FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

i came to your address but I can’t find your business?

The address appearing in Google My Business (495 West 6th Avenue in Vancouver) is our office address. Although we do repair work from this location sometimes, most of the time we will not be in there during the day as we are a mobile service and out and about working on repairing dents for dealerships and other customers. If interested in our services, please first email or call and we would be happy to setup an appointment for a free estimate or for a repair, at your convenience.

How do you do estimates?

1. Customers can call or email to request an estimate. We will typically ask you for three photos from different angles.

2. We will give you an approximate estimate or request further photos.

3. We will then set up an appointment with you to confirm the photo estimate. Sometimes other damage or other factors may be apparent in person that are not visible in photos.

4. Next, we repair your dent and make you very happy you decided to go with paintless dent repair!

Do you handle ICBC Claims?

 Yes, ICBC is always looking for ways to reduce spending on material damage given their financial difficulties of late. So if the damage on your vehicle exceeds your deductible, follow these steps to get your ICBC Claim handled by Dent Craft.

1. Call Dent Craft and set up an appointment for an in-person estimate

2. We will provide you with a written estimate

3. Make an appointment at any ICBC claim center

4. Let the adjuster know you’d like to do the repair using paintless dent repair

5. Once approved, book an appointment with us

6. You pay us

7. ICBC reimburses you minus your deductible if applicable

If PAINTLESS DENT REPAIR costs more than my insurance deductible, why don’t i just save money and have my car painted?

1. If the conventional body shop quote is over $2,000, there will be a declaration on your vehicle and you will have a history of body damage in Car Fax which reduces your vehicle’s resale value.

2. Save your original, factory paint. This is the best paint your vehicle will ever have. You lose up to 25% of your car’s value when it has been repainted.

3. Your premiums could be affected depending on how many claims you have made and your safe driving record. ICBC discounts are now based much more heavily on safe driving experience. As of September 2019, ICBC has made changes to their safe driving credits. It is now called “Crash Forgiveness” and they will forgive one crash after 20 years of driving experience provided you have been crash free for the last 10 years. Given how long it takes to get one crash forgiven, you will want to save your insurance claims for when you really need it. Use your insurance when you have an accident that could be in the thousands of dollars, not a few hundred. If not, your insurance could be affected for years to come.

4. Your deductible for comprehensive claims could go up. If you have had two or more claims over two years, ICBC will notify you on your renewal reminder then your deductible will start to go up after subsequent claims.

5. You will lose the use of your vehicles for 7-10 days. We can repair your vehicle the same day. And we can do it at your home or work location.

6. Paintless Dent Repair is a much less invasive repair than conventional auto body repair:

   1. No plastic filler that can shrink over time causing the “body shop wave”.

   2. No colour matching issues

   3. No overspray

   4. No water leaks due to improperly installed seals

   5. No paint, dust or chemicals and completely environmentally friendly

Read More…

How long does it take to fix a dent?

Every dent is different but most jobs that we do take less than an hour. Some more extensive damage can take 2 to 4 hours. Really extensive damage like hail damage or chestnut damage with dozens or hundreds of dents can take 1 to 2 days to repair.

What 5 THINGS Should YOU ASK Every Dent Company?

1- When can you come and fix my dent?

We strive to set an appointment with you within two business days. Based on customer feedback, we have heard that some dent companies get very busy and can sometimes only offer service several weeks out. Most dent companies are  one man operations or they are hobbyists. At Dent Craft, we see appointment availability as crucial to our business. We have three full time technicians so chances are when you reach out to us, we will be able to repair your vehicle well before any other dent company in Greater Vancouver.

2- Do you have a glue puller and do you do body line dents?

This question will separate the pros from the rest of the field. This is kind of like the brown M&M’s litmus test that Van Halen would make on their concert tours - you can read more about that here. If a dent company says they don’t offer these services then you know they are not a serious dent technician. And definitely not ready for rock star status! Dent Craft not only offers these services but we excel at them. You can see examples of these types of repairs in our Gallery.

3- How long have you been fixing dents?

There is no substitute for experience in any trade. And this couldn’t be more true for dent technicians. Anybody can buy dent tools but it takes a lot of training and experience to use them well. It’s very much like saying anybody can buy a pair of skates and a hockey stick, but it takes talent, dedication and years of training to become a good hockey player.

4- Do you have WCB and liability insurance?

By law, every company is required to carry a current Worker’s Compensation policy. If they don’t, this could open you up to some legal problems. Legal problems that you really don’t need. Dent Craft has always carried WCB and always will.

Liability insurance is not a legal requirement but it is very good to know the dent company you hire has it for your protection as a customer. In very rare instances where something goes wrong during a dent repair, the damage can be in the thousands of dollars. How sure are you that the dent company without liability insurance will pay for the repair of a damaged part? Dent Craft carries ICBC’s garage liability insurance with coverage up to $500,000 and a $300 deductible. If we break something during the repair, you can be sure we will replace or repair that part.

5- Do you have any customer testimonials and recent before and after examples?

This is another good way to measure a dent company’s professionalism. If you see one company with 5 excellent reviews and another with 100 excellent reviews, I think it’s safe to say which one to go with. Before and after photos are a dent company’s proof of work. Browse our Gallery and see some of the amazing repairs we’ve done over the years.

is pdr the best repair for my vehicle?

The proper way to talk about a repair is to look at what is the BEST repair for a particular dent. I will go over three examples to illustrate what I mean.

Let’s start with a very small, shallow dent. If you have a dime size, shallow dent without any paint damage then paintless dent repair is the BEST repair for that dent. It is a better repair than repainting the panel, without question.

Now, let’s look at some more severe damage. Let’s say you have an 8 inch deep crease across a body line again with no paint damage. Our technician might say to you that he can repair that dent but there will still be some very slight rippling once he is done due to the fact that the metal is stretched and the dent is so large. After a dent repair like this, our customers have been ecstatic and have said that they can’t see the dent anymore.

So what if the customer took it to a body shop to have it painted? Body shops struggle with the same issue. After painting, there are invariably dust nibs or fish eyes - where dust has settled on the drying paint and are visible upon close inspection. There are usually waves where the body shop has filled and sanded the dent. There are colour differences as matching paint perfectly is not possible. Finally, there is the cost difference. Due to the labour intensive process at body shops as well as material costs, the body shop has to charge at least twice as much for the same dent that we can do with paintless dent repair.

In my final example, let’s take a dent with paint damage. This dent was caused by someone scraping up against a yellow pillar in a parking underground. The dents look repairable using paintless dent repair but the paint has extensive damage. The BEST repair for this particular damage is to have it painted. Paintless dent repair can be helpful in this situation to reduce the amount of filler that the body shop has to apply. We call this a Push to Paint Repair. Our technician would reform the panel as much as possible then the body shop may apply a small amount of filler, sand the area and paint. This process can also go a long way in reducing the body shop wave as they don’t have to use a lot of filler.

Do you fix paint scratches or paint chips?

We provide a very limited touch up paint service. However, we can refer you to a mobile paint company who can help you repair any paint damage. Sometimes paint scratches may be very light scratches or they may be paint transfer from whatever hit the vehicle. If that’s the case, we are able to polish them out.

To tell the difference between scratches and dents, run your fingernail across the scratch. If your fingernail catches, it is a deep paint scratch and has to be painted. If it doesn’t catch, chances are we will be able to polish it out.

Do you fix dents on stainless steel appliances?

Dents on a stainless steel appliance like a fridge or a dishwasher have to be glue pulled and so they have to be shallow dents. Sharp and deep dents will not work.

Send us three photos from different angles and we can let you know if it looks like a good candidate. Due to the low success rate on these jobs, we do charge a service call charge to assess or attempt the dent which will get applied to the repair if it is successful. The dent is usually almost invisible as most stainless steel appliances have a matte finish and lots of texture.