Collision Repair Process

D&M Auto Body strives to complete your collision repair when promised.  Listed here are the required steps that make up the collision repair process, that are in addition to the actual time spent repairing your vehicle.  Please understand when using an insurance company to pay for your repair, any necessary additional parts or labor must be inspected and pre-approved by them before continuing with your repair.  Depending on the insurance company, this inspection process could cause delays from a few hours to several days, potentially extending the time of auto body repair by this amount of time. 

1) Non-drivable Vehicles:  Customers need to sign an authorization to tow and evaluate damage form. For your convenience this form can be received by fax, online, or in person at our office. This allows D&M Auto Body to begin the collision repair process by authorizing us to tow your vehicle to our auto body shop and the perform a partial disassembly, to uncover any hidden damage

2) Drivable Vehicles:  After receiving your damage estimate, a collision repair appointment can be made.  At this time New Jersey law requires that an authorization to repair form be signed.  The estimate price will be an ESTIMATED total price that takes into consideration any additional hidden damage or missed parts and labor on the insurance company's estimate.  This amount could differ from the amount of our current written estimate.  To authorize your insurance company to send any additional payment directly to D&M Auto Body, a direction of payment form must be signed.  Also to authorize a representative of D&M Auto Body to conduct all damage related negotiations with your insurance company, a designated representative form needs to be signed.  This form allows D&M Auto Body to legally represent the vehicle owner, and using our experience can negotiate with your insurance company to receive a more complete settlement to repair your vehicle.  When the repair appointment is made a deposit will be collected for parts ordering.  This can be paid with a personal check, cash, money order, bank check, insurance check, or credit card.

3) Parts will be ordered to coincide with your repair appointment date.

4) To help meet your expectations, D&M Auto Body prefers that you make an appointment to drop off your vehicle during business hours so that we may review your vehicle's damage, estimates, estimated pick up date, and discuss any possible delays, due to hidden damage or insurance inspections.  This one step avoids many miscommunications that are typical with collision repair.  Our Auto Body Shop also inspects the complete exterior of your vehicle pointing out any other non-related damage that is not included in our repair or noting any customer special requests.

5) After your vehicle's drop off at D&M Auto Body, one of our technicians disassembles your vehicle to expose any hidden damage that was not evident before.

6) A D&M estimator will update our estimate adding in any additional parts and labor or part price increases known at this time.  You or your insurance company will be immediately notified to review any additional costs.

7) After your approval (or your insurance company's) all additional parts will be ordered.  Additional parts orders will be expedited in an attempt to still meet the delivery date.  If extensive additional damage is discovered or part issues that will extend repair time, you will be notified of an updated delivery date at this time.

8) When all repairs have been completed, every vehicle receives a quality and safety check, andis test driven if needed.  Your vehicle is then vacuumed and washed, and a final inspection is performed by your D&M representative.

9) At the time of delivery, all repair bills need to be paid in full.  This can be done by the following:
a) Cash
b) Money Order
c) Insurance Check (properly endorsed)
d) Personal Check up to $500.00 (with a driver's license and credit card for security)
e) Credit Card (up to $1000.00)          
f) Certified Check
g) Bank Check.
Final paperwork for additional costs to be paid by your insurance company must be received prior to delivery and a signed direction of pay form must be on file.

10) All retail repairs receive a five-year written warranty on all repairs performed by D&M Auto Body.

 

BEFORE LEAVING YOUR VEHICLE FOR REPAIR, REMEMBER TO:

*Please remove all personal belongings and debris, especially in your trunk area to prevent loss or allow our technicians to gain access to your vehicle's damaged areas.

*Please disable all automotive and audio alarm systems or provide our auto body shop with the appropriate codes to bypass them during your collision repair process.  You may wish to write down your radio station settings as they may be erased if the battery is disconnected during repairs.

*Please bring all keys with you for locked items such as trunks, wheel locks, spare tire locks, roof rack locks, etc.  We will probably need more than valet key to complete most repairs.

*Please bring your estimate information, which should include the name of theinsurance carrier responsible, your policy number, claim rep.'s name and phone number and your claim number.

D&M Auto Body is conveniently located on the Rockaway/Denville border of NJ and has been serving Rockaway, Denville, Dover, Randolph, Morris Plains, Cedar Knolls, Mountain Lakes, Parsippany, Morristown, Roxbury, Hopatcong, Jefferson, Montville, Mount Olive, and the entire Morris County New Jersey area since 1984.