I had a bit of an inverted experience. I was rear-ended ages ago. The guy who hit me had a friend who does autobody work and he insisted that we use him to fix our car. We politely informed him that because he was at fault we would be taking the car to a shop of our choosing. Sure enough there was more internal damage than initially suspected so the bill quickly rose over 2000$.
They freaked and claimed that we were trying to rip them off. After their little temper-tantrum we decided to stop dealing with them and go directly to their insurance company. The insurance company was awesome to deal with and they looked into whether the shop we were using was legit. Once they confirmed the shop to be respectable there were no problems.
My point in all this is that your insurance will look into this shop and as soon as they realize the oddities, they'll probably raise some questions. Not worth the stress . . . go to your insurance asap and voice your concerns.
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