First (near miss) Nightmare

Remember that Testarosa I did? The red one,? Customer calls me after he picked it up, and said He noticed a shadow on the hood, no problem, I told him to being it back. So came over tonight and I did see a real light shadow, in the corner of the hood, like it was a little darker in one spot, and you could see the outline. I figured it was just the sealant that might of hazed it, so I did QD spray, no effect. Went to a polish, nothing, then a paint cleaner, nothing., By this time my forehead is getting wet, and I was starting to sweat. I brought out the cyclo with light cut, still nothing, (Man I thought hear comes my first insurance claim and its on a $200,000 car!!!!!! Now I'm nervous. I thought perhaps it was under the clear coat, unusual but possible. My last straw was the high speed. IT WAS STILL THERE. Then the owners tells me hmmmm, thats just where they fixed the scratch, what I said? what scratch, well, before I bought the car I todl them to repair a pretty deep scratch there. THAT'S IT!!! They color blended the hood, thats why I couldn;t phase it with any chemicals. If the owner didn't mention that fact I bet I would of been on the hook for this. That was a close one. Gary
 
J.J. said:
Forget sweating bullets, I would have been shi*in gold bricks and diamond goose eggs



...and I would have been walking behind you, picking them up! :lol



Well, at least you know what body shop doesn't match paint very well. :up
 
Scottwax said:
...and I would have been walking behind you, picking them up! :lol



Well, at least you know what body shop doesn't match paint very well. :up



:lol :lol
 
I'm glad to hear things worked out ok for ya . That's a customer you need to hang on to for life. As we all know theirs a ton of sue happy customers out there .
 
I had a customer get mad because she thought one of my detailers damaged her bumper but after I personally went out there to inspect the bumper she says, that is where I was hit by another two years earlier. Turns out that some polish got stuck into the cracks of previous damage so I just used some APC to get the polish out and rewaxed. Scared me but turned out alright.
 
Actually, he was starting to blame me for it, asking things like, did you have it in the sun too long? or perhaps you left your wax on too long? Both are ridiculous statments but he was reaching for someone to take the blame. He said he looked the car over well, and didn't see it when he bought it. Truth is if I had any of you guys here with me to see the car, you would never notice it if I didn't point it out. I really think at first he thought I did it, then when I spent an hour and couldn't phase the spot, he finally brought up the scratch that was taken out. Thats when it started coming together for me. He was not happy when he left, probably because 1. he was upset because he overlooked it 2. He wanted it repaired like NOW, and it was beyond what I could do. and 3rd, he still didn't have anyone by the jaws to accept resopnsability for it. I really believe if he didn't bring up the scratch he would of asked for my insurance company. Gary
 
X-Trail said:
Lucky you turbomangt.

Lesson learnt: Ask customer if any paint job ever been done before detailing :)



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99 times out of 100, I can find where any car has been refinished but I still ask if any paint work has been done and by who.



Why? Because certain body shops, like Moritz BMW and Cadillac do such poor work I don't want to get blamed...stuff like visible sanding marks underneath the paint, overspray on the wheels, etc. Another reason is maybe the work was done recently and I don't want to seal 2 week old paint. Finally, if the work is done particularly well or poorly, I like to know shops to recommend and who to tell people to avoid.
 
What mistake could you have made to cause a shadow? The only thing I can think of, is if you burned through the clear coat. Another, is if you did not polish that area as thoroughly as the rest of the hood. What would be the basis of his claim to the insurance? Anyways, I am glad he was finally honest. I can not stand wealthy individuals who are always trying to rip other off.
 
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