Complaint Review: Miracle Auto Painting & Body Repair - Chico California

My classic car was sideswiped by a hit and run driver while parked in downtown Chico. I reported the accident to the police and my insurance. My insurance requested that I take the vehicle to 3 auto body shops for estimates. Due to the age of the car, several shops would not consider working on it, since they could not just use their computers to upload the make, model and repairs to be done into a software program and come up with an estimate. I finally found 3 shops in my town who would work on my car, however, two were backlogged for a month or more. The third, Miracle Auto body of Chico said they could take it right away.

After seeing two beautiful classic autos in front of their business and hearing from the manger that Miracle had repaired and painted these cars, I agreed to allow them to repair and paint my car. I even agreed to allow them to repaint the entire vehicle. My insurance company would pay for the damage from the hit and run and I would pay for the rest of the car to be prepped and painted. Frank the manager, suggested I not order their cheaper paint job and order their premium Urethane Supreme coating, which I did.

After approx 3 weeks, Frank called me at home and informed me that my car was ready and to come in and pick it up. He also told me that they were no longer accepting local checks, so I needed to bring cash or pay by credit card. That should have served as a warning! After arriving at Miracle, I examined my car and noticed that a great deal of the chrome trim was covered with overspray and there were several very obvious defects in the finish, including a 6 square area where it appeared that a rag had been set on the paint while it was drying, then later lifted off. I informed Frank that the work was unacceptable and would have to be redone. Frank did not look happy and informed me that the work was up to his standards. I told him it was not up to my standards and if he wanted to be paid, he would correct these issues. 

Three days later Frank called me back and informed me that the car was ready; Once again, I examined the car. Some of the overspray had been removed; however the paint flaws were still obvious. Rather than repainting their mistakes, they had made a poor attempted to buff them out and now there was a new 3 inch scratch in the drivers side fender which went down to the bare metal. When I pointed this out to Frank he started yelling and told me that I could either pay him what I owed him or he would put a lean on the car and it would be left outside unprotected until he got his money. At that point, I understood that I was dealing with an unethical, out of control, individual.

I walked into the business and talked to Mike the Owner. Mike asked how he could help me and when I explained my dilemma, He told me that I was a trouble maker and how dare I come into his place of business and complain about his work in front of potential customers. I informed Mike that if they had done a decent job in the first place, we would not be having this conversation. Mike told me to either pay up or get out and if I attempted to touch my car before paying, he would have me arrested. Then he had the audacity to say (in front of his customers) If you wanted a good paint job, why did you come here? At that point, I decided rather than arguing with a crazy person, I would pay for the crappy work, get away from these people. The only way I would get any justice would be to take them to court.

On the way home I noticed several new rattles and my turn signals would not work. I later discovered that someone had never tightened the bolts that held on the bumpers and they had taped the wiring to the turn signals together with masking tape rather than crimping them and they had come loose. Within a month, the body work was cracking. The Urethane paint is holding up well, so far.

In my opinion, the problem is that they are using cheap unskilled labor and they wont admit it. Its a Miracle that Miracle is still in business.