I had a very bad experience at Cook's Collision in Walnut Creek, CA. I was rear-ended about a month ago and took my 996 to their shop to be fixed at the recommendation of my local dealership. The woman behind the counter looked at the car and started writing on the paint with a pink paint pen. She told me, "don't worry, this washes right off. We use it on all the cars." I didn't think much of it at the time. They called and said that parts needed to be ordered and to come pick up the car. My wife brought the car home and to my horror there were spots all over the car that looked like a BrilloPad was taken to the paint - where the paint pen was used. On a high gloss black car, this was extremely noticeable. Further, my wife said that the guy that brought the car up front for her to take it home got it from a back lot and gunned the engine and drove it like an idiot.

I took the car back and they admitted all fault and said they would polish/detail the whole car to get the scratches out. Reluctantly I agreed. They performed the repairs from the collision and after that had a detailer spend an entire day on the car to get the paint back to how it was. Again, my wife went to pick up the car. Surprisingly the damage they did polished out pretty well. The car looked pretty good. However, the idiots burned the entire top edge on the driver side rear bumper with the buffer - the one they just installed and painted. I called the manager and she acted annoyed that I was calling again, like their bad work was my fault or something. She said she would swing by and look at the car. She never came by and never even called me back. Needless to say, these morons won't get any more of my business. Hopefully I can spare a few other folks the trouble as well.

 

Sorry about your bad experience. In general, going to a dealership recommended body shop is bad move. I got burned twice on my old E55. I'm now smarter and only go to indy body shop that work mostly on Porsches.