Bracken Collision Center 281

Their staff stole the coins and some changes I left in my car!! I complained it but the owner refused to pick up the calls or do anything. I had to call the police to file a claim. Also it took them a week and costed nearly $1000 to do the simple paint job. I didn't have to pay for that because the other party's insurance covered it. But it just showed how dishonest they are. Absolutely the most horrible people I have ever seen!

Terrible experience. 1) Bracken took a full month to repair a damaged drivers door. 2) My insurance company stopped covering the car rental after 2 weeks, since Bracken took so long and didn't file for extensions, so I am out $300. If Bracken had communicated the need for an extension to my insurance company, they would have covered the rental. 3) The very next day after I picked it up from Bracken, a part fell off of my car on the highway. They refuse to fix it and say it must have been like that. It just happens to be a coincidence that it fell off right after I picked my car up. They claim they did not touch that part. This is untrue. 4) During the entire month, I never received a single phone call updating me on my cars status. I always had to be the one to call, always being told the car was nearly done. Even on the day it was ready, I again had to be the one to call. 5) Every bad review this company gets, they respond by accusing the customer of trying to “extort” money from them, rather than trying to address the issues. I never asked them for money.*It is clear this is a very poorly run repair shop. Save yourself the expense, hassle, and frustration, and go with one of the bigger, better-managed repair shops.

They did great work for a reasonable price and performed the work in the timeline they initially told me.

I spoke with Molly on the Monday after the accident and she had me bring in the car right away which was great. Enterprise picked me up and I was on my way. Communication with Molly was great, she always returned my phone calls and my emails. Very pleased with Molly and her team. On the repair time, this was a bit long. But this is where I want to add something that I feel other reviewers don't quite touch on. If you are working with a major insurance carrier, they have the service centers they like to do business with, and when you go outside of their "network" they make things very difficult. I was extremely upset with the way Allstate handled my claim and the hoops that they made Bracken Collision jump through. This was an eye opener as to how these large corporations operate. But the fact of the matter remains that Bracken Collision did a high quality repair on my 2013 Nissan Pathfinder. Everything is great. My car is in brand new condition as if the accident never happened. Was it a stress free process absolutely not, but that was not the fault of Bracken Collision. Unless you are paying out of pocket, when you are dealing with insurance companies, expect delays, be patient, and be mindful of the things that are going on in the background that Bracken is taking care of on your behalf.

Wow...stay away! Amazingly bad service from a highly rated co on Angie's List. San Antonio area had a major hail storm earlier in the year, so all body shops were already swamped when I had a minor accident. Bracken told me they could take the car in a few weeks because they separated their hail jobs from regular jobs. After waiting 6 weeks I took the car in as scheduled by them. The other driver at fault, USAA provided me a rental car for the repair period submitted by the shop. Problem 1: Lying Weeks go by, and Bracken never calls. You have to call them constantly to get through. I literally cannot count the number of times I was assured my car was "almost done, ready tomorrow ". Problem 2: Their delay cost me money The rental car coverage ran out. Bracken' supplimental filings to USAA did not satisfy the insurance company. So...what? This is the first time Bracken had to deal with an insurance company on a car repair? I kept the rental car, willing to pay out of pocket because again I was assured it would be ready "tomorrow ". After hitting $344 ( 10 days) I returned the rental car. Now I have no vehicle to drive, and the wait continues. They refused to pay for my out of pocket cost to bring business to their shop, as a result of their own actions. Finally got the car after 5 1/2 weeks. No way in the world they were working on it for that long. "We had to order more parts..." they will say. And my response again is that THIS IS your line of work. You evaluated the car before it ever entered the shop. Nothing was hidden. Nothing was not working on the door, that weeks into the job they decide to replace the whole door. Problem 3: lack of expertise It was soon obvious that they were over their heads working on my car. They admitted twice calling outside consultants to their shop. When the car was finally ready, my wife and I picked it up late (darkoutside). - Upon startup the airbag system and seatbelt system error lights were on. I thought they would clear themselves in a few minutes, but no. - the door's window shade was not working - the door didn't close "right". Though body-damaged coming into the shop, it still functioned perfectly RETURNED the car the next morning first thing. More delays of course as more "experts" had to be called in. Finally got the car, and the door still closes differently from the other doors. This is a 10 yr old BMW. But none of the problems encountered after repair were issues before the repair...ever. The paint work looks fine, as I would expect from any body shop in business more than 3 months. Don't ever go there. Don't believe any reply by the shop. Both USAA and Enterprise Rent a Car flagged Bracken as a "problem" shop to me on the phone. I can only guess that a once-reputable shop has fallen victim to too much business, and they just couldn't care less.

Encountered problems with estimated completion date being extended, and a payment issue involving a small amount due over the insurance company responsibility. I was overcharged and had a bit of trouble getting refunded the overcharge.

It’s long, but if you just want the summary of my experience – look at the end. After weeks of very POOR communication – only communication I got was when I was able to call them and check up on the status, and even then I always got the same basic answer: It’s “in line” or that there are “a lot of cars” waiting, etc. – I was finally able to pick up my car on June 20, 2016. The rear window tint was not done (the insurance covered it, it should have been done by the shop) when I came to pick it up. I was told they weren’t able to get their “glass guy” there to do the work. Ummm….they had the car 2 months. At some point it could have been done, but whatever. I had to have the car for my daughter to take her road test for her license so I agreed to get the tinting done on my own after the service advisor assured me that I could get it done for the $45 the insurance had allotted me for it. I questioned being able to get it done that cheap, but he assured me it wouldn’t be a problem. It is, after all, just one window. On July 8, 2016 we called the shop to ask about some wires we noticed hanging out of the back window that had not been connected. We didn’t notice them when we picked up the car so we wanted to bring it in and have it fixed. They said that they were not hooked up because the glass guy would have done that when the tint was done. That there was no point in connecting them – he would just have to unhook them to put on the tint. Not knowing any better, I said okay. We also asked them about the (approximately) 12 inch strip of paint on the trunk lid that was not repaired. The paint was missing. We were told that they had noticed that but not until after the estimate was done on the car. They said that the insurance wouldn’t cover it. In fact, I was told they had talked to the insurance and that is why they knew it wouldn’t be covered. I found out later that was not true-they never called. We’ll get back to that. When I had picked up the car on June 20, I was told they would give me their glass guy’s number and I could set up the tint appointment with him. They never gave me the number. I had to call them and get it. Then, I called their guy. He did not want to do the job for $45. He said that price was really low, but that since I was referred to him by the shop he would do it. He was not happy about it, but I was able to talk him into it. When he came to do the tint on July 11, 2016, we asked him about the wires hanging out of the window thinking he would be connecting them since that is what the shop told us. He had no idea what they were and told us we would have to get with the body shop. He wasn’t sure why they told us that he should hook them up. So, the next day, July 12, 2016, my husband took the car back to the body shop (across town again…) to ask about getting the wires installed like they should have been. He also asked about the trunk lid repair and why it wasn’t done. Again, he was told that the insurance wouldn’t cover it. I called the insurance company and asked them why the repair was not covered. They said that my call was the first time they had heard about the trunk lid damage and that the shop would have to call them to schedule a follow up appraisal for the official answer. We couldn’t leave the car there that day since we had no way back home. So, a couple days later on July 14, 2016, we took the car back to the shop and left it so the insurance could come do the appraisal. Long story short, they approved the repair. Had the shop called the insurance company while they had the car there the first time, this could have already been taken care of. But, whatever. Moving on. Today, Aug 16, 2016, I called the shop (again…..) to check on the status of this repair (again….) and see when my car would be ready. I was told that someone had called me early last week and “left a voicemail” for me. I never had a voicemail from them. Neither did my husband. And, I don’t get many voicemails so I would have noticed. I’m not sure who they called, but it wasn’t us. And, the man that I spoke to today didn’t seem to care that I didn’t know my car had been ready for a week. Kind of made me feel like he thought it was my problem that I didn’t know. Ummm….it’s been a week. Shouldn’t someone have tried to call again? Or maybe they just like having completed cars taking up space at their shop. I NEVER heard from the shop at ALL while my car was there. The only information I received was when I called them. With the exception of when it was ready in June…they did call me then when it was done. But it may have been because I was calling them a couple times a week by then since I wasn’t hearing anything. In summary: Overall it was a horrible experience. I will never use this shop again nor will I recommend it to anyone. They took their sweet time doing the work (I knew it would take a long time because there were a lot of cars, but 2 months?? Repairs on this car didn’t take that long when it was almost totaled by an 18 wheeler 2 years ago…), and when I got the car back, it wasn’t complete. I had to get the tint done – which they were supposed to do. I had to ask them to call the insurance to complete the repair on the trunk lid – again something they should have seen and followed up on. And, VERY poor communication. I never knew the status of my car. If it hadn’t been for my insurance company posting my approved estimates on my online account then I wouldn’t have even known the repairs were approved for the trunk. No one called me. Poor customer service and besides being slow – they didn’t even do the repairs completely until we brought it up. And I won’t even begin to imagine how much we wasted on gas going back and forth. Their one saving grace – they did offer AND deliver the car to me after the 2nd repair was done. I will say that was a great help and VERY appreciated. Everything else though: being very busy is never an excuse for poor customer service, un-complete work, or a huge lack of communication. Maybe they need to hire another staff member or two.

Like most of San Antonio, experienced hail damage in April 2016 to my vehicle. Finally obtained insurance estimate and referral to Bracken Collision Center on 281 North. Repair ended up being approx $4,000.00. Bracken had very poor communication, never advising what work was actually being performed in advance of performing the work as they said they would do and, in fact, I never heard from them at all. I did not even know vehicle was to be complete until we checked up on it as we were worried our 30 day insurance rental car was to expire. Upon pick up of the vehicle there were a host of new (not previously present) paint chips in the vehicles hood and doors. Bracken refused to acknowledge any responsibility or do anything about the situation to resolve. I had State Farm come back out, but as they said it was not readily apparent to be hail related, they would not do anything unless I started a new claim and paid another deductible. I would never use this company again for any body work, but if you do...recommend taking many pictures of the car surface when you take it in and put on file to document and compare after they complete the work...otherwise, they will claim no fault and will just be your word against theirs.

I can't comment om the quality of the work, because nothing ever happened. After I read all of the reviews on this shop, I decided I was going to drop my car off there. Lost of positive reviews, with a couple of negatives as well. I discounted the negative reviews as just being from the kind of people you can never please. The owner's response to most of the negative reviews seems to be 'you must have the wrong shop, we never worked on your car'. I wonder what his response will be to this review, because he never worked on my car either, and this is why: After reading the reviews on this shop, I decided I was going to have them do the work. I didn't want to run all over town, getting estimates, dealing with service writers, etc. The decision I made at my house - before going out - was to go get the estimate from this shop, send it off to my insurer, get my temporary car rental squared away, and bring my car back to the shop at whatever date the shop and I agreed upon. Since I had already made the decision to take the monthly premium hit by running this through my insurance, money is not my concern at this point. The only two things I care about are the quality of the repair, and the quality of customer service the shop provides. My son and I hopped in the hardly-driveable-because-it-pulls-strongly-to-the-left mobile, and drove about 45 minutes to the shop. On the way, we must have passed a hundred other body shops. There are certainly plenty of body shops to choose from in San Antonio, but I was on a mission - a mission to go to Bracken Collision Center - the body shop with the highest Angie's List ratings in San Antonio. About 5 minutes prior to our arrival it started to rain, so when I parked the car at the shop, I parked it under a carport they had set up for auto detailing. We got out of our cars and went into the office, which is a really weird setup. There is no reception area, receptionist, or anything... just a big open area with some office doors. I went to the only open office - with a paper sign on the wall next to the door that said 'TODD - ESTIMATES'. Todd was in there with a lady but I didn't notice her because it was sort of dim. I was looking at Todd, who didn't look up from his desk, and wondered why he wasn't looking up because he had to have heard us come in. The lady politely asked how she could help us, and I said we were here for an estimate. Todd finally looks up from his desk and says 'uuuhhhh, not gonna happen in this rain'. OK, I just drove 45 minutes to get here. Plus I parked under a carport with a roof. Plus you have a 20,000 square foot shop I could pull into. Even if all of that wasn't the case, you turn away a $3k-$5k customer over a little rain? Perhaps if I'd said 'Hey Todd, I read all of the good reviews on Angies List and I've decided I'm going to use your shop for sure, but I just need to turn in an estimate to my insurance company first' Todd would be a little more receptive to a new customer. I don't run my business like that, and I wonder how businesses can survive treating their customers like this. As it is, I can't use Bracken Collision Center because they wouldn't give me an estimate, I'm not driving back out there again, and I'm not giving my money to someone who treats me like that. If that's their pre-sales service, I can only imagine how you're treated once they have your car hostage in the shop, or any issues arrive post-repair. Looks like I dodged bullet on this one for sire...

Fantastic, Todd has worked on my Toyota Tacoma and my wives Lexus. Quality work and affordable pricing. Going to use again to repaint classic car.

These guys are great, we were paying for this out of pocket, the price was fair, the service was excellent and the repair was perfect! The car looked so much better after the repair I commented to my wife we should have wrecked it earlier!

Did excellent work. It took a bit longer than expected, but it was well worth it. Would definitely go to them again for any type of body damage.

They are the best. My car came back beautiful. They communicate very well, It went very quick, they took care of everything. They are a 5 star business and I will only go to them. When I drove my car after the repair it drove straight.

Could not be more pleased with the workmanship and professional handling of the collision repair performed. Would definitely recommend this facility to anyone in need of their services,

I am very pleased with the work done to my car. Had a little mishap with a teenager trying to park my car in the garage which required a whole new door! Initially the cost was very high for a new door but Molly & Todd looked around and found a used door to use. In addition, when I picked up my car the cost was $300 less than they had quoted me! How often does that happen? They could have charged me for the initial quote and I never would have known the difference. But they were able to avoid re-painting the whole door (used one was black already like my car) and therefore passed on the savings to me. I appreciate the honesty so much. It was a ridiculous accident in the first place, and very costly despite these savings. But knowing it could have been over twice as costly and being treated so well made it all a little easier to take. Thank you.

We went to Angie's list looking for a good company to fix my truck. I did the research and this company came highly recommended. They quoted me at a price that was fair and told me it would be a week to fix my truck. Four weeks later they were finally done with the car, but when I went to go and pick it up, I noticed that the right side mirror was replaced with the wrong part and the backup camera was not functioning. I brought my car back and it took them a week to get the part. In addition to the delay in the part- they never called letting me know there was going to be a delay- I had to call them to ask them, and I also had to call them every week during the initial 4 week ordeal (and every week they told me it would be done in a week). Only when I called and asked them did I find out that it would take an additional week. This in addition to the four weeks we had already spent. We had to rent a car- costing us an addition $1700 because they had my car for 4 weeks instead of the 1 week we were originally quoted at. As well, they never fixed the rear view camera, and I had to go to a different company to get it fixed for an additional $200. I was actually disappointed with Angie's list on this one- we never would have gone with this company if Angie's hadn't rated them so high. So if you value your time and money do not go with this company.

Took vehicle for 3 estimates and Bracken Collision was the lowest estimate. Contacted for a time when we could bring the vehicle in and took vehicle in while we were on vacation. Came back from vacation and vehicle was ready. They had fixed the problem areas and it looked great. They also cleaned and polished car inside and out - the vehicle looked brand new. The cost was exactly what they had given us on the estimate. Great people doing a great job!!!

Great - they have done other work for us and it is always excellent, so this is just a chance to write a review. In this case, someone backed into one of our cars. They didn't want to file insurance, but they live out of town. So Todd was great, he accepted a pre-pay credit card from them, kept them informed of the work, but made sure he did the work we wanted. He did a great job for both parties and made it as easy as he could. For the hail damage, it was a brand new BMW. He was able to pull all of the dents out. The car looked showroom new. Great work. Todd and Bracken are my first and only choice for Auto Body work.

We went to several places for estimates on our two vehicles damaged in a friendly fire incident at home. They gave us a very competitive estimate (all of our estimates were within a few dollars of each other. This was a non-insurance repair and the cost was still very reasonable. The right rear bumper of my wife's Mazda 6 and the left front bumper of my Chevy Tahoe both needed repairs. The Tahoe had to have a new bumper cap as did the Mazda. They recommended OEM for the Tahoe (relatively new truck) and an aftermarket for the much older Mazda 6. They did the work in the time prescribed on both vehicles and they did a great job. The damage was 100% undetectable. They did a great job cleaning up the entire car and you can just tell they care about your business. They are personable, professional and you just feel like you are giving your money to a good bunch of guys. Don?t let the shop fool you. It is a little back off the road and sort of ?north? of the ?usual suspects? but it is worth the drive a little ways up 281. Heck we made the drive a couple of times. Another thing to note, we had two repairs done, not just one, any company can luck into doing a good job once. But these guys showed consistency in quality of repair and clean up of the car, as well as being on time both times. Give them a try, you won?t be sorry.

Bracken Collision did a great job. Professional, prompt, accurate estimate, and a pleasure to deal with. I require 3 things in auto repair: honesty, competence, and reasonable price -- in that order. If they aren't honest, I don't care about their competence. If they aren't competent, I don't care about their cost. Then, all else being equal, a good price would be nice. Bracken had it all. And they did it promptly, too. Of course, I hope I never need a collision repair shop again, but if I do, this is where I'm coming.

Very nice, very professional. Repairs were done when they said they would be. Todd is a great guy. Very fair! Price was good, and work was excellent.

They delivered as promised for a couple of hundred dollars less than other estimates. Car ready on time looking great. Although never discussed in the estimate, they painted over and buffed out a couple scratches on the rear bumper then detailed the entire car. Really impressed..

I severely damaged my truck, but was able to drive it to the shop. The good part: Todd did an outstanding job in restring the vehicle to like new condition. I could not be more pleased with the quality of the work. The not so good part: this repair took over 33 days...partly because of my insurance company. But nothing was ever communicated to me, and I turned in a rental car a week early based on a conversation with the shop. Great work, but overly pleased with the process.

I've worked on cars my whole life and I understand a reasonable amount about them. He's telling me, "Well we have to remove the whole front fascia of the car to be able to get at this area and to repaint the whole thing and do this and that. It will be like $800 to fix it." I said, "Okay, thanks," and I left. I came home, went on the internet and read how to make those repairs. It's a special 3M two part adhesive that you use to stick those kinds of pieces on cars back together and you go behind the thing and put a metal screen on the adhesive. So I did those. of course on the front, it still doesn't look right because of the crack so I took it to a body shop. Between what he charged me and what I paid for the things that I bought, it cost me $80 to fix my car. I think the guy at Bracken tried to rip me off. The reason they didn't do the work is because they tried to rip me off and I'm smarter than that. He gave me the estimate in writing. The service went certainly not well. The guy was talking to me like I was the dumbest person that just got off the banana boat. There isn't any issue with the provider. I went in, got a bogus estimate, decided I never go back in there again and we got the car fixed another way.

I have used this company several times and quality of work has been excellent. My daughter and son in law have also used this company and also rate it highly. I will not hesitate to use it again.