Elis Collision Repair

Eli's Collision Service - What a frustrating mistake!! What a disaster!! Based on a recommendation from my local Toyota dealer, I brought my Toyota Sienna in to Eli's Collision service in Santa Monica for an estimate, which I emailed to my insurance company, along with a couple of pictures of the minor body damage. I brought the car back after Eli's received written confirmation from the insurance company of their acceptance of the quote. I was told that they anticipated that the repair would take approximately 10-14 days, depending on what they saw once the fender was removed. I explained that, despite my rental car coverage limitations, I have triplets in middle school, so I really need my mini-van back as soon as possible. They indicated that I would receive a call within two business days to update me. Two days later, I received a call as promised and was told that they had nothing to tell me, other than they moved the car to their Hawthorne facility. I was promised an update as soon as they had more information. I received another call, indicating that they hadn't found anything unusual, would stick to the original estimate and had ordered the parts. I was promised another update at the end of the week. After waiting more than a week, I called and asked for the manager and was transferred to Jacob, who indicated that the 10-14-day estimate was ridiculous and all but accused me of lying about it. Ignoring his combative attitude, I explained my situation with school pick-up and drop off (fortunately, I work at home); Jacob assured me that he transferred the file to his desk, would make sure that he personally expedited the repair and would give me updates at the end of each week. After not hearing from him, on the Thursday of the following week, I called Eli's Collision service and was told that "Jacob was just wrapping up a meeting" and would call me in 10 minutes. After 30 minutes, I called back and was told that he was "in the middle of a meeting" and would call me later. Using words like "please" and "thank you," I asked that Jacob step out of his meeting and I indicated that I would not take too much of his time. Jacob came to the phone and I asked permission to read him 5 sentences. He agreed and I read him the only Yelp review that came up for Eli's Collision Santa Monica - a very negative review. His comment was that there were more mostly positive reviews for other locations and the bad reviews were fake. He got belligerent, told me that I was rude to his receptionist and talked over me with phrases like, "let me talk" and "let me finish." When I mentioned that I was only polite, respectful and soft spoken, he told me that he had notes in the file from other employees about me. I never spoke with anyone there except for the one time that I asked for him and, prior to that, when Eli's Collision in Hawthorne called to tell me that they had nothing to tell me. I let him know that I got a call from the rental car company that my rental car insurance was up tomorrow and pointed out the total lack of communication from Eli's. His response was to tell me that he would pay for additional rental days if I would "sign a non-disclosure agreement." I indicated that I would sign an NDA but only relating to the rental car. He then withdrew the offer because he wanted to silence me from writing any reviews. I told Jacob that I would pay for my own rental car past the insurance limits and asked when my car would be ready. He said that the car was in "polish" right now and he will call me on Monday. I asked when he thought I could pick up the car and he indicated that I could have it by the end of the following week. Polish for a week and a half to replace a fender?? I felt that he was trying to drag this out because he knew I was paying for the additional car rental expense and wanted to punish me. During this conversation, I must have been on the speaker phone because, during the call, I could hear laughing in the background - Jacob was obviously putting on a show at my expense. I cannot even begin to explain the unprofessional, disrespectful and sarcastic attitude of Jacob, who said that he was the head person in charge at Eli's Collision when I called. A couple of days later, after the Toyota dealership and my insurance company called Eli's on my behalf, I spoke with Danny, who represented himself as the owner of Eli's Collision Service. Danny was defensive and unsympathetic to the problems and delays that I experienced with his company. His only comment about Jacob was, "He's a Princeton graduate." I truly wish I had heeded the Yelp review that came up when I searched on "Eli's Collision Santa Monica." Follow-up: After further investigation, I discovered that Danny is not, the owner, as he represented, but the owner's son. On Jan 29, 2018, I received the following disingenuous email from Danny, only after he received another telephone call from senior management at Santa Monica Toyota and another from Nationwide, my Auto Insurance Company, who indicated that this repair should have only taken a few days (they referenced the .5 hours for body labor and .8 hours for paint in the estimate): ----- I really appreciate the return phone call today and I also want you to know that [SIC] do appreciate the business. I am sorry to hear that your interactions with Jacob has been not to your liking [SIC]. I understand how busy you are and I do appreciate the feed back . I will have a coachable discussion with Jacob on what your constructive feedback was. We are almost two weeks late on your repair so please let me know what I can do to try to rectify the situation. Your vehicle will be ready on Friday but will update you Wednesday or Thursday with a time. Please let me if this is suffice [SIC] and if you would like to further discuss. ----- By the way, he did nothing to even attempt to "…rectify the situation." If you go to Eli's Collision Service for repairs, do not expect customer service from the manager or from the owner's son, who represents himself as the owner. Therefore, you will have no recourse from within the organization in dealing with your complaints. I did get my car back on Feb 2, 2018 - Nearly ONE FULL MONTH after dropping it off, and only after intervention from two high level executives from Toyota and Nationwide. The repairs appear to be adequate. In conclusion, if you go to Eli's, you may be as lucky as I was, with an adequate repair job, but be prepared to wait and wait, and constantly contact the manager and owner, who both respond with disrespect and an unprofessional lack of concern for customer service. Thank you, Toyota, and Nationwide - without your intervention, I may still not have my car. You should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves, Eli's Collision Service. Never again!!