Maaco Consumer Reviews - Page 4

STOCKBRIDGE, GEORGIA -- What was supposed to be a 2-week job turned into 2 months +! After hail damage, I scheduled with MAACO to get the repairs done, also fix a couple other items and a full paint job getting it back to dent-free with fresh, good quality paint. I selected their $2200 base clear (one step below their best). After walking the whole truck, noting every dent and ding from the hail and a couple that were not related to the hail, we scheduled the work. Knowing they would be busy, I scheduled a date 6 weeks out to give them recovery time from the hail storm.

I dropped my truck off on the scheduled date and after 2 weeks when calling to inquire about picking it up, they hadn't even started! Keeping it short, at 4 weeks, I called early Friday morning and was told it should be done that afternoon, it was in the detail shop and that they would call to confirm. I never received a call but drove by just in case after work.

The Stockbridge location closes at 5:30. I was there at 5:20 but the lights were out and the doors locked. Calling Saturday morning, I was told my truck was still in the paint booth. Confused after being told it should be ready Friday and then being told it was still in the paint booth, I called again Monday morning. I was told that the person answering the phone had my truck confused with another vehicle and it was ready Friday, they just forgot to call.

I left work early Monday just to be sure they didn't lock the doors early on me again. Now here is where it gets worse. On inspection, they had replaced the bumper as requested but painted it primer gray instead of its original metal flake silver. The passenger door was all orange peel and the base coat was so thin on the driver door, there were dark patches everywhere. Now the hilarious part, they just painted the 40+ hail dings on the roof and pillars.

After a brief discussion, I was told they were going to repaint the truck and bumper. Oh did I mention they took my trailer light adapter off my bumper and were not going to put it back on, much less tell me about it? OK, here we go again, another 2 weeks. Friday pick up again, the inspection revealed they only repainted the driver door and bumper in the 2 weeks. I could have done that on any Saturday morning and still went to the lake in the afternoon. Passenger door still orange peeled, roof and pillar dings still existing, I refused the truck again. Another 2 weeks? You guessed it!

Once again 2 weeks go by and back for the inspection. Amazing! They fixed the roof and pillar dings but not the orange peel and leaving the rain rail on the roof sprayed only with base coat. All this time I had not looked real close at the hood they replaced and painted, I guess I was just so disgusted before I got to it. It had the same issues as the driver door, not enough base coat and the black primer was showing through.

When denying receipt again, the manager is now getting a bit belligerent with me. I was told she was not going to wet sand orange peel on an $800 paint job or re-spray the hood. And if I wanted to leave it she couldn't give me another completion date other than it would be a good while. Confusion sets in again, $800 paint job? Getting a bit miffed and to maintain my composure, I decided to leave (without the truck). Monday arrives and I go in to collect my truck only to start whatever legal proceedings I had available.

As I arrived and informing the manager I wanted my truck (no I didn't threaten my intentions), she was apologetic and that she too had confused my truck with another and would take care of the final shortcomings. Yes you guessed it again, another 2 weeks! Surprisingly, at the end of week one I get a call, the truck is supposedly complete. I picked up my truck on Friday, only to find although they had corrected the passenger door, they didn't touch the hood with the light base coat.

2 months and 5 days riding only my motorcycle, I had to have it back. I will install my bug shield to cover the bleed through, lick my wounds and post this everywhere I can. Oh, and they also ripped the leather loose on my passenger door, somehow again without saying a word. My experience - poor management, service and workmanship. Work may be sufficient for a hoopty fender you are looking to sell in the next couple of weeks, but if you plan to use your vehicle for a few years, look elsewhere for service.

MENOMONEE FALLS, WISCONSIN -- I am extremely dissatisfied with the service I received at the Menomonee Falls Center M2407. N56W13306 W. Silver Spring Road, Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin 53051. Phone:(262) 783-5447. On 9/15/12 I delivered a brand-new tailgate to have it painted. The tailgate was still boxed, in fact double boxed. The manager told me that they would have to open the box and inspect the tailgate to ensure that the tailgate matched my 2008 Ford F-150.

A worker unpacked and inspected the tailgate and said everything was good to go. He offered to take the packaging and throw it out for me at which time I told him only if he is 100% sure the tailgate was okay. He said yes and took the packaging. The manager said I would have the tailgate back in a day or two. I also received a quote to have damage repaired on a 2005 Ford Five Hundred.

On 9/17/12 I dropped off this car to have it repaired and painted. On 9/21/12 my wife and I stopped by to pick up the tailgate and car. A worker drove the truck to the rear of the building where he installed the tailgate. When he pulled up to the front of the building, I was shocked to see two large dents in the newly painted tailgate, at which time the worker said, “just don't touch it with your hand and you won't notice it”. I told him that was a new tailgate and that I could see the dents from 25 feet away.

I went back inside to show the on-duty manager. He came outside, looked at the dented tailgate, shrugged his head, and said, “We will make it right for you”. I left the tailgate with them. A day later I received a call from the manager. His first words to me were, “the tailgate was damaged before we painted it”. For 15 minutes we went back and forth. The bottom line is the tailgate was delivered new, inspected and okayed by his staff, and damaged while in their care.

Frustrated, I finally told him to call me back when he was ready to make things right. No call from him on Monday, no call from him on Tuesday. Finally I called him at which time he said they were going to repair and paint the tailgate. Well yesterday I picked up the tailgate. Hoping this was the end of this ordeal, I now found that the sides and inside of the tailgate were not painted with the final coat, and that the surface of the tailgate has specks of dirt embedded in the paint. And the dents were still visible. As for my Ford Five Hundred, they left a section inside of the door jamb painted only with primer and did not paint it with the finish coat.

The quality of the work performed on my two vehicles was sub-par to say the least. Not only was I accused of delivering a damaged tailgate, but the whole experience had convinced me not to take either the tailgate or the car back to have them fix what they should have done right the first time. I will never use Maaco again and I will be sure to discourage family and friends to patronize this location as they are completely inept.

So I was using a friends truck and I hit a shopping cart in a parking lot. Now I'm thinking 'damn, what am I going to do!' So I went to Advance Auto and got some perfect match paint (thinking I could repair it myself). The damage went from noticeable to 'damn what happened', to 'daaamn! What happened!?!' Now I confessed myself; I need professional help. So went out looking for some quotes. Now it's 2008 Toyota Tundra so I can't just give the truck back looking like a clunker.

Went to the Toyota dealer and "$1,000", the guy said to me. I'm like, "I'm not painting the whole truck dude, just the fender." He's like that is just for the fender. :o (what!?) I know I messed it up but damn man, come on. Everybody else was 900 bucks and up also. So I remembered the commercial on TV (whatever your uh-oh, better get Maaco!). Pulled up at Maaco; told the guy ** (manager), "look I tried to do this myself but it just ain't work out for me." Then he looked and shook is head, as if he had the situation before (probably calling me a dumbass in his head lol). Then he said 150.00 and I'm like, yes; that'll work!

So kept looking around and everybody was in the 900's and I'm like Maaco would do it for 150! Then they were like they're going to use the cheapest paint possible and it's going to be a horrible job. Now I'm thinking damn, he's right, 150 ain't nothing compared to 1000; something got to be wrong. But hell, I ain't have no 1000 dollars; so back to Maaco! I'm thinking anything's better than what I have it now, might as well.

Now the whole time that I had the truck in the shop, I was online looking at reviews and I'm seeing nothing but complaints on bad paint jobs from Maaco. So I said to myself Maaco is nationwide, they should be good; the good to bad ratio was like 1:10. Going back to pick up the truck, I was so nervous. I'm like, man I hope they ain't mess it up. I get in the lot and I see the truck in the lot and I walk over... ladies and gentlemen. When I went close up, the fender was brand newww! 10000000% peeerrrfect!

I had to apologize to ** 'cause I doubted them heavily. Seriously, the fender wasn't off color, the fender didn't even look painted! Looked like the truck just came from the factory! Long story short Maaco Hollywood, FL - ** told me it's wrong to put out a bad word about somebody's business and that he would ever say anything about someone else's shop.

What a humble guy (had me feeling like I was at church). Now some Maacos might have poor services but not Maaco in Hollywood, Florida! Great job guys. Matched the pinstripe and the paint perfectly. If I were to so show your picks or the truck itself, you couldn't tell me what got painted. That's what I call professional (as if nothing happened). Last time I try to paint, lol.

MARTINEZ, GEORGIA -- If nothing else is taken from this review... please just know that "you get what you pay for". My experience with Maaco was totally awful. My 2009 Toyota Camry was damaged by a tree that had been struck by lighting. I had a few scratches and one small dent on my passenger side of the car. I went to Maaco for an estimate. They told me that it would be an easy fix and would only take a day. They took me in the back of the shop to show me some of their work (which I now realize was not their work) and everything looked good.

So I brought my car down on a Monday at 8 am. They said they would call me at lunch time to come get the car. I work so I told them I would be there before they closed that day. My car was damaged in my work parking lot. I told the manager that I work for an extremely large company and that a lot of people saw what happened to my car and that he would probably get a lot of business from them if they did a good job for the price they were charging. He said that would be great and that he would make sure that the job was done right and that I will not be able to even tell that the damage had been done.

Well...first of all I did not get a call during lunch time. I get off work at 5 and go down to get my car... surprise!! It was not done all the way... but they let me see the progress which was awful to say the least. It has the "orange peel" look and had bubbles. I asked the guy if those would go away once the car was finished and he assured me that it would go away. So I'm happy at this point. The next day after work, I go to pick up the car... when I get there the paint job from the day before was still on the car.

I asked the manager to come take a look at the paint (which he said he had not seen - funny how he cared so much to make sure the job was done right being as I told him I would recommend him to my co-workers) and when he came out, he acted astonished. I asked him if he would be satisfied with this type of paint job on his car. He said "no I would not", he was very apologetic and said he was going to make his people work overtime with no pay and take money out of their paychecks for what they did! (How dramatic.) So reluctantly I left my car again.

The next day I come to get my car... the spot was fixed that I complained about but I had extra paint all over the interior of my car and on my keys that I stick into my ignition to start the car... white dust all over the interior of my car and over-spray on my key locks on the doors and on my side mirror. Because the shop was closing that day and the manager was not there, I had to take the car as is.

I called the next day to speak to the manager who conveniently was not available. The guy said the manager would call me back asap. I called back a few hours later and the manager still was not available. So finally the last time I called, the manager picks up! I advised him of the problems and also expressed to him that he would not get a recommendation from me for any work and I also advised him that he treated my car like it was a piece of junk and just did whatever they wanted to it.

Again the manager was apologetic and said that if I bring the car back again he would PERSONALLY hand detail the car for me. At this point I advised him that he will never touch my car again. Please if you are thinking about using Maaco, make sure that you don't care how your car comes out on the outside or the inside.

PLANO, TEXAS -- We just picked up our car from the Maaco location in Plano, TX and will NEVER use them again!! 100% HORRIBLE customer service and our car may have permanent damage from their negligence! Here's the short of it:

Our car took 5 days longer than expected (including the 2 days we were out a car because we had to take it back to them to fix their errors!). We were misled on the price of repairs and when we picked up the car, we had to drive it straight to the mechanic due to a foul smell only to be told they left plastic inside the car which had melted and was burning off, and they also had sprayed a bunch of parts inside the car including the A/C condenser! Also, the customer service was HORRIBLE, the owner/manager seemed to avoid us like the plague!

Here's the long of it: We dropped our 2004 Ford Escape off at Maaco in Plano, TX on the morning of Friday, March 11, 2011. The main thing that we wanted fixed was the hood, which had bad damage done to it. **, the owner, was the person who helped us. He told us that the hood would cost too much to fix and would have to be replaced and that would cost $500. He said he could paint the entire car and fix all the dents for $1,419.45.

I asked him if we could get the dashboard repaired for that price also. He said they might be able to do that, but he would have to talk to his interior guy and “would call me if it would be $100-$200 more”. I left thinking that worse case scenario, we would be paying $1,619 for all the repairs. I never received a phone call, so I assumed they were fixing the dash since I was not notified of any additional repair costs. Before we left on Friday, we asked ** how long it would take and he said our car would be ready “on Tuesday or Wednesday”.

Fast forward to Wednesday, March 16. We had not heard anything from Maaco yet. My husband woke up extremely early to get to work early so he could leave early to help me pick up the car before Maaco closed at 5:30 pm. Before we left to pick it up, he called Maaco and they told him that it wasn't ready yet. This continued EVERY DAY until it was FINALLY ready on Saturday, March 19 (which is turned out it wasn't ready even then as we had to bring it back on Sunday, March 20 to have them fix issues).

On Friday, March 18, I had enough of the run around and called and asked to speak to a manager. I was told that the only manager was the owner, **, and he was out of town. I asked the girl on the phone if the dashboard repairs were being done, wanting to make sure that ** had relayed the message to do that before he left. She said no, that would cost me another $800 if we wanted to fix that!

I was very upset and told her so because I would not have painted my entire car if I knew that the dashboard would be $800 to fix alone! I would have had only the hood and dashboard fixed. I asked that a message be given to ** that he needed to call me back right away because I was very unhappy. She said she would give him that message. I did not receive a call back from him.

On Saturday, March 19, Maaco called us at 11:17 am to tell us that the car was ready. I still had not heard from ** so I told the lady on the phone that I wanted him to call me right away, I wanted to speak with him before I came to pick up the car. She neglected to tell me that the shop closed at noon!

At 11:45 am, I still had not heard from ** so I called the shop again and spoke with the same lady on the phone. I told her that I still had not heard from ** and I wanted to speak with him right away. I asked her what time they closed and she said noon. I told her we were going to go ahead and come up there to get the car since they were about to close, but to please have ** call me ASAP!

On the way to the shop, ** called me from his cell phone. I explained to him the reasons I was upset regarding the car taking so long to be ready and for not getting called about the dashboard repairs being so much! He told me that since the dashboard repair was going to cost so much, he didn't bother calling me because he figured I wouldn't want to do it for that much. I explained to him that I would have rather had the dashboard fixed than my whole car painted because that was bothering me more than the dents on the back/sides of the car.

I told him that he should do something on the price. It was not fair to charge us full price when they had the car 3 days longer than the told us and didn't call us with the dashboard estimate. He kept saying he was in the car on spring break with his kids and he would have to “look at it” when he got back into his office on Monday. I told him that I was going to pick up the car right now and would be paying for it when I got there so he needed to call the shop right now and tell them to give us a discount.

He just kept telling me that the girl at the shop “was not authorized” to release the car until it was paid in full and I told him that she would be “authorized” if he would give her a call right now and “AUTHORIZE IT”!! He kept feeding me the same line about how there was nothing he could do until Monday to which I replied “BS” (the full word)! He then said since I was “cursing at him” he was going to have to hang up and then he did.

I picked up the car, giving them a $1,200 cashier's check and paid $219.45 with my credit card, fully intending to dispute the credit card charge if ** did not willingly give me the money back. The whole way home with the car, a foul smell was coming from the engine. My husband and I immediately drove it to a mechanic to have it looked it.

Later, the mechanic told us that they had apparently covered some of the inside of the car with plastic and hadn't taken it off so it was melting inside the car and the smell was it burning off. He also told us they apparently didn't cover the inside of the car well enough because a bunch of paint had gotten sprayed up inside the car.

He was particularly worried about the A/C condenser which was covered in paint and told us that if we didn't get that paint removed, the A/C was going to stop cooling. He told us to have Maaco put a THIN COAT of paint thinner on all the paint to remove it. He was worried that the paint thinner might also cause problems by corroding some of the parts but that the paint thinner would be better than leaving the paint on there.

After leaving the mechanic, I texted the cell phone that ** called me from, telling him what the mechanic said and asked him to call me ASAP. He never called. On Sunday, March 20, we dropped the car back off at Maaco and I left a note with the key telling them all the things they needed to fix on the car.

Tape needs to be removed from the fog lights. There are two holes on the top of the hood where there should be black plastic parts (I'm not sure what they are called). It's obvious that those holes should have something in them. The rubber around each of the doors keeps coming out (weather stripping, gaskets? Not sure what it's called either) so that needs to be installed correctly so that it doesn't keep coming off. Remove paint from all parts under the hood (as described above) with very thin coat of paint thinner. Completely remove all plastic from under the hood so we don't have further issues with foul odors & burning plastic.

At the end of the letter, I asked ** to call me ASAP to discuss and talk about the payment issue. I never heard from him. It was completely obvious that ** had NO interest in making this right with me and clearly was avoiding me like the plague. Every time I called, he was unavailable or not there. When we showed up on Monday to pick up the car again, he had already gone for the day.

I was very disappointed that he did not make an effort to show he cared about us as customers and make an effort to make us happy. The customer service of this company is absolutely, 100% horrible. We have used Maaco in Addison, TX a couple of times prior to this and never had an issue. If you want to use Maaco, I would recommend using the Addison location instead of the Plano location.

TAMPA, FLORIDA -- Is there anyone in Tampa, FL who has had experience with or information about the Maaco auto painting shop on Anderson Road in Tampa, or any other Maaco in Tampa, FL? If so, please reply to this post. Do not have a garage, my car sits outside and it really needs a good paint job. It is an older car with very low mileage, runs fine, and I can't afford a new car.

Since 1979, up to only a few years ago, I have many times gotten my cars completely repainted at various Florida dealerships and body shops. The job was excellent and the paint lasted for years. The price was always $600.00 for the full body paint. When went for estimates this year, most quoted $3,000.00 or more, which is far more than the blue book value of my car, for the same job that always cost $600.00! That is why am asking if anyone has information on Tampa Maaco's.

Comments on the other stories: Have read the reviews here, good and bad, and especially the ones who spent money at Maaco only to have their cars kept for weeks and months, returned with damage and shoddy work done, and to add insult to injury were bullied by awful "business people." Have you had these thoughts also?

What on earth happened to escalate the cost of painting a car so dramatically in such a short time? I can understand reasonable price increases over the years but a jump 5 times the price in only a few years? Is this a conspiracy by the car industry to force people to junk and replace perfectly good cars?

From the comments, it seems as if the $250.00 price Maaco advertises is just used as a "bait and switch" tactic in the bad Maaco franchises. What happened to the great country of America that so many businesspeople are turning out such shameful work? Is this the same America that so many soldiers have died for? Are these the kind of people, many seemingly rude, brutish incompetents, being turned out by the educational systems of our country?

Need we wonder why so many businesses are outsourcing jobs overseas, if this is the caliber of American workers? In fact, there are many unemployed Americans who take great pride in their work and can manage good human relations skills on top of that. How do the rude, incompetent ones hold on to their jobs? From many of the comments on this and other websites, God help the person who needs to have their car painted in this day and age. Maybe it would be best to just get your own paint and do it yourself.

Television news, magazines, why aren't you doing stories on situations like this to alert the public to the problem? This seems to be a field of opportunity for persons looking to start a good business with high standards, performance, and reasonable prices. It looks like you would have almost no real competition.

CLARKSVILLE, TENNESSEE -- I am a soldier and I took my car to Maaco last year for an estimate. Maaco seemed very nice, they showed me some of the cars they had worked on and were relatively nice. They gave me an estimate of 1400 and some change, not bad for all the work I wanted done and their best paint job (Signature). I was happy with the estimate so I decided not to really look around.

A month later, I took my car to them to drop it off seeing how I was going into some training for a pending deployment and they would have plenty of time to work on it and it wouldn't affect me because I was out of town. Before I left, I had left them my wife's number saying that if they found anything else that need fixed to just call. They never called and I went to pick up the car. Half of the things I had paid for hadn't been touched. As you can realize, I was pissed - I told him to fix the problems and I would be back to pick it up later.

I went home and a few days later got a call saying it was done. SO I went back expecting the car to be done this time. When I arrived I noticed right off the bat the car was not complete. My antenna was missing and the engine bay hadn't been done which I paid $500 extra for. I started yelling and the manager told me to calm down, he said I will fix it right now if you can wait 30 min. I said OK.

I went outside and saw my car go back in the shop and saw them spray painting the car. I was irate so I went back to the manager. He told me that painting the engine bay wasn't part of the deal, it was an add-on. I told him I paid 500 extra for it. He then told me that I had only paid the 500 for under the hood which didn't include the engine bay.

Mad and frustrated, I pointed out they had missed a big section of rust. That hadn't been fixed. He then told me that I didn't pay for that and I replied that I had asked them to call with any extra problems they found. He said it would cost about 500 extra to fix that area.

It wasn't 'til I got home and waited a few days to start noticing all the other imperfections in the paint. Like they didn't sand and prep the car which I had paid extra for as well. I call the manager and he swore they had sanded and primer but I could see the original paint job underneath 1 piece of paint that had chipped off.

I had to wait because of a pending deployment to get the car back to them so approximately 9 months later, I finally got the car back to them. I told them I was deployed and that this car needs to look like a show car, when I get back. He promised it would be the best job I'd ever see. So I let them so the work paid them the extra money.

I have now paid Maaco over $2800. When my wife picked up the car, they told her to take it to a detail shop to have it wet-sanded and polished. So I called around and found a good shop with a very high review, got it to them and they said the paint was literally peeling off the car and that they found lots of dents and scratched that were covered up.

Needless to say, I had taken my car to Maaco. Paid $2800 to have the car fixed and it came out worse than it went in. I asked for an estimate to fix the car, it would cost another $2550 to the car right. So now I am taking Maaco to small claims court and hope to get a refund. Maaco manager told me that I didn't have the right to take it to another company after they told me to go, so they said they won't pay a dime. Lets see what judge says!!
Will inform on courts decision, but buyer beware stay away from the Maaco franchise!!!!

GLEN BURNIE, MARYLAND -- So my wife got into a minor fender bender about a month ago. We took all the proper measures of going through the insurance company to get an estimate and ultimately chose to take it to a body shop of our choice. I took it to 3 different shops to get estimates on the cost. I ended up choosing Maaco (though I had my doubts) because a friend of mine recently had some work done by them and they did a reasonable job on his car. Also they quoted me a little under what the other shops did, which made the decision a little bit easier.

When I took my car in the manager said that the work that needed to be done was no big deal and I should have my car back within three days. The day after I dropped the car off I got a call from the manager, telling me that they found a "buckle" in my right quarter panel that was hard to see until they got the new paint on it. There was no damage anywhere near where this "buckle" was but they insisted that it was there. So since I was at work, of course I was like "Yeah go ahead and fix it but take pictures so I can see."

When they called me on day FOUR (not three) to come pick up the car I had to leave work early in order to get to the shop before it closed. My wife and I arrived and immediately noticed that the side of the car that was repaired was dull and Orange peeled (paint defect), also they sanded a part of the car that wasn't even supposed to be fixed AND DIDN'T REPAINT IT. Also they pin striped the opposite side of the car and didn't remove the glue from the old pin stripe, so that also looked like total crap.

When I went in to inform the manager, he didn't even acknowledge me and immediately went and got the painter to come talk to me. I explained what was wrong and he was apologetic and told me he will have it ready by the next day. Now my wife had to miss school that night and I had to call off work because we didn't have a car to get both of us to work.

When I came the next day the car was fixed the proper way and the manager I originally dealt with was very sorry for everything that had happened, but also made a few comments that really upset me. 1. "I didn't know you wanted a factory finish, you DID take it to Maaco, I would have charged you factory finish prices." (WOW this is coming from the manager.) 2. "Is it shiny enough for you?" 3. One of the managers said to me after I told him I would be back to pay with my wife in about 2 hours "You're in a marriage right? Well doesn't your wife trust you to make decisions?" (This put me over the edge).

All I have to say is that they were nice when they wanted your business, but the minute they had you they didn't care at all, they just wanted their money. The "President" was rude and unprofessional and I wouldn't recommend this place to ANYONE. Also they have all these young kids running around the shop with their shirts off as if the customers aren't in the other room looking right at them! UNPROFESSIONAL!!! Don't waste your time.

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA -- My husband went to the Maaco franchise in Martinez, GA on March 13. Got an estimate and was told "bring the truck on a Saturday and you'll have it the following Saturday". He was impressed with the estimate and we took the truck back on the following Saturday, March 20.

A few FYI facts: (1) the truck was originally dark green with gold on the bottom - he told them to paint it exactly as it was; (2) we live over an hour away from the franchise; (3) hubby gave his cell phone number because the shop hours were during his working hours and wanted them to be able to reach him if there were questions or problems.

While we were there, we decided to let them find a new hood which was part of the original estimate discussion. When hubby removed the bed liner, he found an area of rust/corrosion. **, the "manager" told him as a complimentary service, they would brush out the corrosion and just do a cursory spray on the bed since the liner would be replaced - "you don't want that corrosion to go untreated" were **'s words. ** called my husband on Monday, March 22 and told him he found a hood and it would be delivered to them by Wednesday. He then told him it would be ready the following Saturday, March 27.

Friday March 26, my husband called and was told "we've been busy and haven't done any painting except the bottom (which was to be painted gold and cost an extra $150) - the color wasn't right so the painter had to start over. It can be ready early next week - Wednesday at the latest." Hubby wasn't happy but he had some co-workers interested in seeing the job for potential future work. He mentioned this to **. ** told him he was happy for the referrals and would take "extra care to make sure the job was perfect - not that he didn't do that with every job".

The following Tuesday (the day before we were supposed to get the truck back), March 30, my husband called and was told there were some issues with the roof of the truck. Apparently they said there had been previous body work and they were trying to make it perfect. Getting frustrated by now, my husband asked how obvious these "imperfections" were from the ground. "Well, not noticeable" was the answer. He told them just to make it look as good as possible - it is the roof and not many people are going to be hovering over the roof to inspect the paint.

Again, we were told the truck would be ready on Saturday, April 3. Friday, April 2 my husband called to find out what time to be there on Saturday. He was told the truck would not be ready until the following week. By now, he is beyond frustrated. Not only has it taken a week longer than promised, hubby has had to make every phone call himself - no phone calls were made by Maaco to inform us of any issues or delays.

The following week, we planned to go to Maaco on Thursday, April 8. Wednesday, April 7 my husband got home at 6 pm and found a message from ** on the home answering machine, stating that there was a problem found after final paint on the passenger door which was very noticeable and he felt we would regret not having it taken care of. Due to the late time we got the message, we could not call back until the following day.

Thursday, April 8 - hubby called ** and told him he was unhappy about having the message left on the home phone because we went out of our way to give the cell number so he could be reached during business hours. ** told him the labor for fixing the "imperfection" on the door would be $300 but would cut it to $60. We told him to finish the truck. ** said it would be ready sometime that Friday, April 9. My husband told him we would be there at 9-9:30 am that Saturday, April 10 and to have it ready to go when we got there.

Saturday, April 10. 9:45 am. We arrived at Maaco. Side note: a co-worker of mine was there getting an estimate on a paint job - definitely have to talk to him Monday morning... ** got to us at 10 (after taking my co-worker to the back to show him finished jobs). He told us they were getting the door untaped from the touch-up work he called about. We asked to go back and take a look at it. He said "You know what, we have a ton of stuff going on back there. It's not going to be possible to go back there." Mind you, this was the same place he had just taken my unsuspecting co-worker.

At this point my husband was getting exasperated, and voiced his frustration...no he did not raise his voice, nor did he use profanity (for which I was grateful). **, the "manager" told him he was not going to have that argument with my husband and told him "you need to simmer down". At this point, my next to the last nerve was being trampled.

Twenty minutes later, the gate opened and one of the painters drove out in my husband's truck. The first thing I noticed was the silver at the bottom...not gold. I immediately walked into the store and asked ** why the bottom was silver and not gold. He hollered "painter" and went back to what he was doing. Last nerve is now being tested.

I walked out the door with Mr. Painter. The guy who drove the truck out the gate was already out there with my husband disagreeing about the silver/gold issue. As I walked up to the truck, the painter was telling us "that is gold not silver - you need to look closer". At this point the driver said and I quote "I don't know what you're looking at, but you people need to get your eyes checked because what I see is gold". At this point I figured I would need to come up with bail money to release my husband but again he restrained himself.

As I turned to walk back into the office, he hollered "I swear on the lives of all my brutha's I served within the corps that it is gold and you don't know what you're looking at". Any self-respecting Marine would have stood up and slapped him for using the honor of the Corps as an excuse to be rude, thuggish and degrading.

I went into the office and told ** to give me the bill so I could pay it and leave. At this point Mr. Driver came back into the office and proceeded behind the counter to ring us up. He started rudely mouthing off about color-blindness and I held up my hand and told him he needed to stop. He opened his mouth again and I looked him squarely in his eyes and repeated Stop - once. I asked ** to please ask Mr. Driver to leave the office. He looked at Mr. Driver and told him to calm down and turned back to his computer.

I paid the bill (every stinking penny of $1327.00) and told ** that his first customer service mistake was telling us we needed to simmer down when we were simply expressing our frustration in a very normal, dissatisfied customer, ADULT manner. I then told him that the second mistake was allowing his painter to rudely tell customers they needed to get their eyes checked when we told him the color was wrong.

I am very aware of my rights as a customer who used a credit card to make a purchase. One word - CHARGEBACK. This will put a hold on their request for our money. This will also allow ample time for us to contact their corporate headquarters and give them a very detailed account and let them know that we expect at the very least a refund of the $150 we paid for gold paint. I will post our horror story to every possible media, and alert the local "on your side" consumer reporter if necessary.

By the way - the last straw which I did not notice until I got home...possibly because I need my eyes checked....they never TOUCHED the truck bed, did a poor job taping areas that should not have been painted, and did not correctly re-install the hood and windshield wipers.