Paint Scratched After 3M Install

I'm so fed up with all the mess. I had my windows tinted at the dealer. Lots of junk in the tint...there's daylight coming through in one of the back windows...and there's even a scratch in the tint too. It's bad...I made an appointment to take it in for a retint. I decided to say screw it...whoever is tinting these cars is not doing a very good job. (I looked at the car lot..they're all bad) I canceled. I decided to find someone that can do it right. I'm not going to go back and forth trying to get my tint done right. I paid A LOT for that job too...now that's money down the drain. To make matters worse, I took my car in to have paint protection film installed by a 3M certified dealer. The paint job on my brand new Mini has officially been sliced and diced. I've barely had it two weeks...I'm already thinking about getting rid of it. This makes me sick. I took it in to get the paint protected, and I would have been better off just going without. It doesn't cover everything that I had hoped either. The ones you can order online cover more. I wish I had ordered it and done the install myself. It has a few deep gashes on the air intake. There were a couple of small ones just below the emblem on the hood, so I lifted a little of the film to see if it was scratched around the film too. It is; it's as if whoever did it cut the pattern out with it on the car. I won't be able to tell how bad the damage is until all the film is removed. I'm hoping that he'll take it off, so we can look at the full damage. I would like my money back...not sure if that will happen either. What a waste of my hard-earned money?! Between my tint job and this, I'm just about ready to give up on the human race. The sad thing is he seems to be a nice guy. He wants to buff it out...I'm really not sure if that will work. A couple of them are super deep. ...and I've heard that buffing is bad of the paint too. It seems to me that it really needs a touchup. I tried to take pics, but they didn't turn out. It was too dark; I'll try again tomorrow. This makes me sick.

sorry to hear of your misfortune. Done properly, tint and ppf can be a great addition to an automobile. Where you at?

That sucks!...1peec is right, just because one screwed up doesn't mean it's always like that. Ask for your money back and have them pay for the paint repair..someone cut on the car and they should fix it. Call around, find a tinter who deals with tint & ppf..since the dealer is incompetent you'll get what you want from a professional.

Please give the installer a chance to make this right. I've done a few of clear bra installs. Although they can be tricky, I have never scracthed a car. Seems to me, he is just startingout, and for some reason, cut on the car (which is a no no) rather than making a template first. Where do you live so we may find a more suitable installer for you.

Here are some pics.

http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forum...mp;d=1156604485

http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forum...mp;d=1156604485

http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forum...mp;d=1156606402

http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forum...mp;d=1156607626

Apparently, it's really hard to take pics of scratches. Sorry for the quality. The first three are of the hood scoop. There's a major scratch on both sides, and there are two at the bottom where they went too far with the blade.(the last two are hard to see in the pic - they're more pronounced toward the bottom of the scoop) The last pic is where I lifted the film. There's a scratch in the shape of the film. (the guy who did it slipped with the razor or something...the scratch goes out past the film or I would never have caught this one. I'd rather not give my location...he's the only installer in my area...and I don't want to destroy his business. I'm not sure if I mentioned it earlier, but I saw his tint work. I'm not a tinter, but I don't think it's possible to do a better tint job. Before this happened, I was actually planning on having him retint my windows. I'm doubting he would want to do that now though. I'm planning to see if he'll give me my money back on the ppf install. ...even if it's just a refund on labor. (I'll pay for the film that he used...not sure what that would cost) I just want to move on. Would I be out of line to ask for a refund? I would rather do it myself. I'm not really comfortable letting anyone else mess with the car right now. I tired of all this...I'm ready to start enjoying this car...but as of yet, that hasn't happened.

PS Do you guys think the two scratches on the sides of the scoop will buff out safely?

Wow.. sorry to see this happen to you. Especially after the tint problems. I hope it all works out and that you dont let these jobs give you a bad impression of tinters and PPF installations.

Talk to him. See what he'll do.

It's not out of line to ask for a refund to make you happy if you aren't happy with what he did. Everyone handles it differently, so be open to what he does.

As far as installing the PPF yourself.......good luck.

Really sorry to see what happened but like everyone else said if done right great products to add to your ride. I think you are being reasonable to ask for a refund. Good luck and hope you find a real pro in your area

I was wondering how long it would take

here's my MINI.

well....don't take it back complaining about the PPF peeling since you're lifting the edges to look for scratches. you doing that alone would mean i wouldn't warranty it for ya.

i guess i probably shouldn't say that since every situation is different. but it's pretty bad when you're lifting the product to inspect it.

I wasn't randomly peeling it in places or anything like that. There was a scratch that was leading under the film. I was curious to see if it went under the film. It does, but I stopped there. (I peeled it back about 3mm)I didn't keep peeling to see how far it went. I'm going to have the entire thing removed anyway...either by the guy that installed it or a body man. I'm not going to wait for 5 years or whatever the life of the product is to find out what kind of damage has been done to the finish of a brand new car that I just bought a little over 2 weeks ago. I'm pretty sure I don't want him doing anything else to it until I take it to a body shop for an estimate. So...either he removes the ppf...then I take it to a body shop...or the body shop removes it them selves to see the damage. I can't leave the ppf on the car. Never in a million years would I have thought this would happen. Razor blade + brand new paint job on a car that I special ordered and waited two monthes to receive = a very sad me :-(

we don't discuss pricing here but i'd love to know what you payed for the PPF.

I tried to pm the price to you, but there's some kind of error. It won't let me pm.

you don't have PM privileges yet. you need 25 posts or more. it's no big deal. it won't change your experience. it's too bad it happened. those experiences make us all look bad. i'm sure you won't have anything positive EVER to say about tint or PPF, which sucks for those of us who do great work. i guarantee you that you wouldn't have had this problem with me. but you would have paid for it too.

is it me or is that in two pieces? I see no need to 2 peec that.
http://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forum...mp;d=1156606402

WOW bad new car buy I would get the dealer to compensate me for the tint job ......somehow. FREE service of some kind exspecialy if I was financing the cost of the tint job, that I was unhappy with. If the dealer didnt want to help me...... I would threatin to contact the dealer board of my home state.

That will scare the out of em. At my dealer it would. The mini dealer in Denver treats everyone like thier buyin a LAMBO.......ralph schomp honda . bmw . mini so iv heard.


As far as the bra , if its that new it should come off no problem leave it in the sun, let it get nice and hot and it will peel right off. just gotta be careful of the mini emblem on the hood, they can be a pain to remove.

I would get my money back and get it done RIGHT.

Its a NEW car...


good luck.

from those pictures...my guess is that the emblem was cut around anyway and not removed

that's odd, coming from a man that 2 peecs eveything!

I will say that neither the tint nor the ppf were cheap. I'm not a price shopper. I figure if you want quality, you're going to pay for it. Unfortunately for me...there was only one certified installer in my area, and I had to drive an hour and a half for that. If I had been in your area, it's quite possible that I might have used you for the job...in fact, I wish I could have. I wish this would have never happened. There was another installer, but he was 3 hours away, so I chose the shorter distance. I thought certified meant that you were good enough to be "certified." ...so I didn't think it mattered. When I dropped the car off, I thought the worst that could happen would be having something like a bug stuck between the car and the ppf. This never even crossed my mind.

I will admit that certification means you paid the money to take the class which is two to three days long so there is no real standard out there right now and they are in the process of changing that but who knows if it will ever happen. For all you know they could have been certified for a day or a month. PPF has been around for over ten years now but is new in many markets and most training facilities along with certification has only been around the past two to three years. I'm sorry to hear about the cut marks and not everyone can freehand cut or has the experience to make the job look good. Kits are a pain and never give you the coverage compared to bulk and freehand cutting. I always get a kick out of the customer who buys a kit off of e-bay and installs it or wants to bring it to me to install.

Asking to see the installers work is always a good idea and what they have done on their own vehicle. My 2005 Ford F-150 is fully covered from head to toe and showing a customer that lands me the job even if I am going to freehand cut bulk on a new Ford GT.

Give the company/installer a chance to make good and not only should he give your money back but have a body shop see if they can touch it up or buff it out depending on how deep the cuts are. You will only know the full extent of damage when it is removed.

I think the whole "certification" idea is a very misleading concept. This customer's experience just proves that sometimes things like "certified," "licenced," "factory trained," often mean nothing and are just marketing tactics.

I know good and well that a window tinter who's "certified" with one year of experience is nowhere near what I can do "uncertified" with 10.
It's for that reason that out of principle I'm against certification requirements in many industries... I think they mislead the customer.

FYI, taking the class doesn't automatically make you certified.

I took the class, I'm not certified yet.

I "should" be certified in about a month.....should.

And also you can be certified without taking the class too!

Another dumb question...I called the guy who did the install. Before I go any further, I would like to explain. I took it to a body shop. The guy there said that the scratches on the hood should buff out. He said the ones on the hood scoop probably won't, but it won't hurt to try. He also said that the install wasn't very good. He pointed out that it would be nearly impossible to wax it with all the ruffles around the edges and everything. He also said that he's seen installs that were so good that you could barely tell it was there. I wasn't sure what to expect when it came to this whole thing. I just knew that there shouldn't be scratches on my paint. There have been quite a few people comment that they weren't very impressed with the install...but like I said, I didn't know what to expect. (...I did think it would be hard to wax without getting it under the film in the process..didn't know if that was normal ) I talked to him today, and I told him that I would really like any kind of refund I could get. (I don't want to be a jerk, but if I let him install it again I know he'll be cutting on my paint. ...and this time I might not find out about the scratches until I take the ppf off to install another one in 5 years or so) I don't want anyone cutting on my paint. I don't care how good they are...or how many times they've cut on paint and not left scratches. This isn't happening again. He told me that this normally doesn't happen...that he's done lots of cars...that he works on high end cars all the time, so he can fix mine without a problem and make it right.(his exact words were..."I would like a chance to make it right" ...but if his chance to make it right means him cutting that film anywhere near my paint, I really don't want to give him that chance. Maybe I'm weird, but I feel like my trust has been seriously violated here, and don't want to have anyone messing with this... except me. That way if it looks like crap, it's my fault. I don't like conflict. ...and if I screw up, I don't have conflict. That is, unless I had multiple personalities...and I don't. My question is...this guys is really nice. I'm a really passive guy. (like I said..I hate conflict) I don't want to insult him. I figure you guys are in this business, and maybe you can tell me a nice way of getting across to him that I really would be much more happy with some kind of refund...anything would be better than me lying in my bed at night wondering what lies beneath that bra...for the next five years. I don't want that. Not to mention the install itself. I need it to be waxable if I'm going to maintain it. I've called around, and I paid a good price for this job...but it doesn't seem to be that impressive of a job. I asked him about the refund on the phone. (I didn't mention the actual install concerns...just the scratches) Will it be better to talk about this in more depth in person? What can I tell him? I don't want to be that raving mad costumer...I just want to enjoy my car...and know there's a bra on my car that is protecting unscratched paint. How can I be nice about this? What would you guys like to hear from a costumer in my situation? Any comments would be helpful.

Get it detailed. Have him pay for the detailing and maybe a little something extra.

Leave it on there. Remember, as it is now, more stratches and more rock chips aren't going to show up. Remove it and scratches, rock chips, and pitting from bugs will happen.

You can wax it pretty easily. You'll just need to run a q-tip with quick detailer down the edge to clean off the wax.

dont let this car give you an ulcer... its just a car. Stick to your guns if you want a refund.. asking for "some kind of refund" is a bad thing to say. Take someone who is a cold blooded negociator with you and watch the fun.

You read me right. I'm very much like that, and I thought about selling it and starting over. That would mean I would have to order another Mini plus lose about $2000 on this one when it only has 400 miles on it. ...plus I don't too much care for the 2007 body style. Anyway, I'm usually like that until I get my first major ding then I'm good to go. (I would definitely consider this to be my first major ding) My last car's first ding(s) came after I had it about two weeks and got stuck in a hail storm. After that I wasn't near as protective of it. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I set on my porch and used it as target practice after the hail storm. ...but there's something about that first mishap that makes you see the car a little differently. I want to keep this car, but I believe it needs to be fixed...and fixed right. Yeah, it turns my stomach, but losing $2000 dollars is a hard one to swallow. I still want a good quality clear bra install, and I want assurance that there's no damage under it. ...and if these scratches do buff out, I doubt there will be much room left to buff out more scratches in the future, so I need the next install to be scratch-free.

As far as the tint goes...I'm going to take my loss there. I'll bide my time until I find someone I know will do a good job. My Dad lives in a city where there's a guy who's pretty well known for his tint. I might get my windows retinted by him when I visit my Dad. We'll see...I'm not too worried about that right now. I'm more concerned with the scratches.

I'd rather not say on this thread. There's only one certified 3M dealer in my area, and I'd rather not people find out who it is. I don't want to ruin his rep or anything. I would pm my location to you, but I don't have enough posts to do that yet. Kind of think of it....I can fix that. This is #13.

#14

That didn't work. #14?

I guess I'm stuck with 13 posts.

Interesting thread.... Do you take this car to DMC contest or something? Keep the car! NORMAL people just see a cute little car.... don't stress on it and be happy.

if you want a refund you have to understand the fact the guy did perform a labor, now you dont want to give him a chance even though he say's he'll fix it, so now you have to acknowledge the fact that he will not give you a full refund, perhaps on the material. but not on the labor.

gotta tell ya, there are whole different personalities out there, i thing every human race out there is different and i think a few couple of specific race's out there tend to be @nal or more picky about things that are not very important.

but take it this way, the more you are picky about your car, or careful, the more shiat happens to it.

good luck man.

If anyone is looking that closely at your car they better be sleeping with you....in which case, does the scratch matter? =)

I agree. ...one thing I must say it that yes, I am picky. ...but I think that most people who are paying a lot of money to have a clear bra installed are going to be picky. That's why they're having them installed. Anyone in the business of installing these things has to realize that. If the person that's installing them cuts the paint, they're hurting the very thing that they're being paid to protect. Of course, to some people these scratches may seem insignificant, but it's a new car. I have a feeling that anyone in the world would feel the same way. Who wants to spend a lot of money on something, and then let someone else mess it up? I didn't even get to enjoy it being new before all this happened. He did perform a labor, but he messed up...bad. I do not want him to put another bra on, and I don't think he deserves another chance...because I don't trust him to do it and not scratch my car again. My stomach turns enough to think about him buffing on my car, but I guess I'll give him that chance. (Even though I don't want to, because I don't know this guy. How can I trust him after what he's done? Does he know how to buff and do touchups, etc.?) No matter what, we're both going to take a money loss on this, but I think he should take the biggest loss. He's the one that messed up...not me. The only mistake I made was trusting him with my car. Not only did he mess up, but he did the exact opposite of what I paid him to do. I think that people having clear bras installed need to know their risks. I didn't realize this was even possible. I really doubt that there's anyone out there that could have this happen to any new car and shrug it off like nothing happened. (Maybe if they're filthy rich, but I'm definitely not) It's a big deal when someone trusts you with their car, and it's an even bigger deal when that trust is violated.

best of luck to ya super cooper

yup, pretty much

Sorry if I offended anyone. Thank you for all the comments. Best of luck to you all.

keep us posted on the outcome SuperCooper.

Okay...I think I was totally wrong to be worried about all this. He looked at the car today. When I got there he was working on a Porsche. He said that this has never happened before, and I believe him. He's going to order a kit, and I'm going to bring the Mini in. He said he would take care of everything. (including taking it to a body shop for me) He's a nice guy, and I shouldn't have been worried. I probably shouldn't have even said anything on here. No worries.

GOOD KARMA FOR ALL...

Thanks for letting us know

I'm glad it worked out for you sometimes sh@t happens

Thought I would give an update. I picked my car up yesterday. He fixed the scratches and redid the tint on my windows. (A tint job that I received fromt the dealer.) He gave me a good deal on the tint too. ...and it looks sooooo good. The clear bra looks good too. (it's pretty much "invisible") There's one little bump on the hood scoop where I assume debris of some sort manage to get under it. You can barely see it, so as long as it doesn't hurt the paint it doesn't bother me. I just hope it doesn't scratch or dig into the paint when I wax the bra. Not sure how that works. Thanks for the comments. Best of luck to you guys.

Glad it all worked out in the end !!!

Small bit of advice, so as not to come down too hard on the tinter. The dealer might be charging you double, but they are paying us half. Sometimes we just gotta let stuff slide, the money isn't there to nit pick and they are riding our ass to get it tinted, and back in unreasonable amount of time. You might ask why we don't charge more or not do that kind of work if we aren't going to do it perfect. Well, it's as simple as, they keep our books filled, while it's not the most money, it's consistent, retail can be up and down.