Blevins Auto Body

I am a new car owner. As such, when I hire a professional to do a job, I must trust their professionalism, expertise, customer service and honesty to be sure that the job is done right. Blevins Auto Body in Potsdam NY failed on all fronts. In addition to some non-visible internal damage, my hood and right headlight were busted up in a recent minor accident. I went to Blevins and asked them for two quotes. One a "bare minimum" quote to make the car street legal. Another "absolutely everything" that would have fixed all the damage, including things not required to pass inspection. Blevins gave me a quote just under $1600 for the "Bare minimum" and a significantly higher quote for the "fix everything" option. My insurance company had written this car off as a total loss, and the claim was enough to cover the bare minimum, but not enough to cover the "fix everything" option. When I had gotten this quote, I had not yet decided whether or not to keep the car. Based on the quote of $1600 for the "bare minimum" to make it street legal quote, I decided to keep the car and employ their services. Imagine my shock, when at my inspection I was told that the repair job they did would not pass inspection! My inspector told me I should talk to Blevins, as clearly they did not do the job I hired them to do. The staff and manager at Blevins were rude and discourteous. They refused to take any responsibility for the issue. They claimed that the car "wouldn't get pulled over by the cops" and "that they don't inspect cars themselves, so they don't know what is required to pass inspection" I told them that I was trusting them to either know, or know who to ask what was required for a NYS inspection prior to giving me a quote, and that I held them responsible for failing to give me an accurate quote of the true cost to repair the vehicle to be street legal. They refused to take any responsibility, and tried to blame me for their bad communication, and poor customer service. At this point, I will never send a car to Blevins again. I will never do business with them in any capacity. As far as I'm concerned, they are dishonest, greedy, and unprofessional. If they had told me an truly accurate quote on what it would have taken to make my car street legal, and pass NYS inspection, I could have decided whether or not it was worth the price. As it stands now, I have a very short amount of time to figure out how to salvage this situation, so that I can continue to work and provide for my family.

I have never written a negative review of a business in my life, but they rubbed me in such a wrong way I had to. So I will start with a family member’s experience, they dropped off their car for a replacement control arm. This took well over a month to complete, and did not return phone calls when they said they would. In the meantime I had to leave for a couple of weeks for work and he had to drive one of my cars until finally they gave him a courtesy vehicle with no gas in it. Now onto my situation, A month ago I needed both of my vehicles inspected. Blevins was the only location that could get me in within the next week and a half. I brought both of my vehicles in thinking what harm could be done with a New York State inspection(tires come off to check brake pads and rotors). A month later I bring my car to get winter tires put on at a different location. They begin taking the first tire off and say the stud is stripped, whoever put it on last cross threaded it and they cannot proceed because it is unsafe. I called Blevins and they say they do not carry Subaru parts so they cannot help me and I should call a Subaru dealership. In short this is one of the worst shops I’ve ever taken a vehicle to so far they’ve messed up two of the three vehicles that were brought in.

So....3 weeks ago a recall on my truck caused the tailgate to drop while I was towing a trailer. My tailgate was damaged. I contacted RAM and was told take it to a dealer with a body shop and have them submit pictures to have the tailgate repaired. I decided to give a local dealer the business and went to Blevins Body Shop in Potsdam. They took pictures and said they would speak to John Blevins and get his OK to take care of this issue. During this time I had service work done at Blevins and I stopped in the body shop to ask the status of my tailgate claim. The woman in the shop said that John Blevins said they would do the work and she would let me know the status from RAM. I waited and over the course of the past 3 weeks they kept telling me that they were busy and didn’t have time to contact RAM to get the work approved. They said that they would call RAM multiple times and let me know the outcome but never did. This morning I called Blevins and asked what was happening since nobody called me last Friday like they said they would. The woman I spoke with said she was too busy but would call RAM and call me back. I just got a call from Blevins and they said they would not do the work on my tailgate. I asked if RAM denied the claim and the man I spoke with said no, we just don’t choose to do the work. He said we can refuse your business if we want to and we won’t do the failed recall work on your truck. While I understand I did not buy my truck from them I have made many purchases from the Blevins group and was trying to bring my business back to them. I had a bad experience previously buying a camper from them and had avoided them due to that experience. I do not appreciate being lied to and it has become obvious that customer service is not the business they are interested in. I was certainly looking at returning my business to Blevins but this experience has definitely made my decision for me.

They fixed my car's rear bumper and body in a week. Very quick with starting the process and executing it. I was given a wait time of 2 months at some places, they did an awesome job in a week. The staff is very helpful and informative.

Repaired damage from hitting a deer, about 3 months quicker than estimates from most other area shops. Repair was quick and looks great, friendly and professional customer service, and they worked well with my insurance.