First let me preface I don't know how to do that more than 1 quote thing in a post so iI'm just going to copy and paste.
Backround: Myself = auto insurance claims adjuster. Bare with me while I explain. This post was brought to my attention by Seanplunk = Husband.
"my insurance will not cover it if I take it to another shop" - CORRECT!
The shop you chose is the shop you have to stick with. Generally we give you the option if you pick our body shop we work with directly, you will have a double warranty (through insurance company and through the body shop). If you pick your own shop, you better hope that they do a good job and that they back their warranty b/c once we send that check out, you're pretty much on your own. Insurance companies don't touch "field (your own hand picked body shop) with a 10 foot pole.
***you do have the option to go to court but let me warn you, been there done that personally and it's a PAIN IN THE ASS! 1 year later it was finally settled and the files were closed.
"You have the right to take it to ANY shop of your choosing. If someone told you something else they are wrong" - CORRECT!
By law an insurance company can not force you to go to a shop. You have the option. It just better be a good shop if you go outside the loop.
"i know i have the right to take it to any shop the only problem is that once a shop has started the work and has been paid by the insurance it is really difficult to have it taken anywhere else. My insurance (progressive) has told me they already paid the shop that is having problems with my car so they will not pay anyone else anything to work on my car. I would have to get the shop to pay the other shop to do the work and they said no" - CORRECT!
Is this a shop that YOU picked or was this a shop that your insurance company sent you to? I'm guessing the 1st option. If so, do they have a warranty for the work that they did? They should....if they did, I would give them 1 more chance to install the fenders correctly and repaint. Our personal expericne with the cobra was about the same to be honest. Sean picked his shop that he thought was reputable and the best in town, and they installed the 1/4 pan wrong, pained the panel with dust and bubbles, and the paint didn't match. I think it went back 2 more times under warranty b/c it was not up to par and it's still not. We finally gave up. It's better than it was but still not "gerat."
"Anticipatory repudiation - If you feel the work contracted for is not being done/ being done properly, you can treat it as a breach of contract and sue them before they're done. Threaten to file suit and demand a refund. In the future, never pay or allow your insurance to pay until the work is done.
my insurance will not cover it if I take it to another shop" -
Adam I love your enthusiasm
, but have you ever actually gone through a court case personally??? It SUCKED! I would try and do your best to get this fixed without having to throw out threats, law suits, and so on. You're going to get much further without having a body shop hating you and potentially jacking up your car further.
As for payment and not paying them until the work is done, yeah right. The shop will not start the work until they are confirmed being paid. And as far as my company goes (I can only speak for us as I do not know other companies procedures), we issue checks, 2 party (body shop and insd/clmt) and it gets mailed directly to the body shop. Good luck getting ahold of it unless you want to change the insurance companies policies.
***As a general rule the body shops that we (insurance companies) work with directly, are going to be much easier to work with, easy going, and generally are going to do a better job (ok take more care than your non insurance shop). Reason being, is we give them a LOT of money and if we get a handful of bad complaints it just takes one click of a button to take them off our list.
***As for painting I think you can generally categorize this as a job that you never know how it's going to come out NO MATTER WHO YOU PICK. It's going to vary each and every day no matter who does it. It's just one of those things. Painting is a VERY hard job to do. There doesn't seem to be one painter out there that has a 90-100% excellent rating. Even if the shop comes recommended,....who is really handling that spray gun that day? I sure don't.
Body work is just a hard. Plain and simple.
***PS - In my 3 years here at XYZ, I've never heard of the first body shop you guys mentioned, or the second.
Best of luck dude and I'm sorry that you're having to go through all of this. Let me know if I can help with anything else.