paint peeled off customers car when removing 3m tape! customer is asking to pay for damage

[expdetailing]

Set up an appointment for her to take the car in to show responsibility and good intent, then the night before, torch her car!
I thought this thread needed some humor...

[jeff79]

Someday you may come to understand the differences
between people being classified as a Professional...and
those that are considered to be fly-by-nighters...in any
given occupation/career-field. Or maybe not.


Speaking of flying:
I'm outta here.


Bob

maybe you are referring to the mobile touch up guy. you can call yourself whatever you what but at the end of the day it calling yourself a "professional" doesn't justify you charging 2-3X the average price of a sevice. that is just called a rip off.

[tdekany]

Kind of overkill for a 12 year old car don't ya think ?

I would simply tell the painter to not blend, I'd polish out the hood and the drivers door.

[ShaunD]

That's not MB OEM paint on that fender. It wouldn't be flaking like that. That is tissue thin like it's a cheap SS paint. From the looks of the marks that were under the paint, there isn't primer in some spots. And it looks like there were already some chips and rust on that edge, and possible some chips touched up. At best I would pay 50% of the cost just for that fender, not the blending into the hood and bumper, which isn't necessary in the first place since it doesn't look like that paint is perfectly color matched to the bumper, and possibly the hood either. Even if you had insurance you would still have to pay a deductible of about $500 most likely.
I had to pay for a trunk lid to be painted for a client and it was just under $250, and not panels needed to be blended into. Someone is trying to rip you off.

[MikeLW]

Looking at the pictures, the paint was already failing. The tape just helped it move along.

The paint quote is right. Professional shops have a lifetime guarantee (the good ones) on their work. They won't skip steps or practice poor technique. Everything has to be done accordingly to ensure that the repair is as good or better than OEM.

This is kind of a tough situation, as you had no intent to, nor did you do anything negligible on your part, but the end result from your efforts was damaged paint. 99.7% of the time on any other headlight job this would have never happened.

Not having business insurance is a tough break and a lesson learned. Always have insurance. Even if you are just washing car exteriors with soap, bucket and a mitt. Some people are just waiting to profit from your mistakes, mishaps, or in this case, bad luck.

[Jbirk]

I would simply tell the painter to not blend, I'd polish out the hood and the drivers door.

Let's assume this is clear coated paint (it is shiny)... The first thing you need to do is test to verify this though. It is either cleared or not.


Next, you pay the painter to paint only the fender and to blend the color into the rest of the fender. A good painter will NOT have a problem color matching pretty close!


Now if it is already clear coated (big if), you need to pay the painter to clear out the entire panel he or she painted.

Lastly, it is appropriate to wet-sand to "match" the orage-peal. Then compound and polish that panel, too. Either way, I would think you would be looking at half that labor.

[silento]

You have been set up bro

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[jeff79]

Let's assume this is clear coated paint (it is shiny)... The first thing you need to do is test to verify this though. It is either cleared or not.


Next, you pay the painter to paint only the fender and to blend the color into the rest of the fender. A good painter will NOT have a problem color matching pretty close!


Now if it is already clear coated (big if), you need to pay the painter to clear out the entire panel he or she painted.

Lastly, it is appropriate to wet-sand to "match" the orage-peal. Then compound and polish that panel, too. Either way, I would think you would be looking at half that labor.

doesnt the fact that the paint was shiny mean it was clear coated? isnt it more likely it just wasnt a solid clear coat?

[DogRescuer]

doesnt the fact that the paint was shiny mean it was clear coated? isnt it more likely it just wasnt a solid clear coat?

Nope

[jrs1418]

Im no expert, but to me that doesn't look like SS laquer. It looks like BC/CC to me. It still could be a shotty paint job though. I've seen CC's delaminating from BC starting from a panel edge where the paint wasn't done right.

I definitely think this was a shotty paint job to start, but also feel that the backing plate of your polisher was making contact and aiding in the damage we see in the pics. You can tell by the jaggedness of the paint remaining. If it were just the tape that did the damage, you'd see the remaining paint looking more smooth like it was peeled versus chipped. Just because you had tape there doesn't mean the paint was protected from the backing plate.