Covert Cadillac Body Shop in Austin = Terrible!

[NeedCTS-v]

I purchased a brand new 2009 CTS-V in April and noticed that there was a thin pain defect from the factory on the drivers side rear door and 1/4 panel.

I took the car to Covert and asked them what my options were. They contacted GM and got a work order approved to fix the paint. 1.5 weeks later I went to pick up my car and discoverd that the entire car was covered in overspray (roof, trunk, hood, grill, front facia, doors, rocker panels, roof antenna, etc.). I also found a 1.5 inch chip in the paint on the front drivers's side door and damage to the interior door panel. Chrome on the passenger side door had been damaged from a buffing wheel where they had tried to remove overspray. I found grease on the interior A pillar , the rear trunk tail light had been damaged from a buffer and the front headlamp washer had been damaged from something. They kept the car for an addditional week and when I got it back, the car was filthy, only some of the overspray had been removed.

When I complained tot he service director he said that the car met his standards and that he was unwilling to perform any additional work.

I filed a complaint with GM Customer Care and after spending 3 weeks investigating the issue, they resolved that the Service Director claimed that there was no overspray issue, that the car had been covered in tree sap and that there was nothing they could do.

Since then a detailer was able to remove the majority of the overspray (except for all of the weather seals) but now the paint has swirls from all of the buffing that was required (yes clay bar was used but they couldn't get all of it removed). Covert runied the paint on a practically brand new 70K car and refused to make things right and GM barely lifted a finger.

[NeedCTS-v]

Update!

Sorry for the thread resurrection but I thought I would provide an update as I think my situation is now resolved.

After communicating with with Cadillac Customer Care for almost two months and getting almost nowhere, I contacted the Customer Service Director at Covert (Sherry) based on the recommendation of my service manager Adam (who's always been fantastic to deal with). Maybe I should have done this from the start...My mistake.

Sherry actually took some initiative and communicated with Covert management, investigated my claims, not just with the Service Director, but also Adam and the body shop managers. Basically it sounds like she raised a bunch of hell. Within two days of my initial call with her I had a face to face appointments with the dealership management. When I got there there was around 8 people waiting to meet with me, go over my car and investigate ways to make things right. Included in this group was the Sr. Manager for the body shop. This took place a about a week ago. Side note: At no point in time was the Service Director included in these meetings or discussions.

After going through the car, the body shop manager offered to fix all of the damaged parts, re-clay the car and apply a de-swirling compound to get rid of the buffing swirls. With this, I agreed because this is all that was really required in the first place. We arranged for me to drop my car off at the body shop one last time, that it would be a one day service and a loaner would be waiting for me. This morning I dropped it off and this afternoon I picked it up.

Results: The car looks fantastic! Covert demonstrated enormous attention to detail. All of the repairs seem to be done perfectly, the paint looks as good, if not better than new. They even cleaned the interior.

I'm happy. I called Sherry and thanked her for all of her assistance in this. She really made things happen.

On a side note, I continued to get calls from Customer Care saying that there was nothing that they or the dealership could do...They were surprised to hear that I had contacted Sherry and that the dealership was taking steps to make things right. As it turns out, Cadillac Customer Care NEVER contacted Customer Service or Management at the dealership, only the service director who was at the center this whole nightmare in the first place (well it was him and the body shop of course).

In retrospect I should have dealt with Covert's management in the first place or at least given them a chance. This has certainly been a learning experience for me. Despite the hardship, Covert has managed to win my business back thanks to a couple of individuals who seem to genuinely care about the customer and running a good business.

Faith restored.