Phil’s Collision Repair

Before you decide not to read this because its so long, I’ll get to the point here, this is now my go to place for repairs. Period.
Best way to describe my experience at Phil’s today is with following example. Car shops in Columbus are like going to the hospital, the places are neat clean, with waiting rooms even popcorn machines and soda fountains. Before they do any actual physical work they always have to do some kind of «diagnostics test» and that is $ 100 up front before they even open their tool box. Then comes the long wait with a list of other things they think need to be done. OK, that said, I broke my drivers side car seat. I went to a local junk yard and got one out of a wreck. I asked the guy who took it out if he was interested in making a few extra bucks by installing it for me after hours. He said Yes, I said Ok and he never showed up. I then called the usual «big box» repair shops and they said they couldn’t put in any after market products. I called the junk yard back and they suggested Phil’s Collision in Galena. The seat had fallen completely backwards so I knew driving it up there from near Polaris was not going to be fun so before I did I called Phil’s and asked if they could do it for the same price as the guy at the junk yard. Without hesitation he said he should be able to. I felt a little uneasy at the «should be able to» thinking, nuts it could be a lot more. This morning, I loaded the new seat into the back seat to help keep my front seat from becoming another back seat and headed for Galena. Now I come from a very small town in NW Ohio and spent more hours than I can remember in small repair shops so when I pulled up to Phil’s I felt very much at home. Phil came out, took the keys, told me I could either walk on the nearby nature trail or sit in his office. Being exhausted from trying to load the seat into the car plus the agonizing drive up there I decided on the latter option. It didn’t take long at all and when he came in he said, «How does…$ sound to you.» I did a double take. I said, «I agreed to pay $X and thats certainly worth it to me’ and he said, «No,$X is fine.» He then said he’d dispose of the old seat. As I was driving home I knew I was relieved the job was done and I had saved some money, but there was a feeling/​thought I just couldn’t shake. It finally dawned on me, it wasn’t the fact the job was done or I’d saved money it was sort of a realization that for the first time in a very long time, I’d just done business with honest man.