Maaco Consumer Reviews - Page 9

TRENTON, NEW JERSEY -- I went to Maaco to get an estimate initially for a fender replacement job. It was either I find a fender or have them fixed the current fender and then have that area painted. I was quoted at a price of $315.33 to have them fix the current fender and paint if I couldn't find another fender. I finally found a fender in very good shape and brought it in. They mention that I could have my entire car painted with the dents and scratches taken out also and he gave me another quote of $620.84. I had it painted the same original color.

At the time of picking up the car, I didn't notice anything visible. When I went home, I took a closer look and noticed that there were some dents and paint dripping. I called them immediately and they wrote up an invoice to fix it and bring it back at a certain time and wait for it to be done. I then went back at the specific time and the owner of the place said that he can buff the area in question but it would not look like the way I want it to. The dents might still show.

How does he know what I expect it to look like? Also I would have to come back and leave the car. I am not asking for much. If I knew ahead of time that the dents cannot be taken out completely why would I proceed with the paint job? All I want is the dents and paint dripping to be taken out and look like the rest of the car. I feel that is what they are in the business of doing to take dents out and prevent paint dripping.

If they can't success in doing that why do they try to sell me to have the whole car painted and they call themselves the dent specialist? The original paint on the car was in very good condition. It was the dents and scratched that I wanted out and now I'm told I would have to make time to bring the car in again.

LAKE PARK, FLORIDA -- There is saying that nobody learns from others' mistake and I discovered that is true. My Maaco nightmare; after shopping around for quotes and reading some bad reviews about Maaco I still decided to give them a try (bad mistake). My decision was not based on price but on convenience so I took my 83 MB 300TD to the shop in Lake Park Florida. After asking the owner, Phillip, what was his best job and explaining to him my expectations, we came to an agreement, so I left the car. As part of the contract they were going to strip the hood, the top and the rear hatch because the paint was cracked and had some surface rust (only on the top and right rear door).

The first time I say my car they were removing the paint without removing any of the moldings that I did not remove. I told them to remove the grill, it was in the contract, but they did not remove it. They scratched the grille and damaged 80% of the chrome parts that were left on. The second time I went to see my car it was sitting outside rusting because they removed the paint and did not treat the metal or even primed it. The owner told me that what I saw was not rust, yeah right (I have pictures). I told him that if he did not treat the rusted area correctly that the paint would bubble.

After 5 1/2 months with the car and have been painted 5 times due to many mistakes made by them, sticky paint, cracked paint, bubbling paint and a paint job the showed black ink marks under the clear, they want me to take my car because they say it is good. I did not know that a good paint job is one that has rust hidden underneath and it is starting to show. I proved them that the bubbling is rust under the paint by sanding the area myself and then they said that since the car is over 20 years old you can expect that rust. They managed to damage some of my interior parts too.

Bottom line, if you need to paint a car and you are considering Maaco, you are better off doing it with a paint brush behind your house because you know what you can expect. I have never heard so many lies in my life. One more thing, the corporate office is worst the franchise. That is my Macco nightmare.

BOSTON MASS DORCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS -- My vehicle was painted last Wed, 4-18-2012. 1030 Morrissey Blvd, Dorchester, Mass, 02122 617 282-3400. Repair Order **. Today...Wednesday, 4/25-2012 I arrived at around 8 am to pick up my Honda Accord.
I was pleased with the work completed, however as I drove home, I saw a light on the dashboard that was not there before. The light was "DAL".

I called to speak to ** who was in charge of my work done to the car. He was tied up and the secretary stated he would call me back. Curious on to what this light was, I decided to google it... It was a representation of damaged Daylight Savings Light or missing. I popped my hood and discovered my 9005 (bulb size) yellow light bulbs were missing!

By this point I am enraged; the vehicle was at Maaco for 7 days total. I called back to talk to ** and I got him on the phone this time. He listened to me and assured me I would get a follow up "soon". It was 3 pm by now and I called Macco again, ** then informed me that it was impossible for his people to take it, explaining that the car was at times on CCTV coverage but AT OTHER TIMES NOT... Hello contradiction!!!! ** then said the general manager for the shop ** would call me back.

The shop General Manager called me around 5 pm and I explained to him my story about his shop has a rat and there is a thief in there. He stated that he had changed his entire staff and he can guarantee no one took my light bulbs. How can a person in upper management neglect an investigation of this magnitude? The bulbs are inexpensive...it's the principle!!! ** was firm saying THERE IS NOTHING HE CAN DO TO assist me in which I spent 400 $ of my hard-earned money to have items taken from my vehicle. THIS IS COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE!!!

To Maaco franchise owner and Shop General Manager: **, all I asked for was a simple reimbursement of the stolen light bulbs from your shop. There is no question, I am 100% confident there is theft going on. My bulbs could have easily been replaced for 30$ or less. Now you will lose Customers. Me losing 30 dollars is nothing...your shop losing thousands in let's say 4-5 customers would bring satisfaction to me. At the end of the day, I was taken my bulbs (30$), you would lose thousands in future customers. Bad management skills you have. Thank you.

Well I might as well stood on the roof of my house and threw my 800 dollars to the wind and I would have got a better deal. I brought in my truck to Maaco at their Puyallup, WA store for some body work and paint because I had them do work on another car before and they did an OK job, so I thought I'd try them again. We went over what was to be done. Fix dents in one door and rear box quarter panel and paint the panels. They had the truck a week which is how long they said they would have it. I did not check the truck real close on pickup due to time.

Once I got it home, I got a better look at it and noticed on the door lots of dirt and fish eye in the paint. And there are lots of gouges in the panel under the paint that you could see like the surface was not prepped correctly. It also looked like it was painted in a chicken coop and not a paint booth. There is paint on the mirror and the rubber window trim from not masking it correctly. Some of the dents in the quarter panel are still there and they did not remove the canopy in order to paint all of the quarter panel as was agreed.

They also left a bunch of used masking tape and paper in the bed of the truck. And the radio station and settings had been changed like some ** was sitting in my truck screwing with it instead of working. I called the manager first and explained the problem and he said the owner would call back which he did. I explained the problems to him and he said he'd fix them. I told him I do not want any of his people near my truck and that I would accept 400 dollars back and I'd drop the matter. He said he'd have to see the truck. I guess he thinks people go out and lie to him like they lie to us.

Well, I told him the truck was at another shop and he will have to go there and look at it. He said alright, he would go look at and get back to me. We will see if he does. He'd better otherwise, I will take this matter further. I will contact the AG of the state and hire a lawyer. He could have cut his losses but I guess he wants to be a dick. Do not ever take your car to these clowns. I hope this review saves other people from becoming the next victim of Maaco.

GLEN BURNIE, MARYLAND -- I went to Maaco after a minor fender bender for repairs about 7 months ago. My bumper was damaged beyond repair so I had Maaco take the old one off. Maaco then painted and put the new one on. This process took three days. Maaco assured me they could handle this custom repair. When I got my car back, I saw only one problem. The bumper wasn't flush on the sides of the car. It wasn't too noticeable so I let it go. When I got it home, I noticed there were some spots on the car, where they had used touch up paint, where some of the paint had chipped off. I remember the manager saying it took 4 guys to stretch the bumper out and put it on the car after it was painted.

Then they painted over it again while it was on the car because the stretching damaged the paint job. They also broke the seal on my left light so now I have a moisture build up. I was thinking "man, this is pretty bad." I didn't think to look when I checked the car when I left. Not even 2 months later, the paint started chipping in a bad way. First it looked like an air bubble under the paint. Then paint started falling off everywhere. I had had enough. I took it back to Maaco and asked Mike to repaint my bumper. He said he wouldn't do it. He said they won't even accept custom bumpers because of how hard it was to put on.

I could see after the paint was coming off they didn't even sand the bumper first. It would have probably made a real difference. Maybe if they had actually put it on the car then painted, it would have been better than painting it then stretching it on the car. I have been putting touch up paint on it but it just falls off over time. Anyway, ended up spending $800 dollars for a repair and paint and now I have to end up doing it again. I felt Maaco this repair in such a lazy way. They just did what was easy for them. I don't see myself ever going back there. It was such a waste of time and money.

PASADENA, TEXAS -- Let me start by saying the customer service is excellent but the work done is horrible! They will be very nice, and tell you it will get done, and apologize here and there for missing something but in the end it's crappy service, and you have to be on them to get the job done right. I trusted my car with this Maaco, until I was called to come get my car because accord to them it was ready, I was shown two dents that were not there before, and I was given two different stories from the manager John, and his employee, so instead of calling me to come get it, they should have taken care of this.

I told them they will be the ones to fix it and take care of the charges, well when I was called the 2nd time to come get it, there were things that just was not done, and I told john time and time again what needed to be done, and things were just missing, so I had to leave it again, well to make a long story short my back lights would not turn off, the "NEW" window motor didn't work like new, it was very slow to rise, and the paint was so horrible, it was very wavy. I had to leave it 4 times out of my entire ordeal.

I left crying the last day, like I said they apologized but it like it was not getting done. I finally took my husband, and he told them what to fix, and could you imagine they didn't give my husband any excuses. I picked up the car the following weekend, and can you believe when they called me to come get it because it was ready, this time it really was.

They re-did the paint, and it was no longer wavy, and the dents that happened on their property were gone. I would rate customer service high, but actually getting the job done right, and when you tell the customer it will be done, a zero. I would not recommend this particular spencer location to females. Ladies, please take your husband or man, because they will give you the run around. It is very sad that it took a man to make them do what they were supposed to take care of in the first place, but I have learned my lesson.

OCALA, FLORIDA -- I'll be honest, I would have never considered taking my wife's prize Miata to Maaco for a paint job. I've read to many things about the company in general and many horror stories. However, my mechanic suggested them. He had a couple of his personal cars painted there and was happy. I really liked the people at the Ocala, FL Maaco shop when I stopped by. Todd showed me a couple jobs they had just finished and they looked pretty good. I dropped the car off and went on vacation. We returned to find my wife's car looking like new. We just ordered the basic prep and tape. They didn't remove any headlights or door handles or anything and the tape job was really nice.

I got the paint level one level down for two stage, and it looks super. Is it absolutely perfect? Of course not, that's not possible but you really have to look for the few tiny tape mistakes. Here's the reality, if you want an absolutely perfect paint job you have pay big money to have the car disassembled meaning lights removed, trim removed, door handles, locks, etc. It's time consuming and expensive. We paid under a $1000 and got a job worth twice as much. They really went out of their way to not only paint the car but repaint all the flat black painted areas, windshield wiper arms, etc. I didn't expect that.

I think Maaco's are independently owned franchises so the quality of work obviously varies from place to place and state to state. The best thing you can do is go by your Maaco, talk to them and by all means look at something they are currently working on. Check out the tape job, look at the paint in good light, see if it's a job you'd be proud to drive around in. I was pleasantly surprised here in Ocala, FL.

PEARL CITY, HAWAII -- 1. Although I was charged for 18 hours of labor for bodywork, the salesman (Allen) said that they did more than was required on the bodywork. When I said that one guy worked on it for a day (less than 8 hours), he said, "We pay them for what they do, not how long they work".
€
2. When I pointed out the slight waves in the reflection of the car, he said, "This is normal" and all of their paint jobs' look have waves. He said that they even did a better job on my car because they used 600 sandpaper instead of the usual 300.

3. Another quote "€œWe are a production shop and not a detail shop so we don'€™t do the same work as them".€ He actually stated, œ"A good paint job would cost more than $5,000, so you get what you pay for". When I pointed out something that was sticking out of the paint on the hood he said, "It is lint. Lint gets in the paint, this is normal".€ In other words, DIRT in the paint is normal!

4. When I pointed out the overspray that looked like crap on the step that runs the length of the door that is under the door when closed he said, "€œI told you that there would be overspray on the door jambs€ and €œit would have cost an additional $250 for those to be done".€ I should have asked him what specific parts of the door jamb he was talking about because I would have gladly paid the difference for what it looks like now.

5. When I pointed out the few small chips that were still in the car, he stated that he had told me that they would not be able to get all the chips out and may miss some. To be truthful, yes, I remember him saying that. I had to sign a waiver saying they would not be responsible for the paint cracking and the warranty would not apply to that because the prior paint job (the one they were painting over) might crack and they could not be responsible for that.

6. Finally, he stated that the car looks so much better than when I brought it in. Yes, it does look better. I just wish it looked $2,000 better which is what I spent ($1,000 for scratches, $1,000 for €œSUPREME (next to the top category) paint job).

T-VILLE, NEW JERSEY -- My car needed a new hood, driver side door, and bumper replaced. Used car pieces were ordered to save money and a paint job would be applied. I hit a huge concrete piece of debris on the highway so the headlight was smashed as well as some hidden damage under left/front of the car such as rewiring for the lights etc. The car was dropped off on a Monday morning before they even opened. We were told it was going to take about a week, MAYBE one or two extra days because once they found hidden damage they were going to need to order more parts. Understandable.

The following Thursday they let us know it probably was not going to be done Friday. I returned my rental car because it was costing an arm and a leg and I was not going to need it on the weekend. To get a ride to and from work for Monday, no biggie. They said it should be done Tuesday. Tuesday lunch time I called, they were waiting for one last piece to put on and then it would be complete and ready to go! They got the shipment in around 1:30. 3:30 I get a call that the piece wasn't in the shipment so it wouldn't be done Tuesday.

Wednesday rolls around, piece still didn't come in. Guy told me he talked to where he ordered the piece and they assured it'd be thereby Thursday. Thursday comes, they get the piece early afternoon, and by closing it's still not done. We said we need the car back Friday and this is getting a little ridiculous. Friday morning we call to see what time we can pick up the car and he says "Oh. Well I thought you wanted it back by next Friday."

ARE YOU SERIOUS? Ridiculous. Then come to find out someone else gets on the phone to say they had the wrong this and the wrong that, so if they screwed up and didn't say anything all these days stop telling me 4 days in a row I'll be able to pick it up the next day. Hidden charges ended up being almost $1,000 more than originally estimated from around $2400 ended up being a little over $3200.

CINCINNATI, OHIO -- My car was hit on the left quarter pound. I had Maaco fix it because they gave me a good estimate. Initially the owner, Hank, told me that the work would take 4-5 days. On the 5th day I called to see how things were going. I left a message. No return call. I called again the next day and left a message with a young lady. No return call. I called again the following day and by some miracle I got Hank. He thought I was someone else and he got a bit testy with me. When he figured out who I was, he calmed down and said my car would be ready that day, which was Thursday and they would call me. I received no phone call that day.

Friday afternoon I called again and got the young lady again. She said it was ready for pick-up. I went to get my car on Saturday. Come to find out they had to order a key to my car because the guy who was working on my car left for an "emergency" and had my key in his pocket! He was out-of-town, they said. Maaco made a key based on my vehicle identification number. They key sticks and does not work well.

The owner, Hank, was working with another customer and he turned around and said to me "the key works Mam, there is no problem. I could have just let your car sit until he came back, but I spend $100 on a key so that we could fix your car." Oh yes, there is a problem. Someone who I don't know has my key in his pocket.

When I asked Hank when would this employee be back he said "Mam, I don't know. Sometimes my employees need a vacation or have any emergency and I have no control over it." Hank did not know when the guy was coming nor when I would get my key. I was so angry and needless to say I made a scene in the customer intake area. I could not believe that they did not ask me if I had a spare (which I do) and that Hank was so unconcerned and sarcastic. He never explained to me what happened, why it happened and he was not concerned about my key being in someone's pocket. That person could steal my car if they wanted to.

This was very unsettling to me and the service I got from Hank was horrible. He acted as if he was just tolerating me and wanted me to leave as soon as possible. I am going to report him and his actions to corporate headquarters. And, I will be contacting Maaco tomorrow to ask about my key. If my car gets stolen, I will sue the pants off of them! I have a lawyer, I have Pre-paid Legal, Inc.