My insurer steered me to their 'certified' shop - Performance. Here is the consumer key - IT IS UNLAWFUL FOR INSURANCE COMPANIES TO 'STEER' YOU TO PARTICULAR REPAIR SHOPS - I should not have let them do this.Well, I fell for it and went to Performance. This is where I should have known something was amiss. The service writer was a young woman wearing uncomfortably tight jeans, high heels, and a very low cut top. The thing that really got me was her perfume. It was overwhelming and because it was so strong I thought at the time that it might have been used so liberally in order to mask poor hygien.Showed her the car. She wrote the service request. She specifically told me that they would have to take the front bumber cover off to inspect damage and that THEY WOULD NOT BEGIN ANY WORK UNTIL AFTER SHE CALLED ME AND GOT MY APPROVAL. I specifically told her that I did not want any 'after market parts' and told her to order OEM (Original Manufacturer Parts) only. She said she would. Consumer key - IT IS YOUR RIGHT TO DEMAND OEM PARTS AND THE INSURANCE COMPANY MUST PAY FOR THOSE. The body shops the insurance companies send you to do everything they can to use aftermarket Tiawanese parts in order to keep the insurance companies happy and keep their own 'volume' up - also labor stays the same no matter what parts they use. Aftermarket steel is thinner, it just doesn't 'look right' and it never fits right, leaving big gaps. Aftermarket plastic parts are really really lame , don't look right, and become brittle, discolored in the sun.
Got a call a few days later. She gave me the rundown on the necessary work and asked to proceed. I asked if the bid included aftermarket or OEM parts and she was not too convincing in her answer. In fact, she was evasive and unclear. I told her not to do any work and that I would come down to look at the car and see the estimate.
Went there the next day. THEY HAD ALREADY STARTED WORK ON MY CAR without my permission !!!!! The odiferous service writer told me she had already ordered "All the Parts". As it turns out the parts she ordered were aftermarket parts !She totally ignored my specification for OEM parts and her promise not to start work until I authorized it.I was pissed and let her know it. She was basically speachless when I called her on the stunt she tried to pull. I ended up speaking to the owner, Gary.He was cool but he tried, very lamely, to tell me that they had to start the work on the car in order to write the estimate ! I would have really wondered WTF was going on but one of my fabvorite books is Jospeh Hellers 'Catch-22' and I became amused as I sat there feeling like I was talking to 'Milo Minder Binder' as he was BS-ing Major Major ! Hahaaahhaa. I recognized it as pure double speak meant to cover up the service writers screw up.At this point I would have left with my car but the front clip was sitting in pieces on the shop floor. So I was pretty much stuck. Gary agreed that he would never use aftermarket parts on his own car and that he would reorder OEM parts for mine. He assured me he would treat my car as if it was his own.He apparently did so as the repair work was excellent. Perfect paint match both in color and texture, no signs of previous damage with the exception of some scratched paint on the hood hinge bolts. Really , really good work. In fact excellent. 10 on a scale of 10.I requested the invoices for the OEM parts to confirm that's what they used and was given them.I know that the fit would not have been acceptable with aftermarket parts. Here ar the three keys - Dont let your insurance company steer you to a particular repair shop.- Demand OEM parts. They will tell you your insurance companie 'specifies' aftermarket but it is your right in California to demand OEM. - If you go to Performance for work work and upon entering you smell overwhelming perfume and hear the click of high heels on the linoleum floor, run away !!!!!!

The first time they said it would take 2 weeks and more than 30 days later they finally called and said it was finished, but the trunk was not lined up, the fenders had gaps, and the trunk light was missing. The second time when they said it would take another week, they called it complete after 2 1/2 weeks. I called the day before I was going to pick up the car to verify the light was in and they told me it was. I was told it was NOT in after I showed up and they had realized I was misinformed the night before, but did not have the decency to call me. The third time I went the trunk lining was not put in properly.