Seattle Collision Center

I was kind of forced to go with this shop. My insurance company (State Farm) balked at my choice for a shop to fix my MX-​5 after some clown in a dump truck rear-​ended me three (yes, three) times at a stoplight. Seeing that they were a ‘preferred provider’ and where charging about $ 2000 less than my #1 choice, I was concerned they were a ‘fly-​by-​night’ operator, but I was willing to take a chance because of the good Unilocal reviews and the fact I didn’t want to pay the difference between what my insurance would pay and the other shop’s charge. So how did it turn out?
THE ROSES: It appears they did a very nice job. Paint matching was perfect, and they did a very good job of cleaning the car afterward; it hasn’t looked this good since I bought it! They are also very good about keeping the client ‘in the loop’. They seem to honestly care about doing a good job, and asked me several times to get in touch with them if I had any questions or concerns about the job they did. They do offer a good guarantee, and I get the impression they’re ready to stand behind it.
THE THORNS: Tech left one of his tools in my trunk. Rather grotty storefront in a not-​so-​nice area of town. Not a lot of room to park vehicles, so when I came to get my car, I found it parked on the street (perfect bait for a hit-​and-​run driver, or some homie with an attitude who might just key your newly repaired car just to be an a**hole?). They will only accept credit cards for the deductible, if it’s an insurance job; otherwise you sign over your insurance check, or if you’ve already deposited it, you need to get a cashier’s check (NO personal checks!). Still, this is one way they can charge less; they don’t have to pay the fee for credit card transactions.
WHY NOT FIVE STARS?: I want to see if the paint continues to match over time, make sure no surprises surface; I reserve the right to upgrade this review.
THE VERDICT: If you have State Farm insurance, and you need bodywork, this is one of their ‘preferred’ shops that does a good job. They make the whole process real painless. Worth checking out.

This was simply the best body shop experience I’ve had in my 50-​year driving career. My 2.5 year old car had accumulated several dents and scratches that needed a few thousand dollars of repair, partially covered by insurance. After visiting a handful of shops with good Unilocal ratings, I felt most comfortable with Seattle Collision Center – which also happened to be on my insurer’s «Select Service» list so the process was streamlined by not requiring a third-​party adjuster.
The entire staff, from Julie and Diana in the front office to owner Todd, are clearly committed to making each customer feel welcome, important, and fairly treated. Everything went according to schedule, and the car came out looking practically new. I hope never to need a body shop again, but if I do this is the first place I’d go, and would not hesitate to recommend it to a friend or relative.

I have nothing but great things to say about Seattle Collision Center. Julie is great with scheduling appointments, making sure you understand the work & the costs. She even got our car in a week earlier than expected because they had recently hired a new technician. I just got our car back today & was thrilled with the work. You would never know anything was ever wrong. To top it off, everyone else in the office was very nice.

Under-​promise and over deliver. I can’t believe it! Someone still does this.
Yet one more texting driver on I-​90 rear-​ends me (fourth one in recent years). To top it off, he turns out to be a flake that I have to track down and wrassle with. I was having no fun thanks to this unwanted intruder into my life.
Thankfully, Seattle Collision Center proved to be the very opposite of my dangerous and deceptive road-​idiot. They were positive and friendly – that alone gets 5 stars. They wrote a highly detailed estimate including a dozen or more photographs. When my other estimates were done, the choice was easy. They stood out head and shoulders above the others, in terms of their focus and attention to detail in the estimate stage. One of the other places didn’t take any pictures, and missed obvious damage detail – this estimator, too, like my rear-​ending buddy was focusing on Facebook while performing the estimate.
Seattle Collision promised me a 5 or 6 day repair, I can’t remember. They were done in 3! I found my truck cleaner than it had been in a year, inside and out, and their employee was polishing my tires and aluminum wheels. WHAT! I myself had never done that on my 7 year old truck… they looked amazing.
To say that the repair was undetectable and flawless is almost minor. Almost. I had seen a neighbor’s car repair that was only a week old performed by a competitor to SCC. It was not good. Not like mine.
I hope people quit playing with their iPhones on the freeway, and quit running into those who don’t. But I’m a realist; if needed, I will be right back here the next time. The two women running the business side of the shop were competent, detailed and not prone to brushing me off. It was obvious they had a lot of experience and knowledge. Plus, they were nice to my dogs.

Absolutely fabulous autobody shop. My car got hit by a drunk driver, while it was parked alongside a street and the backend was smashed. Information from State Farm and my research on Unilocal pointed me in the direction of Seattle Collision Center.
My experience with the team there has been nothing but great. They were able to confirm receipt of my car from the tow truck driver and provided quick turnaround with an estimate. I had concerns about using recycled parts, and the team did nothing but listen to me and have genuine interest in understanding my concerns. They talked me through the parts that they use, which really told me they have the same interest and value in restoring my car into as best to new condition as possible. They seem to treat their customers like family and want to do things right.
It took over 4 weeks to get all the parts and repair it but throughout the entire process, I never worried/​stressed about the job getting done. I was get up to date with how things were progressing. When I found out my car was ready, I went in the next day and was so kindly greeted. They are a very friendly group of folks and they walked me to my car to show what they did. They asked me to call them anytime if I had any questions — and I could tell they really meant it and wanted to make sure I was just as happy at the work they did to fix it as they were.
I hope to never have to go there again, because car problems are never fun. However, if there ever is need for repair, Seattle Collision Center will be the first I call.

I’m a contractor who travels state to state so I depend on fellow Unilocalers to help me find reputable businesses. Thought it would be that simple finding a auto body shop after the mishap I encountered. WRONG. Although this place is very quick to reply and the woman who works the front desk is very curtious, I can’t vouch for the shop’s workmanship. Long story short they didn’t do a complete job and in the long run it cost me about 700 to fix what they didn’t do right. (not including the paint blemishes) The technicians left a scratch on the quarter panel after painting the roof (was about waist level, guessing it was a belt or button). After that happened found out I could no longer attach a bike rack because they didn’t fix the brackets that were broken when they fixed the rest of the roof. To make matters worse, they left dust all over the inside of my car and overspray on the R mirror after painting. All in all I sunk about 3k into their work before finding these blemishes and the incomplete roof repair. To top it off sent an e-​mail notifying them of this incomplete job and didn’t even get an «i’m sorry «reply. If you love your car like I do, go somewhere else…

Due to the nature of their biz, I imagine Seattle Collision Center gets a lot of less-​than-​excited-​to-​be-​there customers. I was definitely not pleased to be getting my car fixed after some dumb driver rear-​ended me a few weeks ago. On the plus side, their insurance paid, and Seattle Collision Center is pretty darn close to where I live.
I worked with Julie to arrange a time to bring my car in for an estimate. They were very quick, took some photos, and I was on my way. I dropped my car off last week for bumper repairs and they completed the work within the time they estimated and kept in touch about the repair status. They coordinated a rental with the nearby Hertz so I could drop off my rental car there when repairs were complete.
The bumper work looks great, as good as new, and they even washed and vacuumed my filthy car before returning it to me!
The only thing that would make this place better is if they had extended hours for people with 8 – 5 M-​F jobs. I had to take time off work on three separate occasions to get the repairs done and it would have been easier if they were open past 5:30 and/​or on Saturdays. Overall, a good repair experience and I’m pleased with the work.

I like these guys. I had a slight incident with a parking garage pole in a car that was less than a month old. They were able to work on my vehicle with an ignition interlock device installed, the car was repaired on time, and it looks as good as it did before the incident. What’s better is how the guy whose name slips my mind stayed after closing to release my car to me before the weekend!
I’m not sure how they compare for pricing as I have full coverage and just wanted a shop that could do a quality repair. Found one!

My family has been taking our vehicles to Seattle Collision Center for years. It’s a top notch operation and the customer service is always superb. The owner, Todd, is courteous and patient. His estimates are fair and you know the job will be completed on-​time and correctly. It’s painful when your car gets banged up and you’re without transportation. SCC gets you back in your ride like nothing happened.

I would highly recommend Seattle Collision Center.
They were extremely kind, prompt, friendly, and persistent about contacting my uncooperative insurance company. They went the extra mile to make sure I was well taken care of.

With out a doubt the best experience I’ve had getting my car fixed. Not only was the work top notch, but the service was as well. Todd the owner is a real pro, and even helped my insurance adjuster to understand the extent of the damage. Had I gone somewhere else I’m sure I would have had to pay more and my insurance would have paid less.

Update:
1 year 2 months after my initial interaction with this company, I received a email from the owner via Unilocal.It basically said he took full responsibility for my bad experience, but that nothing was their fault. Too little, too late. Still wouldn’t recommend.
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I took my car to Seattle Collision Center because it was recommended by my insurance company. As part of the insurance company’s recommendation, the repair facility was supposed to have provided a firm completion date, accurate and timely updates, and deliver the car clean. Seattle Collision failed in all aspects.
My car was finally turned over 12 days after the estimated completion date (a total of 23 days in the shop). During the 12 days I would call in daily and receive the same comment…“we think it will be done tomorrow, but we can’t commit to anything.” This made planning impossible.
At several times, I was promised I would receive follow up calls within a certain time frame. None of these time frames where met. Worse, when Seattle Collision finally called, the information provided was inconsistent (I was told no fewer than 3 times my car was going in for paint and several times was given inconsistent dates around when parts would arrive/​arrived).
Finally after the significant delay, I went to pick up my car… the exterior had been washed, but there was still dust from the repair along the interior trim, the car was not vacuumed, and the trunk had dirt from the repairs.
I have already filed 2 complaints with my insurance company and would highly recommend anyone looking to have their car repaired take it someplace else. Good luck.

I took my car into SCC because unfortunately it got keyed in front of my house by some unknown jerk. SCC was recommended as a service provider by my insurance co and they didn’t disappoint. Lindsey (the girl who works the desk) was helpful, friendly and easy to talk to. They were able to get my car in the same day for an estimate and I took it in about a week later for the paint job. They were also nearly $ 100 below the previous estimate I got.
My only complaint was that I wasn’t given a good timeline of when the work would be done. I was told Wednesday, maybe Thursday. By Thursday at 3, I still hadn’t heard from them about the status of the work so I ended up calling myself. I had to wait awhile for them to finish up but they washed my car and vacuumed it out, which was badly needed. Overall, a good experience with SCC.

Extremely happy with the work done here on my car. Todd is extremely personable, honest, and very professional. After dropping my car off, I didn’t have to deal with the insurance company any more — Todd took that on for me and got everything taken care of and my car was ready way before I thought it would be!

I’ve been traveling a lot recently – more check-​ins at SEA-​TAC than my favorite local coffee shop. As such, my car has been hanging out in my driveway, patiently awaiting my lead foot to take it for a drive and stretch out its wheels, warm up its valves, and get its 97 octane flowing.
However, I’m pretty sure that my car would agree with me that suffering a hit-​and-​run isn’t among our list of things to do together.
Fortunately, I qualify for the greatest insurance the states has to offer: USAA. I put a call in to them, reported my claim, and got info on what to do next: get a quote from a body shop.
«Do you need a referral?»
«Nope, I’ve got a shop I know and trust.»
I headed down and stopped in at Seattle Collision. Todd was there to help. He remembered my car – «oh yeah, the window during the rain storm!» (see previous review) – took photos, wrote up an estimate, and worked with me to get my quote sent directly to USAA.
We also discussed doing a little extra work: polishing my 12 year old formerly-​black-​now-​gray car, as well as resolving the chrome on the wiper blades problem that blinds me when the sun comes out.
And most important, while waiting for the estimate to print, I listened to his side of a conversation with a client, where there apparently had been a mishap with wrong parts being delivered, resulting in late completion of a job. Todd was professional, honest, took responsibility, and had integrity. Things happen that are out of our control – I suffered a hit and run! – and Seattle Collision Center will be there to work with you, and your insurance company, when you need them.
Cheers to that! Hello star number five!

Todd is awesome. Extemely personable and professional. Martin as well. When I called I introduced myself and he remembered I was the guy with the 2009 Honda Pilot. Exactly like they put on paper, they had worked on my car in March of 2009 and I brought it back to them for a creaky noise and a low level thump and he fixed both issues in Feb 2010! You’re never going to be able to satisfy everyone, but Todd did a great job of working on this particular pain-​in-​the-​ass customer! :)
they offer an awesome life-​long warranty on their work for as long as you own your car and he’s been in business for a long time.