AgentK

No worries, it's all good, I get it, I used to deal with customers as well so I know what you are talking about. Thanks again for the input.

Oh sure, I'm not demanding and not angry, if I came off this way it wasn't intentional and that's not who I am. I came here to ask honestly if this is acceptable and expected to face these issues. Up to now I only had side windows and rear windows tinted on all of my cars and never noticed any dust specs, bubble or anything at all really, but I wasn't sure if it's because I never look long enough through a side window to notice or because a windshield is harder to do or because this time I used a different installer who is just not as good. I can live with the way it is now, I won't be happy but definitely not angry, but I will make sure to leave a review describing my experience of having to come back at least once for every film they installed so other folks know what to expect. The tint place I used before is an hour an half away and I have never had any issues with any of their installs on at least 4 vehicles, I decided to use a different place because I moved and the new place is closer but still 20-30 mins away. At this point i would probably would save time going to my original guy. Anyway, thanks for your feedback!

Ok thanks, I have an appointment with them in a few days, hopefully they make it right and I don't have to waste anymore time. It's a small shop with one installer, so he's the only one they have.

@Bham Ghosting sounds correct! Thanks! I don't think it's squeegee marks, I'm pretty sure I had those in the first film they installed. Is it reasonable to ask for a redo because of ghosting? Can that be fixed without redo? Sounds like I landed on the wrong tint shop.

Ok, I did some digging around and seems like it's possible to remove the air from those bubbles which will make them less noticeable. They are not a huge issue for me if they unlikely to grow and cause problems. So let me rephrase my question a little. is it common to have some defects in the film? It looks like a smudge but my best guess is it's actually in the film, while driving and the looking through that area you can see the light deflecting a little, it's not like dirty glass because dirt just blocks light but patch is deflecting it. Since I had a similar issue on 2 of the 3 films I got installed I guess I can live with that if this kind of thing is expected and possibly will happen in a new film they can install. But if you guys tell me it's uncommon I'll go back to the tinter and either ask for a redo or a refund and get it done elsewhere because I'm wasting too much time getting these redos. is it possible the smudge is just the inconsistent adhesive and can be fixed with some heat?

So you are saying I should ask for a redo?

Of course! the reason I mentioned the quality of film is regarding the film defect, or maybe the installer caused it. If it was a 50$ I guess I would be expecting some imperfection in the film or job, is it unreasonable to expect now noticeable defects at this price points? I honestly don't know. So far I had 3 films installed on these two cars by the same installer and 2 of the films had imperfection which I can see.

Three months ago I got a new car and went to get the windshield and both front side windows tinted at a place a did not use before and it was my first windshield tint. After about a month I came back to the tinter because there were many film defects, some look like smudges, some like streaks. The tinter agreed and said they changes film suppliers to Xpel so now it shouldn't be an issue, they redo the job and it was pretty much perfect so I decided to get my other car's windshield tinted as well. When they gave my the car back there were tons of water marks so hard to tell how it came out, now it's been few weeks and there is what I would call plenty of dust spec bubbles and one film defect, not as bad as the first one but it's there and I notice it and it's a little annoying, i'm the kind of guy who can't wear sunglass with scratches on them. I can't capture the film imperfection but I'll attach photos of some of the dust specs. If the dust specs are ok and won't cause a premature failure of the film I guess I can live with that, but it was a fairly expensive job (I think, 275$ for just windshield) with what suppose to be good quality film Xpel XR Plus.