Sam’s Automotive Reconditioning Center

This is the second time in a year I have needed my car repaired due to hail damage. Sam’s is one of my insurance companies guaranteed shops. They are also really close to my house which works out well because like others have mentioned it can be really hard to get phone calls returned. I found both this time and last time that if I wanted an update or to finally schedule the repair it was much easier and less frustrating to just stop in on my way home.
Once I got my car in they did a good job. I was able to pick up my rental right in the facility which makes it very easy to drop off the car and not have to worry about how to get home or to work. They finished the work within the time frame they had given me and were prompt about notifying me when it was done. This is perhaps the only time a phone call is quickly made.
Sam’s replaced a few moldings but mostly they were able to do «Paintless Dent Repair» to get the hail damage fixed. Where the moldings were replaced are little smudges of left over adhesive which they have told me will come off when I take the car back for the follow-​up wash and wax. I will try and update this review at that time. Last time they didn’t fix some scratches they had agreed to fix, but I assume this was because it was separate from the hail damage and the agreement to fix them wasn’t communicated to the technicians.
I have noticed that they always seem fairly busy and they only seem to have 1 person who deals with reviewing estimates from insurance companies and scheduling vehicles in when the parts come in. I wonder if this is why they are so bad at returning phone calls as its always the same person doing a large number of cars. Overall, for a body shop the work was good and fast, but communication is not so great. Frankly, I have never been lucky enough to find a body shop that wasn’t a bit of a mess in the communications department, so either I have bad luck or its just a car thing.
My RO# 134 845

In fairness, I have never even spoken to anyone at Sam’s Automotive.
With that said, I can confirm what so many others have commented about. Their communications stink!
We have Geico insurance and our estimator suggested both Sam’s and A & W as two Geico approved repair shops. We thought we would use Sam’s since it in our neighborhood. I called Sam’s ⁶⁄₁₇ and was sent to an extension where no one answered. I left a lengthy voice mail but it was never returned.
I also emailed Sam’s with an explanation of what we needed to have done along with the Geico estimate. Again, no response.
This, coupled with the overwhelming number of horrible ratings on Unilocal,convinced me that I would not even chance dealing with this outfit under any circumstances.
I will definitely let Geico know about this and the other comments made on Unilocal.Clearly, they provide pretty lousy customer service and are undeserving of Geico approval.

Do not take your car here. I had to return 3 times for the same fix: 1) For the initial repair after being rear-​ended; 2) Returned a 2^nd time when their initial repair cracked and bubbled within 2 days; 3) Returned a 3^rd time when Sam’s put a nice new scratch on a spot at the front of my car.
Upon return for the 3^rd time, the owner, Mike Chavez told me he didn’t believe their shop did the damage. So, basically, he called me a liar. His own employee had agreed that their shop did, in fact put the new scratch on it when I picked it up the 2^nd time. It was clearly a brand new scratch that wasn’t there prior to my dropping the car off at their shop.
Advice to consumer: 1) Take your car somewhere else; 2) if you do take your car here, walk with their representative to review any dings/​scratches you have so when they damage your car, you get it repaired without being told you are lying.
I had taken more than 1 car to Sam’s for repair over the last 7 years. Unfortunately, with this recent visit (May & June 2015), it’s clear they are not the shop they used to be.
Treating past, current and future customers with insults certainly isn’t a way to keep business coming. Especially when you are at fault.

This would be a 0 star review if possible. Brought my car here as they are an Allstate approved facility. My car was towed to their facility on 5/​6, Allstate estimator was there the next day, however Mike from Sam’s was on vacation and apparently he is the only estimator at Sam’s who can do Allstate work. Mike was on vacation and no one else at Sam’s would look at it. Finally on ⁵⁄₁₁ Mike returned from vacation, and chose not to return any of my phone calls. After calling that morning and again that afternoon, to no avail, I drove down to Sam’s to find out when they would look at my car. I was rather rudely informed by Mike that he was really busy and wouldn’t be able to even look at the car, «until the end of the week or maybe beginning of next week.» In short they were telling me that my car would sit on their lot for 10 days before they could even look at it. Told him to forget it that I would take the car elsewhere. Called Allstate and told them about my experience and that I would be taking the car somewhere else. Allstate calls me back and tells me that Sam’s has already ordered parts and has the car in the work que. Not sure how they would have known what to order when they hadn’t even looked at the car. The bottom line is believe all of the other reviews, outside of the receptionists who were very nice, the people at Sam’s are incompetent, unprofessional and rude.

Not the worst automotive place but definitely not the best. Customer service was great and they got me in fast as well as everyone was kind. As for the work and detailing it really wasn’t great. My car had additional scratches on it which I had never noticed before especially the giant mark in my drivers side that was definitely not there when I brought it in. They appear to have done the bare minimum and the work was not fully done ie they repainted the area hit instead of doing the whole front bumper. It wasn’t even cleaned well and had water marks on it after they supposably washed and waxed it. I only went here because the this was paid for by the other guys insurance and where they recommended. I recommended Mile Hi auto instead. They call you and tell you how everything is going along the way and your car will be detailed to the nines. I probably will never return to Sams because their work is really not good.

I am disappointed in Sam’s Automotive and Geico for recommending Sam’s to me. I took my 2014 Explorer in for front end damage and exhaust damage. After weeks of taking it back in for missing parts/​back ordered parts, it was finally finished, washed and waxed. Unfortunately, 2 hours into my road trip to Arizona 1 week later, I began to receive multiple error messages and completely lost power steering! I called Geico and they told me tow truck would be an hour, (more like 2 ½ hours). So I had it towed to nearest Ford Dealership, spent night in hotel and in the morning went to pick up my Explorer. They said they just had to reset some computer issue. I continued my 13 hour trip, and of course all the messages came on again, we decided to continue on, and just not turn off the car the entire way, as that is when the power steering seemed to stop working the first time. When we finally arrived, we waited until the next morning to turn it on again, and sure enough, no power steering. We drove it like that to nearest Ford Dealership, they gave us a car for the time we were there. They told me that the Steering Gear went out because the wrong front cross member was installed! They than asked how I was going to pay for the $ 2,000 part, I said, I am sure my insurance will pay for it. Called Geico and Adjuster was unreachable, nobody on the phone seemed to have the «authority» to approve payment. So I had to pay for it out of pocket, just so I could get back home, as I already had to call in to work for 2 days while I was stranded in AZ. I will be dropping Geico as my Insurance provider, and make sure that nobody I know ever goes to Sam’s Automotive.

Great job fixing my car. Fast, efficient and well done. Great service. Thanks Mike Kesler. I would highly recommend. There is a reason they’ve been around since 1946. So convenient to drop off and pick up at their Wadsworth satellite office. Oh and I almost forgot, they cleaned the car, it looks beautiful after all of this mucky snow we’ve been having. Thanks Sam’s!

Do not go to Sam’s. I went to Sam’s because they were a Geico recommended facility. They repaired my car in early/​mid 2014 and still do not have the issues they caused resolved. While my car was being repaired, they damaged my radio and did a poor job smoothing out the Orange peel. Once I picked up my car, I found out they glued the airbag covers for side curtains on. They are supposed to order a new cover; however, I have yet to hear from them. The initial manager I dealt with was horrible. He was unwilling to fix my stereo since I was not willing to sit and wait at the shop for him to locate the part online (my car had been there 2 weeks at that point). I then spoke with Larry who was much more friendly and resolved the radio issue; however, he has still not resolved the airbag cover issue. Also, their 8am until 5pm, Mon-​Fri hours do not work when you have a day job.

Background: Our Altima suffered front end damage in an accident on snow and ice on December 29, 2014. That’s not what we had in mind to remove the bugs from the summer trip! It was towed, by Sam’s Auto Body, to the shop on January 2, 2015.
We picked up the Altima on January 19, 2015 and are very pleased with the way it looks and drives. On the way home I noticed that the left headlamp, on low beam, looked out of alignment, showing lower than the right. I called this morning and dropped by to have it adjusted this afternoon.
While I’m always cautious about the repairs until I’ve driven the car for a few days, I will say that, at this point, we are very pleased with the repair/​replacement work and the customer service* at Sam’s. Our Repair Order was #133 195. Thanks to Sandy King and to Danieal.
Also, I’ll add this to my reviews on
.
Sincerely,
Perry

I hate to have to give bad reviews, but I think people should know how Sam’s chooses to treat potential customers. I had visited the facility as my insurance is through Geico and Sam’s is a preferred shop with a claims agent (Dave) in house. Dave was great, incredibly thorough, and timely. However, this review is for Sam’s.
Once the exchange was made to Larry (manager) the ball was completed dropped. There multiple people in that office so why I could only go through one person made no sense to me. I called, emailed, and called again over the course of two weeks to get my truck in for hail repairs. He responded once simply with a date but didn’t answer any of my questions (do I need to order the parts, how long will it be with you, etc). Again, just awful.
This is my wife and I’s only car so I simply wanted an idea of down time, not demanding it be done it two days. I know these things can take a or so. Everything was right there, insurance check, eagerness to get the work done on my part, etc. Larry just didn’t care. I’ve had the exact job while living in Atlanta and it’s simplest thing to do is email/​call someone back.

I would not even give Sams Automotive one star!!! its been over 2 months, I’ve picked up my Daughters car and taken it back so many times!!! Its still not fixed properly!!! Again I went back today for a part that did not make it in, 2 months I don’t know how this could possibly be but that’s what they said, They installed it and there is a scraping noise and im afraid to drive it, of course they say that’s not their fault either, no noise when i take it in, they fix it and it sounds like its tearing up the car!!! then they did not notice one of my tires had a huge rip in it from the accident and they said that would be in the next day and two weeks later still no tire!!! what get your act together and do the job you were paid for by my ins company!!! this was and accident from someone who hit my car while it was parked! I had $ 1000 worth of rental car credit that is now long gone because they cant get this right!!! We have to borrow another car to get my Daughter to work!!! what a inconvenience!!! oh and they left off my oil cap off and blamed that on someone else!!! really bad job!!!
OMG we just got the car back and they took it for a joy ride damaged something else, blamed it on me of course, it wasn’t that way when we dropped it off!!! they fixed it did not put it in writing and said they would take care of it happened again! if they wont put it in writing then I know they will never take responsibility if the problem happens again!!! I really hate this company!!!
I feel so bad for my daughter! they take advantage of females!!! don’t take your car here!!!

I came here because my s2000 got hail damage. The people at Sams were very nice and professional and I would take my car there again. For those of you that read bad comments about this place, I did not experience any of it. The had my car in for 3 days, soft top replacement. They also buffed out my headlights for free!

DOESN’T SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!!!
Well it’s never a good time when your car is in the shop but Sam’s automotive will make your experience so much worst.
1^st They have a sign that say «proud to be an American» but will not support the troops that protect their freedoms
2^nd They took 2 day over what should have been a quick little job. When I would call about it he (Mike) would just say he doesn’t know anything.
3^rd They lost my car! I came to pick it up and they had no clue where it was. Then I over heard the guys talking about them using a customer car to run an errand. Not ok at all.
4^th They charged me for a wash that I didn’t even get.
Just stay away from this place.

This place was great, they have me a ride to work, and detail every car they work on. Nice staff, and that old-​world view of good service.

Unfortunately I took my car here. Poor finish work. Everything I pointed out there was always an excuse. Mostly they will play the the damage was preexisting and not our fault. I had to get my insurance involved to make them correct issues. The car had to be returned several times. This was a good shop 10+ years ago not anymore.

NEVER take your car here!!!
If you have geico, ask if there is another shop you can take it to.
I am sitting here for the fourth time for the same repair while the clowns in the back are watching YouTube.
Effin’ unbelievable!
And unacceptable.
I would give zero stars if I could.