Help deciding on tint shops

[trillary clump]

Hey guys, first post here. I've read a lot of posts comparing different tint films. I've narrowed my search down to two different shops in my area that use Llumar. Most other local shops use Solar Gard, which I've also had installed and didn't have any problem with other than slight clarity issues. 

 

Anyways, the first shop is right around the corner from my work. I could drop off the car and walk back. They have 65 positive reviews on google and 4.9 average rating. They offer ATC, ATR, and CTX films.  We'll call them Shop A.

Their prices:

$300 for ATR

$375 for llumar CTX

$200 for Air 80 on windshield 

 

Shop B is a Formula One certified shop. They offer ATC, ATR, CTX, as well as Formula One Pinacle and Stratos. They're just a little further away, but still less than 5 minutes. 39 positive reviews and about a 4.8 rating. 

 

Shop B:

$180 Formula One Classic

$260 for CTX

$120 for Air 80 on windshield

or

$280 for Pinnacle (only $20 more than CTX)

$499 for Stratos but that's more than I want to pay since I think ATR or CTX would work fine for me. 

 

Shop A shows a lot of fancy high end cars on their site, like Ferarris, Bently, and Lambos. Their reviews are very positive, but for CTX with Air 80 I'm looking at a $195 price difference compared to the Formula One shop. Aren't Formula One supposed to be the higher end shops that get certified because of the quality of their work, or is it just another line they carry?

 

Thanks for your opinions. 

Edited April 2, 2018 by trillary clump
solar gard not sun gard

[jh812]

My first instinct says go with the first shop, because of the rating and you already sound more confident in them. Only thing formula one means imo is they've bought a lot of llumar in the past. Doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the job.

[trillary clump]

Is Formula One Pinnacle film that much better or different from CTX? The first shop, in addition to being quite a bit more expensive, charges quite a premium for their CTX, plus they don't offer Formula One Pinnacle. 

[jh812]

@no ma'am should be able to answer that.

[Tintguy1980]

😁

Edited April 12, 2019 by Tintguy1980

[DynamicATL]

I would stop by both shops to see their work in person.  Check out their vehicles along with any being completed while you are there.  Also let them walk you through the films, see which one feels more confident and sounds like they know what they are talking about.  The performance difference between CTX and Pinnacle is very small.  CTX will have a touch of blue to it while Pinnacle will have a touch of green to it.  Pinnacle will also have a transferable warranty when you sell the vehicle.  Honestly it is hard not to go with Shop B based on price, but those prices are extremely low especially when another local shop is selling Llumar for higher than F1.  So my first instinct would be to go with Shop A because something doesn't add up with Shop B.

 

As far as the F1 shop being "certified" or more "elite" because they carry Formula One, it has absolutely nothing to do with it.  They either started with Llumar and went to F1 because they were selling a good amount of film and there was no other F1 dealers...or they jumped straight to F1.  Llumar revamped the Formula One program in 2016/2017 to ensure their F1 dealers were more "elite", but honestly there are plenty of trash shops in my state carrying F1.  One of the shops has a revolving doors of tinters because they do not pay them much, so you could get two completely different quality tint jobs based on which tinter was working during that time period.  Their last main tinter was living in a hotel down the street and was busted using cocaine.  This shop was a 2.8 on Google with tons of bad reviews for tint...they are a 3.7 now because they hired a guy I know as the manager, he is much more friendly than the owner.  This year my Llumar rep made a car wash a F1 dealer that was formally a Llumar dealer.  At the time they had a 3.7 on Google and most of their bad reviews were for tint.  So even though being a Formula One dealer should mean they are the elite, it is not always the case.

Edited April 2, 2018 by DynamicATL

[no ma'am]

In theory an F1 shop should provide a better install. But go with whichever you're more comfortable with. All lulu/F1 films mentioned are good quality install is everything. Ceramic films will outperform atr/F1 comfort.

[trillary clump]

Thanks for the detailed explanations. It didn't make sense to me either that shop B could be selling F1 Pinnacle for almost $100 less than the other one is charging for CTX, but it could also have to do with location and the type of clients that Shop A is marketing towards (high end cars in a more wealthy area).

[DynamicATL]

8 minutes ago, trillary clump said:

Thanks for the detailed explanations. It didn't make sense to me either that shop B could be selling F1 Pinnacle for almost $100 less than the other one is charging for CTX, but it could also have to do with location and the type of clients that Shop A is marketing towards (high end cars in a more wealthy area).

 

Most likely that is the case, but $280 for Pinnacle is going to be low for majority of areas...maybe FL that might be the norm.  In GA for example, Pinnacle is usually around the $400 price range and up.

[no ma'am]

 those prices for F1 are way too low