Consumerist: Car

Update: Sherwin-Williams Customer Service Is Color Blind, Now My Car Looks Crazy

Ben Popken — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 12:03:48 EST

Superstar intern Dyan got hold of the manager of Dale's Paints and asked when they planned on getting Fred's car repainted.

Len said the request was on his desk. The paint job was in the back of his mind but getting a phone call from The Consumerist was an "encouraging" reminder.

Len asked us to call back in about a week and he should have more for us.

The internet watches, and waits. — BEN POPKEN

Previously: Sherwin-Williams Customer Service Is Color Blind, Now My Car Looks Crazy

Sherwin-Williams Customer Service Is Color Blind, Now My Car Looks Crazy

Ben Popken — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 23:06:36 EST

A Sherwin-Willams' store incompetence totally messed up Fred's car. Look at that ~~hood~~ front quarter and nose fascia..

Fred brought his car's paint code in to Dale's in Colorado Springs, a Sherwin-Williams paint store. Dale's gave him a can and Fred painted his car. When Fred removed the masking, he discovered Dale's put the wrong paint in the can. Now it looks like he got his front quarter from a junkyard.

Fred contacted Sherwin customer service. They bitchslapped Dale's. The owner of Dale's agreed to pay for Fred's car to be repainted. But they just never seem to have gotten around it to. This was October, and now it's too cold in Colorado for Fred to repaint his car. The store has stopped returning his calls and Sherwin-Williams is also unresponsive.

Fred just wants the Sherwin-Williams store to honor the agreement for the mistake it already lived up to. We're gonna try siccing intern Dyan on this case. You can read Fred's letter and correspondence inside...

Fred writes:

"Hi Consumerist,

I have a sad story.

My goal was to paint two panels on my car. It seemed like it would be easy to match the color. I went to Dale's Paint in Colorado Springs. The guy at Dale's told me where to get the paint code off the car. The code on the can was identical to the number on an old can I had of the exact same type of Sherwin-Williams paint, which matched the car perfectly. But the color of the paint in the can that Dale's paint sold me was not what the paint code said it would be. I did not find out about their mistake until removing the masking after I painted the car, (see attached picture.)

I went back to Dale's and showed them the paint left in the can. They agreed the color was wrong, but all they would do was give me a can of the right color, which I wouldn't be able to use for six months because it was now too cold to paint outside. (It snowed three days after the car was painted)

Next I e-mailed the customer service address on the Sherwin-Williams web site. They responded (see below) and then the owner of Dales paint called almost immediately. He said they would arrange to have my car repainted the right color, but it would take a week or two to set up. He kept pushing the time out, and finally he quit returning my calls. Later I replied to all the addresses on the e-mail from Sherwin-Williams and told them Dales had done nothing, but they never responded.

Hope you can use this on your web site. Potential customers should know about paint salesmen that are color-blind.

Fred"

Fred's emails with Sherwin and Dale's are below.

"—-— Forwarded by Tracy C. Holbury/CLE/Sherwin-Williams on 10/19/2006 09:14 AM —-— 10/18/2006 06:05 PM To: Subject: Sherwin-Williams Auto Paint Color Match

Thought you would be interested in this. On October 2, I went to Dale"s Paint & Supply in Colorado Springs with my 1986 Cougar. We got the paint code number, 9L, off the door and I bought everything I needed to finish painting the repair job. They recommended a Sherwin-Williams basecoat/clear coat product for best color match. The basecoat was SHE-U7-PT Ultrabase, labeled with part number 33631. It looked good going on, covered well and I didn't get any runs, even thought the air temperature was lower than optimum. Every thing was great until I took the masking off and found out the color didn't match.

I have an old can of the same type of paint, same number and funny thing it matches the original color.

I went back to Dales, (an hour drive from my house) and they agreed the color was wrong. They offered me a new can of paint. That is not a solution to my immediate problem. We now have snow on the ground. It won't be warm enough to paint for possibly six months. Besides even if I could do it, I'm not thrilled about sanding the clear coat off, masking the whole thing just so I can cover up their mistake. And what guarantee is there that the color will be right this time.

My wife and I would appreciate any help you can give us. Our car looks ridiculous.

Fred M.
Rush, Colorado

—-— Forwarded by Chris C. Stevens/CST/Sherwin-Williams on 10/19/2006 11:59 AM —-—
Tracy C. Holbury
10/19/2006 08:10 AM
To: swrep9648@sherwin.com, sw9725@sherwin.com, Chris C. Stevens/CST/Sherwin-Williams@SWCBD
cc: Brian A. Oakley/PST/Sherwin-Williams@SWCBD
Subject: Sherwin-Williams Auto Paint Color Match

I received this e-mail here in Customer Service in Warrensville. According to the records I see in the System Admin.screen that I have access to, it looks like Dale's Paint and Supply is a jobber out of the Littleton, CO branch and the rep.who has Dale's as his customer (Thomas Call) would need to contact Dale's and see if he can help address this situation with the customer (Fred Matthews) who purchased our paint from Dale's. I will respond to the customer letting him know I have forwarded his e-mail to the sales rep and branch who service Dale's and that someone will respond to him further. Please let me know who will contact the customer so I can keep it in our records here that we are required to keep on file for customer complaints that we receive through our department.

Thank you.

Regards,
Tracy Holbury
Customer Service Manager
(216)344-5633

—-—Original Message—-—
From: Chris.C.Stevens@sherwin.com [mailto:Chris.C.Stevens@sherwin.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2006 12:14 PM
To: Fred Matthews
Cc: brian.a.oakley@sherwin.com; Tracy.C.Holbury@sherwin.com
Subject: Sherwin-Williams Auto Paint Color Match

Fred

I'm sorry to hear about the color match problem on your cougar. I am the Area Sales Manager for colorado. I have notified the sales rep who calls on Dale's Paint and will be in contact with the owners of Dale's to try to find an acceptable solution for you.

Thank you.

Chris Stevens
303-619-0699"

Dale's Paint Supply Co
515 N Circle Dr
Colorado Springs, CO 80909
(719) 636-2635

— BEN POPKEN

Ghetto Paint Your Car

consumerist.com — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 07:47:35 EDT

Unbelievably, this Camaro was painted not by Maaco, but by $50 worth of house paint, a coat of Rustoleum and a cheap roller. We hesitate actually recommending taking a bucket of red house paint to your new Porsche, but then again, if you can afford a Porsche, you probably wouldn't be tempted to.

50 Dollar Paint [Rick Wrench]

Buying a Car and Getting Away With It

popkin — Wed, 03 May 2006 14:19:24 EDT

Inspired by our post "HOW TO: Buy A Car Without Putting A Shotgun In Your Mouth," M. writes in a story about navigating the tricky world of car financing.

Her story serves as a good reminder to read the finance contract with care and if you believe you're being screwed, be vocal and persistent in pursuing your grievance.

If a business doesn't believe the customer is always right, guess what? The customer will spend somewhere they're not wrong.

M.'s dealership knew this and that's why in the end, she wins. Read more, after the jump...

M. writes:

When we arrived at the dealership, the financier, along with the business manager presented us with a new "correct" contract. We were extremely hesitant to sign this new contract, under the common understanding that once a contract is signed, it's legally binding. When we asked the business manager what would happen if we did not sign the new contract, he told us that the entire deal would be undone and we would have to give back our new car. He told us that the bank would not accept the first contract and that it would be declared null and void. For our troubles, they threw in a free oil change and car detailing. OUCH. Talk about rubbing salt in our wounds!

We spent the entire weekend fuming and called the general manger of the dealership first thing Monday morning. He apologized and invited us back to the dealership to present us with a new deal... a GREAT deal. First, we got the original 2.9% financing back. The dealership basically had to redo the finance deal with another bank and buy down the rate. We also got $1,000 in rebates AND a four year service plan. When we added up the costs on their recommended pricing and maintenance schedule, it added up to more than $1,200.

EDUCATE yourself about the car buying process and read the finance contract carefully!! If you believe the dealership has made a mistake, be persistent in contacting the people in charge — going higher up the management ladder if necessary. The dealership made the right move in correcting the mistake and going above and beyond for something that they bunged up in the first place."

The Greatest Car Salesman You've Never Heard Of

popkin — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 02:58:59 EST

Not sure what in the heyhoo is going on here but this appears to be 1970s gag reel ad attacking car dealer Ralph Williams for "raping San Francisco out of every dollar." Funny! NSFW, for adult language and situation insinuations.

The uploader writes, 'Let us all raise a glass of vinegar to this flamethrower, wherever-or whoever- he is. Godspeed. Hell, I'd even buy the panting German Shepherd from this awesome scrotum-crusher."

Best Buy Screws Up Sirius Installs

consumerist.com — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 15:22:54 EST

A comedy of errors of a Sirius Best Buy install, probably installed by the above aryan guidos:

I asked the installers where they were going to install the satellite antenna because I had done my homework and found that the antenna needs a good line of sight to the satellites and should be put either on the roof or on the trunk deck for convertibles, which my Saab is. They told me they always install them on the dash by the windshield and that it works perfectly from that location. I questioned that and explained that Sirius recommends putting it outside the car for proper reception but they adamantly informed me that they had installed thousands of antennas over the past two years and the dash was fine for "perfect" reception. They also told me that the antenna cable provided in the Sirius kit I purchased would not reach all the way to the trunk so they really had no choice but to put it on the dash. I left to get something to eat and leave them to their work with any uneasy feeling about the antenna location but there was nothing further I could do at that point as they were going to install it on the dash or not at all.

It gets worse and worse and worse, until a "free" installation of his satellite radio system ends up costing him over two hundred bones. One fascinating thing about the complaint is how James Kendrick, clearly more on the ball than the Best Buy technicians who installed his system, goes through so many pains even in retrospect to meet Best Buy in the middle and be as happy with his service as he clearly wanted to be going in. When you are this fair and balanced and still end up pissed, you just know you got screwed.

The Case of the Slightly Different Silver BMW Wheel

consumerist.com — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 12:32:17 EST

As far as the finished product is concerned, The Consumerist is a big fan of BMWs. Sure, there are the occasional hare-brained mistakes like iDrive, but even those missteps seem to be born of an attempt to improve the driving experience. Plus their cars go really fast around corners, our favorite variety of road.

But we will never own one. Maintenance costs are maddeningly expensive. Many newer models essentially tie you into service at the dealership, due to cryptic, hard-to-troubleshoot electronics. And even if one is willing to interact with the dealership, they can often take three months just to replace a wheel.

As hurt as we are that we will never drive a jewel like this M Coupe, we do find some consolation that the level of service from a BMW dealership can be just as bad as that of a lesser brand.