On Oct. 14 I had vinyl installed by a vendor who promised a great discount for a great install. This occurred during a 3 day install party. Well after what he said would be a 1-2hr install took 4 and a half hours to complete. At this time it was 9pm and I was tired so I said I was leaving and would look at it in the morning. Well come morning I am at a small MINI meet and a few folks remarked at how poor the vinyl looked. Not the design but the installed vinyl period. There are air bubbles everywhere and several creases. I asked the installer about this and was told they would work their way out if the car was left to sit in the sun. So I gave it 2 days.

Oct 17th Sunday - I mention to the installer that I am not satisfied with the install and want it either fixed or another piece of vinyl installed. I was low key and mentioned these details to the installer between jobs. He told me that the creases couldn't be fixed and that he didn't have another of the same vinyl design to install. I asked if what else we could do. He offered sending me the same design in the mail and having a local installer install it. I wasn't happy with this because I would then have to pull more money from my pocket to have the vinyl installed. He then offers me an extra set of vinyl he has and to install it. So I figured I would wait around to have it installed. But he runs way behind schedule. He seems to have this constant "Another 20minutes saying..." It’s funny at first but then gets old quick. He said to let my car sit in the sun to the vinyl would be easier to remove. So I let it sit and instead of waiting for him to be free I was able to easily peel it off myself.

So once he was done with working that night it was 7pm and the group wanted to go out to dinner (me included). I wanted the vinyl installed and the installer didn't offer to stay back and install the vinyl. I told him I didn't want to do it after dinner because by then it would be much too late @ night and I needed to return home to get rest for work in the morning.

So I went to dinner, left that night with a set of vinyl and no vinyl on my car. I figured I would email the vendor and work out a deal that way.

I PMed the vendor using this forum and he offered to install the vinyl if I came to a MINI event in Feb being held in Florida. I figured he was joking and let him now I didn’t find this funny. He also offered me $75 back (the install fee) if I returned the vinyl I had and he would send me another set of the original stripes.

I didn’t agree to this because I figured I still need to pay out of my pocket for someone to install this vinyl and its not going to be covered by $75.

So tell me folks, what should I do? Should I take the vendors offer? Should I push for a full refund or just chalk this us as a lesson?

 

Sounds to me like someone who is just learning.....Poor results and poor judge of time required to do the work.......I would give up on the clown and just get your money back!

 

Sooooooo......who is the vendor?.....come on you can tell us....is from this forum...come on tell us!

 

On the install instructions provided by the same vendor, it was advised in writing that I take a small sewing needle to any 'large' air bubbles, and leave the small ones.

Also noted was the fact that it should take 'more than a few days in the sun'. Our weather hasn't been up to par to make any bubbles or creases from the install party go away. And I seriously doubt we'll be getting warm weather anytime soon.

I also had creases and bubbles in my vinyl (purchased from the same guy). It took about 3 weeks for all the small bubbles to dissapate out of my side stripes, and a bit more than that for the big crease in my hood vinyl.

How long will it take to 'work it's way out' now? No clue with the weather and all. And he could be off a bit with his estimates, because he's from Arizona. Have some patience and give it some time... Weeks or months even. If you're still not satisfied, let him know. He's a pro, and I'm sure he's not satisfied with poor work... But he also knows it takes time.

 

oh sheit d0OD! sorry to hear that!

did u get my extra vinyl set?

it wuz the 3stripe deal!
i dont know about ur ordeal, sounds a bit Fukd up man.
i did feel like sumthin' wrong wuz goin' on but thought he would take care of U!!!!!

 

WHAT?......

 

get your money back, post the guy's name so that no-one else gets screwed and go to Speed Design in White Marsh. Those guys know what they're doing...they did my roof graphic and several other DCMM members applications.

 

[QUOTE=kgdblu]post the guy's name so that no-one else gets screwed and go to Speed Design in White Marsh. [QUOTE]

I think it's pretty obvious who it is. And he's a fairly well respected NAM vendor. Be patient, and listen to his advice regarding the vinyl. If he's wrong, then bring it up with him again. He does this for a living, and imho is very good at it.

I'm sure he'll work with you. Just understand he's 2000 miles away, so the obvious 'quick fixes' aren't really an option, unless you wanna fly him back out here.

 

I don't buy the argument about waiting for the Sun to bake it. You've seen my car, I've had Much vinyl installed and NEVER a bubble.

The distance issue is a moot point, I can only offer my opinion which is that if anyone provides a service, and that service is not acceptable, it should not be the responsibility of the buyer to bear the costs. Its the responsibility of the service provider to have good customer service, not of the buyer. You just had a lot of work done at Tate. Lots of people had been complaining about Tate service in the past. If your recent service work was unacceptable, would you just accept it or be back at Tate complaining and insisting it be done correctly?

 

[QUOTE=Wagnbat][QUOTE=kgdblu]post the guy's name so that no-one else gets screwed and go to Speed Design in White Marsh.
Umm, so who is this well repected vendor?

 

If the service was done in Towson, and was not done to my satisfaction, should they pay for my time to drive the car back to towson to get it fixed?

Point is, what he's describing doesn't sound like an actual problem, as I've seen it myself, and it's included in the documentation/instructions I recieved when I got my vinyl. And getting work done at any 'party' is just that. Work done at a party. Which I pretty much take as 'at your own risk'. Probably 75% of the reason I won't go to a party to get a pulley done.

Lastly, the vendor has offered options. For something which doesn't have a warantee, it sounds like he's at least trying somewhat.

 

I would rather wait and see if the vendor responds before posting who they are in order to give them a chance to resolve this. Those in the local club know who this vendor is as WagnBat explained.

 

hey man! good move on ur part , hopefully u get sum resolution from him S00N....i respect the way ur handlin' this!!

 

I said the distance was moot because any service provider needs to provide quality service. If customer satisfaction matters to them, they will resolve it and I dont care if they are in the Australia. In fact, I'll relate such an experience with another vendor here. I just had some custom "clingy" made. Totally custom, never done before, never designed before, one of a kind (and lets say it was a bit farther than the distances involved here but thats also moot). The graphics didn't fit right and they were not cheap. The vendor immediately make up new ones, to fit perfectly on his nickel. THAT is customer satisfaction.

As to warrantee, I have no idea if a warranty is involved. You get a pulley, at one of Randys Pulley parties, it is absolutely covered by his warranty (two years?). I asked him specifically about that since he is in Colorado. Whose going to drive to Colorado to get one of his parts fixed. He said to just take it to a shop and he pays if its his fault. How is this different?

I'm talking about customer service and customer satisfaction. Randy seems to have it down. Others too. The originator of this thread also needs customer satisfaction.

 

Sorry to hear about this. I've done a fair amount of vinyl installs myself---somethings can be corrected after the fact. Maybe you could post some pictures of the creases? Is the vinyl stuck onto itself or is the crease from ink that's missing??

There are a couple tools that installers use. One is essentially an Xacto knife holder with a pin on the end--this is used for poking holes where bubbles are, then you smooth the area down around the hole to force it to lay flat.

To push the vinyl down, either a very small flexible squeegee or another tool which I forget--is like a small eraser---it's a firm pad that's like compressed paper or fabric material---stiff, but doesn't scratch. This can sometimes be used to smooth it down.

Also since the vinyl's already been laid down, it's probably too late to remove it and fix it, but you might consider sending it back, getting a replacement, and install it yourself??

Some locations on the MINI are next to impossible to install vinyl. My unistripe was a bear because of the bonnet hump.

Good luck.

Richard

 

The vinyl was creased unto itself and it has been removed so there is no fixing it. If I wanted to pay someone locally to install vinyl I would of done it in the first place but it was cost prohibitive. This was cheap and was from a person well respected for doing good work so I espected the same.

 

You removed it?

 

I thought I said that in my opening post.. Maybe I didn't make it clear enough. In my haste to post I might of written unclearly.

 

Sorry. Misread. Thought the original was still on (as I remembered seeing it on your car), and you wanted the second set installed.

 

I had work done by the same vendor and I have several issues that I am trying to resolve with him right now. Here's the skinny on what happend.

Months before the actual install on 10/15 I cooresponded with him via phone and email. I have ALL of the emails. I am very clear with him that I have a 2005 MINI Cooper (NOT a S) with sunroof and NO spoiler. I am very specific and detailed with him about what I want - graphics, colors, sizes, locations, etc -for my Star Wars themed 2005 MC. I send him everything in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop files. I include annotated photographs of everything for clarity. Two weeks before the install I send him another email and to confirm that everything is as I ordered it. He confirms.

I show up for the install. The first thing he tells me is that he forgot one of the graphics for the driver's side of the car, but that he will ship them to me when he gets back home, so that I can apply them. Next he says (paraphrase), "oh, you have a Cooper and not a Cooper S and oh man it's an oh five! Working around that antenna base is a be-otch." Let's see, I only told him over half dozen times that I have an oh five COOPER!!!
He then tells me that he may have made my roof graphic for the S and that if so it wouldn't cover the top white part of the boot! He made the graphic to fit the S roof, so now I have this white space and he tells me that I can just get a spoiler and it will look great. He doesn't offer to cut me a break on the cost. I have since emailed him that I want that part of the white covered up with the rest of the art and that I do not want a spoiler. I never did want a spoiler. Anyway, he then shows me the side graphics that he did bring with him. They are suppossed to be solid white with a black border! He's punched out the middle so I have a black and white border with the Chili Red showing through. Fortunately they turned out looking cool, but the point here is that he didn't follow my very specific instructions and he basically got lucky on that one. Now I have a bonnet graphic, side graphics, boot stripes that I had to remind him that I ordered, and a full roof graphic. He puts me on his schedule for ONE HOUR and has people scheduled to come in on the hour for the rest of the day. My job is going to take a minimum of three hours! I decide that I like the sunroof covered solid by the roof graphic, so I save him a huge chunk of time because he doesn't have to install the perforated sunroof piece. This helps him get back on schedule, but again he doesn't offer to cut me a break on the cost! When he applies the roof graphic, which I have to help him with, he unscrews my antenna and tells me he'll put it on the boot. We finish up and I leave without putting the antenna back on. Twenty-four miles later I am back home. I open the boot and NO ANTENNA. Back down the road to find my antenna on a workbench. So I go another forty eight mile round trip and loose an hour.

Monday night I hear from him about the side graphics he owes me. I expect that all he has to do is put them in a package and send them on their way. Nope. He has yet to cut/prep them. This indicates to me that he didn't forget them, but that he forgot to make them in the first place!

The guy is really nice. I kind of like him. However, he really needs a business manager and an assistant to keep him organized because despite all of our coorespondence and confirmation major things were wrong and he was very overbooked.

He emailed me today that the side graphics are on the way. I will wait and see if I receive them tomorrow as he promised me on Monday. I am also waiting to hear from him about the roof graphic. Depending on how all of this is resolved... well I am waiting to see what sort of customer service and satisfaction I get before I post more.

If you have a Cooper S and want simple stripes and off the shelf graphics I doubt you will have any problems. But, if you have a Cooper and/or want something custom all I can say is caveat emptor!!!!

MTFBWY,
--Will

 

Not to bring some sunshine to an otherwise downer of a thread but....
I got my sunroof graphic done on Saturday. Despite an unfortunate accident during the install (a small tear) everything turned out fine. I'm happy with what was done.

I will say it was a much more relaxed and free-wheeling atmosphere compared to a real vinyl shop. But then again, what do you expect when you have a bunch of people hanging out all day?

I'm sure everything will work out right in the end.

 

Let me start by saying thanks to Wagnbat and OctaneGuy for helpful instructions and telling your real life experience. There is a reason why installers are hard to find. It's hard work and not everyone can do it.

MDSBrain, You knew that these were experimental stripes when you got them. He also informed me that he searched the WWW for weeks trying to find someone willing to take on this task. I was the only one that stepped up to the plate. You knew from the beginning that this would be a difficult task. There were many decisions that could have been made that night to prevent this thread from even coming up. Since I knew that these may not work out I brought an extra set. I did give you the opportunty at that point to rip up the bad ones and do it again. You said to wait, and after fouling up the boot stripes we decided to use them for the back. As we talked back and forth we were in the process of working out a compromising solution, so I'm confused as to why you would post this before coming to a final decision.

I stand by my product and my work. Since those stripes were experimental so was the installation. After trial and error we were able to figure out the correct way to put them on, and did so succesfully on another MINI. I'm sorry your car had to be the guinea pig for this. I have however tried to work out a solution to what happened including giving you a comparable stripe package to cover your whole car. With free installation.

I work very hard to keep all my customers satisfied with my work and will do the same here. Please PM me so we can resolve this issue.

As for RED_5 we are still working out the details of that and would prefer to keep it off this thread until it is resolved.

As you well know I am a one man operation as of this point. I'm working on hiring people to help me manage my work load and assist me in further install parties. This install party in DC was only my second one and was surprised at the overwhelming response for this event, so bare with me have some patience and help me to keep these "problems" between the client and the vendor.

As a vendor on NAM my name and reputation is important and I will do eveything in my power to make things better for both my company and my customers.

 

happy here!!

 

I figured I'd add some more sunshine along with CmdrVimes. I ordered custom boot stripes for my convertible from AE back in August. There were delays getting them cut, but through the entire process Mike was very professional - he kept me updated on the issues and even offered to refund my payment. Instead, I decided to wait as AE was the only vendor I could find who was willing to manufacture a niche product for a niche vehicle. To compensate, AE threw in a replacement Cooper badge for the boot! I am so glad I waited - the final outcome is great.

I hope that those who've had a less than ideal experience can find a way to work things out. I just wanted to point out that in my experience AE is working hard to provide fair service to the MINI community.

 

AC and I have worked out a deal that suits me. Thank you all for your comments.