Birkholz Body Werks

I can’t thank Stephanie and the rest of the Birkholz staff enough for repairing and repainting the front end of my ‘91 Mercedes 500SL. The fair estimate and timely repair made for an enjoyable experience. They did an amazing job restoring my car to factory condition and their attention to detail is unparalleled. I wouldn’t take my car anywhere else.

This place was a complete headache to work with. Customer service is absolutely horrendous. Scheduling is absolutely horrendous. First of all, they misdiagnosed my car from the accident. Tony up front talks down to you like you don't know what you're talking about. Luckily I was a mechanic myself for 7+ years and do know what I'm talking about and saved myself from having an additional ~$2000 repair bill that was caused by the accident but they didn't want to look into properly. Tony tried to play it off as there was no issue with my car that was caused by the accident, which it was clearly leaking fluid right from where it got hit and my AC stopped working right after the accident. He then tried to tell me that it was just low on freon and he would give me the outstanding opportunity to have it recharged with less than a pound of freon for around $380 (completely overpriced) that I would have to pay for myself and not covered by the insurance. I had to argue with him about how it was leaking fluid from right where the car got hit and sent additional pictures since somehow they couldn't find it. Which he then begrudgingly agreed to have his mechanic look at it again even though they allegedly already inspected it the first time and there were no issues. I call back a couple days later myself, since they refuse to call the customer at any point to give updates, and (not) shockingly they found an issue and it was leaking coolant (no kidding!). Which in turn shut off the AC compressor, there was a fault code for this, which they didn't scan for the first time around. So they finally ordered the additional part needed. The next issue with this place is the horrible customer service and scheduling. They give you a date in which the car is supposed to be done by, so of course, you make arrangements to pick up your car on that day which happened to be a Friday. Absolutely no calls at all. I call them again, because as stated before they won't call you. Ask them if my car is ready for pick up, and what time I can get it by. They tell me they will need the car until Monday or Tuesday... Ok... thanks for the zero heads up... Monday comes, no calls. Tuesday comes, no calls. Again I made plans to pick up the car when they said it would be done since they told me Monday or Tuesday, call them since they don't call you with updates. They tell me the car is not done again. Seriously?? I ask when it will be done again, and they don't know. Hopefully by Thursday. I call on Thursday, asking when it will be available for pickup or about what time it will be available for pickup since I was leaving the area around 12:30pm. Guillermo tells me "That it's getting detailed but I don't know, I don't have the keys". I again ask if he can give me an estimated time since I was leaving the area around 12:30pm and could come wait for it if it was almost done. Again he just says "I don't know, I don't have the keys, I'll call you when I have the keys". He then proceeds to call me at 1:30pm after I had already driven and hour away home. Like really? You can't walk in back and ask the detailer dude an estimated time it will be complete? How lazy are you? It took them a month to repair a slight fender bender, in which the insurance wouldn't cover the cost of the rental car any more because it took them so long. Hood, bumper cover, transmission cooler, and some other small misc. parts. I could have done this repair in a driveway in 2 days + paint... I gave them 2 stars, because the actual paint work looks good, but the two guys Tony and Guillermo up front that you have to deal with was about as awful of an experience as I could have had and completely ruin this company. I definitely will be finding a different place to go if I ever need accident repair again because one, they can't be trusted to properly diagnose the car, and two, the customer service is some of the worst I've ever had in any business. It's funny, because if you scroll down, there's another review with the exact same problem

Working with Birkholz was very disappointing. I chose them because we wanted to take our Audi to a high quality shop. However, the service received was horrible. My car was in the shop far more many days than initially promised and throughout the entire process I did not receive one update. I had to call weekly to find out what was taking place. They made me feel as though they were doing me a favor even though the repairs on the vehicle were nearly $7,000. If you expect high level service do not take your vehicle there!!!

My family and I have been bringing our cars here for about 30 years. You have to go here if you value top quality work. Recently I brought my black Maserati Granturismo to them for some paint touch up. There was a little hiccup and Olaf the owner and I came to a friendly solution and talked it over. The car now looks absolutely amazing! Their paint work is better than Maserati’s. You have a customer for life. Thanks Olaf, Tony, and all of the wonderful staff. -Joe N

WOW! Words aren't enough to truly express my happiness with the work Birkholz did on my car. I was t-boned and my car took some heavy damage on the rear driver's side. Luckily no frame damage I found Birkholz online looking for VW certified body shops. Once I saw the German name, VW certification, and the good reviews, I felt like I had found the body shop I was looking for. My car looks exactly as it did the day I got it from the showroom at the dealership. It's a 2021 Jetta GLI and it is by far the best car I have ever owned. This is a car that I want to keep for as long as possible, and I just kept reading horror stories about repairs from body shops everywhere I looked online. I am so glad to say that that is the opposite of my experience. My car truly looks new. I would challenge anyone to tell it was repainted on one side, it looks that good. . Aside from the results, they have amazing customer service. I honestly called too much and was really excited to get my car and they were extremely nice the whole time, even when I felt like I was being annoying. I truly appreciate that they understood that I was just really excited to get it back. That being said, I never rushed them, and I was completely fine waiting 3 months. They used all OEM parts and had the car inspected and aligned at a VW dealership after completing the body work. 3 months is nothing compared to hopefully a lifetime of peace of mind. Honestly, I am glad it took as long as it did, because it means that they payed very good attention to detail and the work truly reflects that. They also offered to repair other small scuffs and scratches on other parts during the process, for a separate fee. I took them up on refinishing the rear bumper and wow, it looks amazing too. I can honestly not imagine EVER going to any other place for body work in Illinois. My brother has an Audi that was unfortunately hit, and he will also be calling Birkholz soon to have them take a look, luckily, his damage is very minor lol. I am eternally grateful to Tony and the rest of the Birkholz staff. I am so happy I chose this as the body shop for my car. I hope I don't have to bring another car to them under those circumstances any time soon, but if I ever need body work/paint work again, I will without a doubt go to Birkholz.