COOKS COLLISION & REPAIR

I was involved in an accident in October, 2013. The offending driver's insurance (Mercury) recommended Cook's Collision as their primary San Leandro body shop, so I took it there. The person who provided the original estimate was professional, even finding new places of accident-related damage that I didn't see. They provided one estimate (around $3500) but said this could change once they started taking my car apart, as a lot of the damage was due to the underlying frame. Regardless, I left Cook's after the estimate thinking my car would get repaired. Turns out that they did not repair it, and this was where my troubles with Cook's began. I was told by Mercury Insurance that Cook's upped the repair estimate to over $6000, and as a consequence they would pay me for my car as a total. I had wanted to keep my car - for several reasons I didn't want to look for a new used car - and so offered to Cook's to pay the difference between Cook's estimate and what Mercury offered me. However, Cook's refused to fix my car, stating they had a policy that they would not fix cars once they were totaled. I went to get my car back, and the car was in worse condition than when I left it. I drove it home as a piece of plastic dragged on the ground. Trying to drive it to one shop (which turned out not to be a body shop), the rear bumper fell off. Ultimately, I got my car repaired by another firm, also reviewed on this site, who did the work for $1100. As I noted on that review, I am sure they cut corners to get the job done for that price, but (1) I was very happy with the work, and more importantly (2) they worked with me and my budget to get the work done. Cook's didn't appear to want my business, but only wanted the business of insurance companies.

They were on time and very efficient.

Crooks collision negotiated with the insurance company, they fixed the car and they did the entire ordeal with good promptness and they filed all the papers for us.