Maaco Paint & Body, Parkson Industries Broke my steering column and won't take responsibility ripoff Fountain Valley California

I took my car to Maaco in Fountain Valley California to have it painted, just a simple paint job that was supposed to take one week. This was on Saturday April 19th. After one week they called and told me there were a few problems and to come look at it and they would have it fixed on Monday. When I went to look at it there were more than a few problems. There were runs all over the car, junk in the paint and they even missed a spot on the hood. Well Monday comes along and someone is supposed to call me and by 4:30 (they close at 5) nothing so I call and my car is not ready it will be ready Tuesday. Tuesday it is not ready it will be ready Wednesday.

Wednesday they are supposed to call when it is ready and again fail to do so and I call them and they tell me the guy handling my vehicle went home early and no one knows if my jeep is ready or not. I ask them to find out and call me back. They call me back and tell me the paint has been messed up again but I should have the car back on Friday. Thursday the guy who went home early on Wednesday calls and says "I hope you understand but they have ruined your paint job, please come pick up the car, pay $1400 and come back in two weeks and we will give you a free paint job. I tell them I will not pay a penny and I won't come get the car until it is right. No one ever offered me a rental car for my inconvenience or any discount in the price.

Three weeks later I get the car back on May 8th, there are still some flaws I can see but at this point I just want my car back, I pay up $1423.00 and go home to find out that my steering column was broken while in their possession. It is moving over one inch in any direction. When I dropped the jeep off the tilt wheel was in the full up position and stable and when I picked up the jeep the steering column was all the way down and there was Mexican music on my radio. Something didn't feel right when I drove out of the parking lot and the steering column made a loud clunk, but I thought it was just the jeep sitting around for 3 weeks, maybe it was stiff or something. So I try to drive back to work and my jeep is all over the road and I can hardly control it and the steering wheel feels like it might come off in my hands at any moment. My boyfriend took the car back to Maaco the next day after trying to see if he could fix it for me and of course Jim at Maaco says it was like that when I brought it to them which is a big fat lie!!

I had to pay the $474.30 to fix the steering column because it was unsafe to drive and take more time off work to do so!! Before I went to the dealer for repairs Jim from Maaco calls and tells me the steering column is not broken it is just loose. He then tells me not to take the car to the dealer it is too expensive and asks me to take it to some fly by night place he uses. I tell him I always take my jeep to the dealer for repairs and am going to do so this time also. When I get to the dealership with my car the service manager tells me Jim from Maaco called and was trying to get him to tell me that the car was already broken before it went to Maaco and that it wasn't Maacos fault!!! (I took a year getting the car in perfect shape to justify this expensive paint job. The only thing wrong with the jeep when I took it to Maaco was a leaky power steering pump that leaves puddles on the ground and 2 leaking fuel injectors.)

The service manager told Jim to leave this issue up to his corporate office to handle. I now am unable to pay my bills this month because I had to pay $504.20 for the damage Maaco did to my jeep!! $474.30 for the steering column repair and $29.90 to replace the entire light assembly that was painted over on my back license plate! I need my jeep to get to work and make $$$. I have witnesses that my steering column was in perfect condition with no problems before taking it to be painted at Maaco!!

I spoke with Headquarters and they tried to get my money refunded by the owner of the Fountain Valley Maaco but the owner of Fountain Valley Maaco says it is not their responsibility and they will not pay for the repairs to the broken steering column. I now have to take more time off work and sue them because I have multiple witnesses that my steering column was not broken or even a tiny bit loose when I took the car to them. Upon inspection by a qualified painter the whole back end of the car has orange peel, and my automobile detailer tells me they painted my license plate light red (which is illegal to drive like that at night because the license plate is not readable by the police), the rubber on both the driver door and passenger door were painted red, there is red paint on my rear hatch rubber and rear bumper and there is red paint on 3 of my windows!!!!!

Susan
Santa Ana, California
U.S.A.

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