Review of Great Plains Auto Body in Omaha, NE
by tdaxp ~ November 17th, 2009
I have been told the general manager of Great Plains is out of town. If so, it would explain how this series of events could happen.
1. I dropped by car off on a Wednesday, and indicated (using their forms) I wish daily status updates
2. The same day, Great Plains provides a PDF (generated with pirated software — they are using a non-commercial, trial PDF creator software as production equipment to send estimates) to me, of an estimate of the damages
3. No updates are forthcoming
4. On Monday, I call for an update, and am told they lost my information
5. Great Plains informs me my insurance adjuster is unreachable
6. I call my insurance adjuster, and am told Great Plains has never attempted to contact, and has not used the standard web application for submitting an estimate
7. My insurance company calls Great Plains, and requests a loaner vehicle for me
8. GP states to my insurance company they do not provide loaners
9. I call up GP to verify, and am told they do provide loaners, but that the person who can grant one is out of the office. I am hung up on.
9. The next day (Tuesday) the insurance company sends someone to the office, to physically observe the submission of the estimate
10. I inquire by email for the cause of the delay. This email is not answered.
11. I call by phone to again request a loaner. I am told they provide them, but I must call a different number.
12. In the same call, I inform them of their use of pirated software. I am hung up on.
Great Plains took six days to submit an estimate to my insurance company, they have “lost” my information, attempted to blame the insurance company, stated they do/do not have loaners available, etc. This has been an extremely frustrating experience. I will never do business with Great Plains Auto Body again.
November 17th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
I am a member of “Yelp” — and use it all the time to find great restaurants, services, and referrals. It is uber popular in large cities, not sure if it is in yours, but it’s worth putting this comment on there for others to see. I make reviews for most things in the current city that I live, in former cities, and places that I’ve visited.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/great-plains-auto-body-omaha
November 19th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
After an individual at Great Plains refused to allow me to speak to the general manager because the insurance company told them not to (?!?!?), I reported this to American Family. This was then promptly forwarded straight to the general manager.
It is too bad if all of this is because of one rogue employee who was left unsupervised by the general manager’s vacation.
November 19th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
I find, via google, that Great Plains is a multi-franchise business throughout Nebraska and Iowa. I wouldn’t bring a wheelbarrow to an automotive repair franchise. You’re much better off with a local “Joe’s garage” type that lives and dies on word of mouth. They’ll probably charge a bit more (though less than a dealer) but you will likely not suffer such nonsense.
It seems odd that your insurance agent didn’t provide a loaner vehicle, which in my experience is the norm. Weird that they relied on the repair shop and didn’t go with a national rental agency.
November 20th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Could be worse. Between a hailstorm and a drunk driver, my car was totalled back in August:(
November 20th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
I found “Joe’s garage” — I found Body Pros [1] that did the work I wanted for an amount less than the deductible (!), in a day (!), and did more than we had asked (!). Amazingly good service. All future work will be done with them.
[1] http://bodyprosomaha.net/
January 20th, 2010 at 11:19 am
We had a similar experience with GP. They would not give us a bid without agreeing to get the car fixed. Our car was damaged enough that we thought we might not want to fix it. After much haggling with them about their bid process they said they would do a complete estimate and “teardown” for $192. We agreed to this because we felt it was fair to pay them for their time. However, they then would not give us an written estimate. They kept saying we had to get it from our insurance adjuster. In past experience, we hired a body shop to give us a bid, then the adjustor does his bid and we compare the two to come to an agreed cost for the damages. After my husband called and spoke forcefully with GP they did fax us our bid. It was, however, more than what the insurance adjustor actually sent into our insurance company. I think there is something fishy going one with GP and the indepenant adjustor that Fidelity sent out to appraise the damage to our car. The insurance adjustor didn’t want us to see the bid. I contacted the insurance commission, they said to make a report online but to also report it to the attorney general’s office dealing with consumer complaints to deal with the body shop. These types of things are hard to prove because there are communications happening between insurance and body shop that we are not in on but you’d like to trust them. I won’t use GP again either.