Hermes Auto Body

Located in the quiet neighborhood of central square, I stumbled onto this body shop on my way home. Needing repairs for my car, I stopped by to inquire. Their rates seemed reasonable as did their turn around time. After bringing my car in for repairs and asking for quick diagnostic, they stressed that I needed to have multiple items replaced and that they would not be willing to repair the issues that I initially brought the car in for. They were not the first mechanic to look at my car… and somehow the others didn’t find all of these issues. This shop is either really good at forcing you to take preventative measures with your car, or they look for ways to repair things that don’t need immediate attention. Good shop, employees were ok, but I would not recommend a shop like this to any of my friends.
After hearing sounds from my car I took it to another mechanic. Looks like the work that was done there was horrible. How does a mechanic improperly install brakes?!?
Update based on Hermes’ recent comment:
Thanks for the comment. If you cannot handle basic automotive repairs (because you’re an autoshop) you should NOT agree to perform the work. If an auto ‘repair’ shop states that they can perform the work, an unsuspecting client would most likely agree to have the work done there. If the work isn’t done properly, causing more damage to the car, ANY car owner would rather take their vehicle to a shop that can get it right the first time especially if they claim that they can perform the work and provide customers with quotes.

I remember this stop very well. The person I spoke to was Russian (Oleg Malyshev?) and he was totally incompetent. My car had a minor front collision, but this guy tried to convince me that the front hood should be replaced as well, «because very frequently the hood gets jammed to the side, but without it I cannot tell where is the center of the car». He was trying to push his ideas on me for ~hour, and got me a quote of 2k. I took my car to Maaco and they replaced the bumper for $ 500 with no further issues.

Going to Hermes was like having a kindly uncle help us through the insurance/​repair nightmare! I went there very shaken up after being rear ended, and without being pushy, Alex explained every step that we would need to go through. It was so helpful because this was my first accident, and I had no idea what to do.
Alex explained who to call at the insurance and what info to get in writing from the other party etc, even though it had nothing with his end of the process. He reminded us about rental cars, and medical bills, so that everything would be covered by the offenders insurance, and spent hours on the phone with them trying to figure out some inter-​state issues between the insurance companies. He gave us an estimate in case the offender wanted to pay out of pocket (which they later decided not to do), but it was only $ 20 off of what her adjuster ultimately quoted! It was comforting to know that he would be so honest!
When we finally went in for the repair, Alex organized the rental, and had everything go smoothly. They even detailed the car for free! We could not have been happier with our experience there!

These guys were great from the moment I called for the estimate to the moment my car was ready, very helpful arranged and took care of everything. My car looks great.

This is a small body shop where a few guys work… so when you call them, you expect to speak to someone who knows the stuff. This is not a franchise place where you call and talk to a customer rep who knows nothing but professional BS talk. They may not be very friendly, especially on their busy day… but that’s to be expected.
If you ask for a quote for a specific job, they’ll give a very competitive quote but they may also pressure you to buy diagnostic work. If you are not sure what the problem is, diagnostic work may be necessary, but if your problem is simple and straight forward, you may not need need diagnostic work and just pay for the repair. I get a feeling that they are just trying to protect themselves from people who price shop to the pennies, get free diagnosis and go somewhere else, as this is sort of a common problem with unethical customers. One time they charged me less than what they initially quoted, and one another time they told me they don’t do that particular work and referred me to the next door (Tat On Auto Service).
Generally, they did good job on my car, and the work was fast.

A nightmare.
Years ago, when this place was still located in Somerville, I brought my classic 14 year old car in for a «body tuneup», and asked the tech to go over the whole thing, touch up little rock chips, make sure the undercoating was all tight and nice, and to deal with any minor surface rust spots that might have developed. A week later i was told that my car was ready, came in, and found such a horror show that my initial reaction was to want to sell the car. The interior smelled of cigarette smoke (I’m a nonsmoker), and grease. I found french fries all over the floor, and empty McDonald’s lunch bags and boxes on the floor behind the driver’s seat. There was broken glass everywhere. One fender had been repainted with orange-​peel paint. Another fender had been touched up with rough, sandpapery paint.
I complained to the owner of the shop, and she admitted that in doing their work, one of her guys had broken one of the windows. She apologized for mess and promised to have it remediated. A week later, I had my car back. It was better, but far from correct. I wound up spending 2 hours to thoroughly clean and deodorize the interior. The worst of the orange peel paint had been buffed out, but the car never looked the same. I haven’t been back since, but have gone to DeLeo’s for years, where I’ve never had the slightest cause to complain.