Thanks for the feedback guys. I've really only taken cars to A&L in the past.
I'd imagine Tesla has inspected said facilities in person and feels their work is of great quality to certify them.
I'm under the impression that Tesla just makes sure they have people who have done the training courses at the factory and they bought the Fronius cold transfer MIG welder. I'm not confident they do any real in-depth research, but I could be quite wrong.
Are those your only two options? I have never dealt with Tesla and people on here in the sticks do not even know what a Tesla is. Read tons of reviews on both places, looks like Ultimate Paint shop has a little better reviews on Yelp. Visit both places and try to read through all the small talk and crap because the owners and estimators are like salesmen. They want the job. Ask for a shop tour, ask to see pics of other repaired cars, ask how the repair process is going to work.
What about warranty on repairs? Should be for as long as you own the car. Look around the place, does the shop and the employees look like scum? It is like and interview.. read between the lines and use your best judgement.
It's good to have some input from someone who works directly in the industry.
These are unfortunately only three options - the last being O'Hare Auto Body in Bensenville, which I'm kind of avoiding because it's kind of a trek for me. I suppose I can also go to Marshall Auto Body in Waukesha,WI though (even more of a trek). I pretty much have to bring it to them because Tesla apparently won't sell body parts to anyone not-certified.
These two both warranty work for the length of ownership.
I know Gold Coast is a very high volume shop - a guy I run into at meets delivers parts and told me that they do good work, but the shop is pretty dusty. I don't think the repair will require aluminum welding (as I understand; galvanic corrosion is a big deal working with AL, and metal dust can contaminate the welds?) - probably just replacement of the bumper cover and maybe rear crash beam, so I don't think that's a huge concern. I didn't really look in the shop though (as it spans three floors).
I stopped by ultimate paint shop (they happened to have 4-5 Model Ses sitting outside in various states of repair) and I think I might have gotten the good cop, bad cop routine. Had the owner give me the "everything will be just fine, and we'll make it easy" line and the general manager kinda pressure me to subrogate the claim through my own insurance instead of the other guy's. However, it did seem organized and clean (based on a cursory look around the place while on my way out).
I'm hesitant to trust Yelp (at least the positive reviews) - I don't personally believe that their reviews have a whole lot of integrity due to
the numerous controversies that surround their business model (I don't tend to trust review sites where people describe it with words like "
extortion"). That said, the guy whose car was marked up by Gold Coast is pretty concerning as are the multiple repeat visits some of the people had to make.