty hard to notice unless you're examining it. Moving on...

I told them about the broken pegs and how the fender wasn't lining up. First of all, they didn't really seem apologetic about the pegs. No "sorry" or anything. Didn't even seem like they realize they were the ones that broke it. Because I do work with my car and they know I was removing the bumper, it almost seemed like they took the issue less seriously because maybe in the back of their heads, they thought I could have been the culprit??

I told them one side, the peg was completely missing. The other side, it was hanging partially. They told me I shouldn't have pulled it off, cause then they can "WELDBOND" it. Either way, the piece was more or less busted, so whether I completely yanked it off or left it loosely broken was irrelevant. Coming in, I didn't really think there was much of a solution, but it would have been nice if they admitted fault for breaking them.

For the fender/bumper gap,

Spoiler!

I told them the space doesn't look the same as "oem". The guy says it's supposed to be tight like that. The other side has a gap cause I was removing my bumper a lot so it got looser over time (wtf?) The new fender has a new clip and it will only have a space if you voluntarily pull it out to make space, yada yada yada. At this point, I had no idea if he was bullshitting me or not so I kind of tuned out. The more important thing is, I knew they weren't going to do anything about it, so whatever. I had already decided if they can't fix it, I might just make my own "spacer" and fit it in between.

So for my last issue, the window weather strip. Apparently, they said the weather strip is fine, it's the "triangle" window that's off. Because that piece is glued to the fender, it was removed from the original fender and reattached to the new fender. That work was outsourced to a company that specializes in windows, so they shifted the blame over to them saying it's them that didn't attach the window properly.

Fastrack did help me set up an appointment for today in the afternoon with that window company. The only problem is, when I got home to take a closer look at the weather strip, in my honest opinion, I think it's the weather strip itself that is at fault. Both sides did their assembly correctly, but it's going to be misaligned if the weather strip is not made correctly from the factory. I'm going to meet up with that window company later today, but I'm worried they're gonna look at it and be like, "nope, it's the weather strip that's installed wrong... go back to Fastrack"


----------

update:
Yeah... The guy from the window company took a look. Said he was the one that personally worked on this car and remembers there isn't really a way for him to adjust anything cause there's pegs inside that help align up that "triangle" window. Unless he started doing custom work which would not be good. Said it was probably the weather strip that wasn't made properly at the factory. He called Fastrack and they worked it out. They're gonna order me a new weather strip. yay.