“When I was living at home, I was really fortunate to have my Dad available to handle my car repairs,” Rachel said. “He did all the basic maintenance stuff for me. And when I had a little accident, he was able to fix my bumper and repair my headlight. But that was back home in Georgia, and I’m up here in SE Massachusetts.”
“That’s too far for Dad to come fix my most recent problem – the fact that someone sideswiped my car while I was at work. They didn’t even leave a note! So I had to find a shop to fix it.”
“The first thing I discovered is not all garages fix all kinds of problems. You can’t go into Jiffy Lube and have them fix damaged doors and quarter panels. It just doesn’t work like that. So the first thing I learned is that what you’re searching for in this type of unexpected car accident repair situation is a collision repair center or an auto body repair shop.
The reason you want a collision repair center is in case there’s something mechanically wrong with the car, which in my situation fortunately there was not. The auto body repair shop handles all of the cosmetic issues, and they’re also the ones who are involved if there’s damage to the car’s frame.”
“What I had also found stressful was not knowing how any of this was going to be paid for. The auto body shop here in SE Mass I went to was amazingly helpful in explaining how to file an insurance claim, which I had also never done before.” Rachel explained. “The shop will give you a report after they’ve inspected your car, which tells you what problems they’ve found, along with the issues that are high priority safety concerns highlighted. Because it was going to take a couple of days to fix the damage, they even helped me get a rental car. I don’t know if every shop does that, but it doesn’t hurt to ask before you decide where you’re getting your car fixed.”
