If you need your vehicle towed or repaired, I would NOT recommend going to Pro Repair Plus. The owner, Don Hankins II, was negligent and damaged our vehicle while towing it. In addition, he will not pay the $1000 he owes us for it to be repaired.
Here is the long version: The starter in our van died while we were in Lander. After contacting several shops, Don said his business, Pro Repair Plus, would be able to take a look at it. He arrived in his flat bed tow truck and loaded up our van. He told his son: “We aren’t going far, so just step on the brake.” They never tied our van down, and when we arrived at the shop, he informed us they’d had an accident and broken our rear window out when the van had rolled into the tow truck.
Don assured us he would fix our van and “make things right.” He was very apologetic and seemed genuinely sorry. After a couple hours, he had the starter fixed, but no one in town had glass to fix the window. We were just passing through town (in the process of moving), so Don offered that we could get the window fixed on our own and he would call it even for the tow bill and the starter repair. To charge us for a tow where he broke out the window seemed kind of ridiculous, but at this point calling it even for the window seemed like the simplest course of action.
When we inspected our van further, however, we noticed huge gashes and scratches in the bumper. We went back into Pro Repair Plus, and Don came out to look at the damage. He said we could just “dab some paint on them” and it would be OK. We disagreed, saying it would be hundreds of dollars to repair this damage. He said to “get him an estimate when we got where we were going,” and apologized a few more times. With little else to do other than take him on his word, we continued our move.
After we returned home, I got an estimate for the repairs from a body shop. They said the bumper would need to be replaced, and the resulting damage was around $1600. I sent the estimate to Don, who, after a couple weeks of reminder emails and calls, finally replied: “Hey Zach got your email of estimate seems real high can we meet in the middle on it?” There was no way to get our van repaired with half the money, so I said no. He then made us go get 2 more estimates (by saying his insurance company required it), which were in the same general price range.
Finally, his insurance company (Progressive) called to tell me that he’d turned in a claim to them. They informed me I would need yet another estimate (from their adjuster), and that Don had lied when he told us they needed estimates from 3 independent body shops. The Progressive adjuster looked at the van, did his estimate (still needed the bumper replaced, $1100 in damages), and said Progressive would send me a check for $100, and that Don had a deductible of $1000 that he was responsible to pay. We waited for the money, and after a few more weeks left reminder phone calls and emails.
Don Hankins II damaged our van at the beginning of August 2016. It’s now almost January of 2017, and he still hasn’t paid. He made multiple promises, then backed out of them. After we left his place of business, he made very little effort to make things right and wouldn’t return our calls or emails. He lied multiple times. Thankfully, his starter repair has lasted this long, but we still have big ugly gouges in our van’s bumper from his negligence.
We live out of state, and Don knows this. He’s banking on the fact that we won’t come back to Lander and take him to small claims court to get the $1000 that he admitted he owes us. He finally sent an email flatly stating he was not going to pay. Everything he promised was a lie.
If you care about your car or your money, I would highly recommend NOT going to Pro Repair Plus or Don Hankins II. I really wish we had taken the time to get another shop or tow company to help us. This has been a huge hassle and time suck (3 unnecessary estimates, lots of phone calls/emails to both him and the insurance company) for a horrible result. We have $100 to pay a $1100 repair bill.
Zach Wahrer
