MAACO is EVIL!!!

[mojostang73]

Hello everyone,
I have a story for you. I took my car to Maaco 1 month ago to get painted and it's still not done! I have talked to the owner twice and been given her word that it would be done on such and such date which of course never happened. Last sworn pick-up date was scheduled for tommorrow at 2:00 P.M. but my cousin just drove by Maaco on his way back from work and says the car was still the same color and just sitting there.(I'm having the color changed) She has already upgraded me to the best paint and given me $100.00 dollars off but that was last week when she promised it would be finished on Friday!!! Have any of you had or heard of similiar situations with Maaco? I am going over there tommorrow to speak with her for the third time and I would like to have more ammo. How does their franchise system work? Do they have regional managers they must answer to? Who can I complain to besides her? Any advise or info would be greatly appreciated!

 

[golf4283]

sorry to hear about that man. Thankfully I have never dealt with maaco. I will remember not to use them after hearing this story. Again man sorry bout the service by those jerks.

 

[Mahoney'sPoney]

sorry to hear about that man. Thankfully I have never dealt with maaco. I will remember not to use them after hearing this story. Again man sorry bout the service by those jerks.

Every Maaco is different. They are a franchised company, so while someone might have a good experience at one another may have a bad one. For me personally, Maaco did an excellent job on my 84 Jeep CJ7 after I finished restoring it. Although there was a little overspray, the quality of paint is excellent and for the most part so was the job. I plan on taking the Mach down there when all is said and done. My family also knows the owner which helped as far the service. But remeber, in the end you get what you pay for.

 

[MrBobMarley]

That sucks man. I'd have gone in there cussing my mouth off at her if they did that to me. It's YOUR car and YOUR money. Demand to know why they haven't made progress yet. Explain to them in detail how much of an inconvenience they are and tell them they have to eat more than a measly $100. It might work, who knows.

 

[rbohm]

if you havent paid for the job yet(if you did you are a fool), then tell her you want the keys and you will take the car else where. tha tis what i would do.

 

[mojostang73]

That sucks man. I'd have gone in there cussing my mouth off at her if they did that to me. It's YOUR car and YOUR money. Demand to know why they haven't made progress yet. Explain to them in detail how much of an inconvenience they are and tell them they have to eat more than a measly $100. It might work, who knows.

At this point I don't want to pay anything for the inconvenience! I have to drive alot for my job and this car is my wife's daily driver.(of course it's my car ) Weve been having to ask for rides from family members etc. to function throughout the week! I really don't know what the @#!* is going on. Do you all think a "no-charge" demand is pushing it?

 

[DarkBuddha]

I had my car painted by a Maaco in Brandon Florida and had a similar experience. I negotiated a very decent deal with them and made lots of special requests and arrangements as part of the deal. What became apparent is that their business is a volume thing versus a price-per-job approach. Any time they can get a cheap quicky job with less labor investment, they make more money than doing a higher paying involved job.

I had some severe issues with the work they did and attempted to go through corporate to resolve it (after attempting to deal directly with that particular franchise). Unfortunately, corporate is essentially impotent to help resolve anything. The franchise is not under the control of corporate in any way. That said, I do get the feeling that corporate does carry some weight when they get negative feedback about a particular franchise. Ultimately, I don't think corporate will continue to allow a particularly bad franchise to continue to carry the Maaco name.

To me it sounds like they're already making some effort to reconcile with you. It is completely possible for them to paint the car in one day (most of their jobs are done this way), so maybe it will still be ok. But if it doesn't, what are your options???

First, see if you can get it resolved with the franchise. If that doesn't work, check to see if that particular franchise is part of the Better Business Bureau... the BBB has a process for arbitration that its members are bound by. It doesn't mean you'll get everything you want, but it does involve a third party impartial mediator. Check http://www.bbbonline.org/ for info and details.

In the end, if they haven't damaged your car or violated a written contract, you might not have any real basis for anything legal. At that point, you might just take your car somewhere else and spread the word about how much they suck.

BTW, I will say that while I did have problems with the Maaco I went with, it wasn't because of the actual paint job... it actually came out pretty darn good... both times they had to do it.

Good luck.

 

[GaPonyFarm]

I'd recommend that you relax and just let them finish the work. Save your complaints for AFTER the job is finished, otherwise you may get less quality than you really want. I'd much rather be inconvienienced and get a good quality job, than piss them off and get a crappy job, even if they didn't charge me for the work. It would cost a lot to fix a poorly done job...sand, prime, paint, clear... its just not worth the hassle to fight with them before they finish...afterwards fight till you're blue in the face.

 

[2nd Mustang]

I've had good help with bad experiences by contacting the local Better Business Bureau for your area. They helped me resolve some nasty situations when promises were made over and over again. Good luck.

 

[allcarfan]

I dont think there is anything you can do. I seriously doubt that taking action with the BBB is going to do anything. All they have to say is....we got overbooked or ran into some obstacles and were unable to complete the car on time, and offered him a discount. A 'free' paint job request is laughable. They have not done anything wrong TO your car, they just have not got around to painting it yet. This happens all of the time with mechanics aroud here. I suggest that you go down there today at 2pm when it is suppose to be finished. If it isnt...find out why. Tell them you want the keys and to CALL you when they are ready for your car. If they say they cant do it...then its up to you to decide to leave your car there and be at their mercy for a budget paintjob....or take it some place else that is more expensive, but you know it will get done. As others have said..you get what you pay for...this includes customer service.

You have to remember, this is a MAACO paint job, not some high-dollar quality outfit!

 

[mojostang73]

Now that I've had a day to cool down I think I'm just going to wait it out and just hope for a good paint job. I don't want to cuss her out just yet for fear of substandard paint, crappy job, etc. I don't want to just pick it up either b/c I would have wasted all that time that it's been there. Maybe I'll just "Egg" Maaco once they're finished.

 

[Homercidal]

That's the spirit.

I would have given them a piece of my mind and taken the car back, myself though.

Can't say why they wouldn't have gotten the work done. Most places would have eaten a bit of the profit either by working OT or pusing other jobs back by the time they got you that mad.

Good thing I'm going to paint my car myself!

 

[89lx2.3]

I previously had a miserable experience with Maaco. I took my 89 notch in for a paintjob and some bodywork (1 quarter replaced and the bumpers stipped and redone totally since the paint was peeling and they apparently do very little if any prep work, I was charged extra for both of these.) When I brought the car to them orignally they were told that I needed it back in two weeks because I wanted to use the car for my wedding, i was supposed to have it back the thursday before and ended up getting it just before the wedding started on saturday.

When I went to get it it looked like total crap, they had not stripped the bumpers at all and had totally botchted the 1/4 install (I provided the panel to them) instead of replacing the panel they cut out a very small portion of the new one and welded it in, so it did not fit right at all, to try and fix this they slapped 1/2" of bondo in the seam and just painted over all of it as well as painted over all my locks and oversprayed (badly) my wheels and tailpipe. I told them it was unacceptable and they said they couldnt do anything about it for a month becasue the paint had to cure before they could fix it.

A month later I took it back for them to fix all the stuff they messed up the first time and while they were supposed to have it back in a week or two, it took them two months, and judging by what i saw stopping by to look at it every now and then they still did not strip the bumpers like i paid them to, but just sprayed several very heavy coast of primer on them. and they were supposed to fiberglass the bothced seam from the 1/4 install and didtnt even touch it. needless to say i now have cracked paint on the bumpers and where they tried to cover up their sloppy metal work.

when I finally got it back the second time (they didnt even call me, i kept going by and finally one of them came out and said, are you gonna take this home?) it was just as bad as the first time, only now there were other blemishes in the paint (looks like a bug crawled across my decklid and got stuck in the pain, they jsut left it there). I was so pissed and doubted that they could properly do the job that i sent a letter to their corporate office, when i finally heard back from them the first words out of the guys mouth was you're not getting your money back. He told me to take it to another local Maaco shop, and when i did the owner there was in agreement that they had totally botched the job and it should be fixed.

After the letter to corporate was sent I got a very nasty message on my machine from the sales guy (who is also the owners son) screaming and cussing at me for not coming down there to discuss it with him. I wanted nothing to do with that particular shop anymore and told the corporate that, and they would only tell me that i had to take it back there and let them try and do it right a third time, i called the guy from the other location that i had taken it to to have it looked at and he said he wouldnt touch it cause it was so messed up he would have to take the 1/4 off and redo that completely and it would probably be easier to replace the bumpers than fix the mess they made with those.

So I just gave up on it and cut my losses with those idiots... If i had gone back to that shop again i probably would have ended up getting and even worse job and gotten in a fight with the idiot owner, I thought about small claims court but was advised that usualy in a situation like that the judge will just give them another try.

So long story short, go get your car back and go somewhere else and pay the extra money to have it done right... I lost $1,000 dealing with these fools and if I had it all to do over again would have gladly pay twice that to have it done correctly the first time.

 

[66 BLAKE 96]

Everything I've ever heard about Maaco has said that if you are on a tight budget, let them spray it, but don't let them do the body work.

 

[allcarfan]

So I just gave up on it and cut my losses with those idiots... I thought about small claims court but was advised that usualy in a situation like that the judge will just give them another try.

I lost $1,000 dealing with these fools .

I am sorry for your loss, but you had every single right to pursue legal action against MAACO, conatact the BBB, and raise holy hell with them. I would have kept the message that was on my machine and every single piece of correspondence between you, corporate, and whomever else. You really should have or should pursue this matter.

 

[Pakrat]

Part of the delay could be dependent of the total work you are having done for sure. Does the car also need body work? Did you just drop it off to them, or did you remove all the molding and such yourself first? Honestly, if I ever decided to go to Macco, I would do as much prep myself as Blake said, and let them only shoot the paint part. If they are doing everything on your car, well then as Dark Buddah pointed out, there isd more volume in newer cars that have little trim, and that's why they keep putting off your car.

I think you have come to your senses though, wait to complain or you could end up with paint that matches their service level.

 

[ForceFed70]

If you want anything other than a quick, cheap, paintjob go elsewhere.

Macco is to bodywork/painting as McDonalds is to restaurants.

 

[Ron Jeremy]

My family and I have always brought our cars into Maaco. They did very good work. And we saved lots of money. On the other hand, we're all cheap Jews who don't want to pay a lot of money for anything.

Seriously, Maaco did a good job. I made sure that they were careful and that they did their prep work properly.

 

[lgil351]

there is a maaco here in columbus that does awesome work for cheap....paint quality is way better than the "BIG DOLLAR" body shops!!! my neighbor had his camaro painted and had ghost flames sprayed and he's constantly winning trophies at regional car shows with his 500 dollar paint job!!!!! when people ask who did the paint he tells them...the look on their face is priceless...now to be fair he wet sanded the finished job and did his own prep work

 

[Ron Jeremy]

Maaco did ALL the prep work on all of our vehicles and they did EXCELLENT work. It depends to which Maaco that you take your car to. Some are good and some have morons who don't know how to do a good job.