Others w/ Probs w/ Magnum Collision/Performance Auto Collis. trying to steal your car? (Atlanta, GA)

Just curious if anyone else here has had problems with predatory business practices by Magnum Collision/Performance Auto Collision in Georgia where they bill you for things that you never authorized and hold your car hostage unless you pay the "ransom" (almost $9,000). Then if you don't pay the ransom they will actually file for a lien to take the title to your car. (This is basically a scam to trap you once they have your car.) And if so how you dealt with it.

Thanks in advance. More details below if interested:

-Took my car to Magnum Collision.
-Their intake paperwork said that you pay when you pick up your car.
-After the estimate they led me to believe parts for my car repair had been ordered.
-A month and a half after dropping off the car they started asking me to pay them up front.
-This was a red flag as it represented a change in terms after they'd had my car for 1.5 months.
-After going back and forth with them on this concern they eventually straight up said parts had not been ordered and would not be ordered unless I paid at least 60% of the bill up front. At this point they'd had my car for two months and done nothing more than some disassembly to inspect and a repair estimate.
-Their changing of terms after having my car for two months made it obvious that I could not trust them.
-After some due diligence I found another shop that seemed more ethical.
-I went to Magnum Collision to retrieve my car but they refused to let me have my car and then sent me a bill for almost $9,000 in charges which had never been previously discussed and to which I had never agreed.
-They were trying to charge for storage at $100/day from the date that I dropped the car off. This contradicts their sign in their office explaining their storage policies. By the terms on their sign I should not be billed any storage as my car does not fall into either of the two categories they list. Their sign also says $40/day, not $100/day. The fraudulent storage charges are most of the bill total. The rest is a nonsense "admin fee" and a tear down fee.

I have included a photo of their storage policy sign.

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Yes, from asking around it sounds like Magnum Collision has really gone down the toilet since since being sold to Performance Auto Collision.

 

I'm not sure if FoA is still using Magnum. This didn't happen to the Ferrari, thank God. But since Ferraris often end up there I was curious if anyone in the Ferrari community had a similar experience and how they dealt with it.
Not really saying publicly yet who the alternate shop was but happy to tell you and provide additional details next time I see you at a car event.

 

Wow, Les, that's horrible. Even worse than what I experienced. Unfortunately, it doesn't surprise me at all.
Thanks for sharing your story, btw.

 

Buckhead Collision does good Ferrari work?

 

Did Magnum Collision/Performance Auto Collision do anything to make it right after the fact? Were there any consequences?

 

That's good that you were compensated, but unfortunate that Performance/Magnum got away with such a dastardly deed. They seem to be pretty experienced at gaming the system.

 

I think you're right about $100/day being the legal max. Regardless of any legal max, their posted storage policy says $40/day and lists two conditions under which storage fees will apply. My car didn't meet either of those conditions, therefore no storage would be due on my car.

At best what they do is an unfair and deceptive business practice. But it looks an awful lot like fraudulent misrepresentation.

That's not even taking into account the fact that their paperwork says you pay on delivery and then after having my car for 1.5-2 months they said I had to pay up front. At that point in time, even if they had let me retrieve my property without trying to charge a ransom they still would have deprived me of driving my car for two months since no progress had been made on the repair. Any which way you look at it, it seems like once they have possession of your car, you're going to lose one way or another.

 

One other thing to beware of when choosing a collision repair shop for any special car you have: I mentioned earlier in the thread that thank goodness this didn't happen to the Ferrari. One reason I took the Porsche to Magnum Collision (obviously didn't know how unethical they are at the time) was b/c they were a Porsche Approved Collision Center. When Magnum started to show their true colors, since they were a PACC, I made Porsche aware of Magnum's unethical practices. Porsche's response was that they couldn't do anything b/c PACC are independent businesses and it also turns out there is not an ethics requirement to be a PACC. So Porsche could not say that by being unethical Magnum had violated a requirement to be a PACC. It seems qualifying as a PACC relates mainly to staff training and equipment. This type of situation may or may not exist with other manufacturers but keep in mind that just b/c a shop has a certification from a manufacturer DOESN'T mean they have met any kind of requirement for ethical business practices.
Related side note: the manager of deceptive Magnum Collision has been saying on the Better Business Bureau website and social media that Porsche agreed with them when in fact Porsche just said they couldn't do anything about it.