So I took some alloys for a refurb and picked them up saturday just gone. I've heard some great things about this place (+ 1 or 2 'cowboy' stories) but the majority I've heard is great. Generally the finish is good but there are a few things I'm not happy about at all. Yes I know I should've checked first and refused to pay up but honestly needed to be somewhere very urgently so couldn't check until I got home later on. They have a warranty and I knew this. Anyway:
- two wheels have what looks like a small black 'flake' under the clear coat. Very small, but amongst the silver powder finish and lacquer it's noticeable enough to know 'that's not quite right'. Maybe a bit of dirt, or residue from a prior finish in the gun, who knows.
- One wheel has what looks like a chip/ dent/ crack in the powder coat finish, but under completely unmarked lacquer. Sort of looks like the mark a small sharp flat head screwdriver would leave. Whatever it is it looks shoddy.
- At the side of one rim, a huge smudge in the primer finish, which I did enquire about before paying, and was told it's where the wheels are picked up after they're painted. But not all the wheels have this, so why only one of them? I know this will be covered by the tyre, but still. If there's not a seal in the primer, could this not encourage rust on the wheel?
- In places there are little 'bobbles' or 'peaks' sticking out of the powder coat, which have then been lacquered over. Maybe a drip that hardened? I get accidents happen but honestly if it's your job to do this and you're using a proper paint gun, how on earth does this happen. Again, looks shoddy.
- Some other light dents around the wheels, again under the lacquer. I can look past these but the other things will annoy me to no end - they don't look 'newly refinished'.
I rang today and asked if they could sort this and wasn't exactly given a 'no', but got 'bring them down and 'we'll see' if it's something we can do'. He suggested it might be damage to the wheel, or defect in the metal etc but his overall tone sort of felt to me like he was just Now given that I paid for a full refurb here, even if it was, surely this is something that they would have rectified first before applying the powder coat. Wheels are sanded, smoothed, filled, welded even if needs be and smoothed again so I'm not really sure how that's an excuse. I paid for a full refurb, not a 'strip the paint, leave any dents in the finish and respray' job.
They do actually offer a courier service apparently for a £20 fee but he seemed unwilling to offer this. It's about a 50 minute drive for me, 20 minutes of it driving dodgy narrow supposedly '40' roads and single track lanes full of horseriders, walkers, cyclists etc. Given that I dropped them off and collected them, I expected a little courtesy here.
I'm considering phoning back tomorrow and asking if I can send pictures of the defects etc, as I really can't be bothered driving down there only for someone to decide that it's not something they're willing to do again. Not saying they were completely unreasonable here, but just seemed a little unaccommodating... I understand that accidents happen but I'm really not sure how you can pass a job as done when there are this many errors with what is meant to be a 'standard' finish that you provide. Is this something you'd be unhappy about yourself or am I just being a fussy sod? Are these common finishing problems with powder coat alloys?
- two wheels have what looks like a small black 'flake' under the clear coat. Very small, but amongst the silver powder finish and lacquer it's noticeable enough to know 'that's not quite right'. Maybe a bit of dirt, or residue from a prior finish in the gun, who knows.
- One wheel has what looks like a chip/ dent/ crack in the powder coat finish, but under completely unmarked lacquer. Sort of looks like the mark a small sharp flat head screwdriver would leave. Whatever it is it looks shoddy.
- At the side of one rim, a huge smudge in the primer finish, which I did enquire about before paying, and was told it's where the wheels are picked up after they're painted. But not all the wheels have this, so why only one of them? I know this will be covered by the tyre, but still. If there's not a seal in the primer, could this not encourage rust on the wheel?
- In places there are little 'bobbles' or 'peaks' sticking out of the powder coat, which have then been lacquered over. Maybe a drip that hardened? I get accidents happen but honestly if it's your job to do this and you're using a proper paint gun, how on earth does this happen. Again, looks shoddy.
- Some other light dents around the wheels, again under the lacquer. I can look past these but the other things will annoy me to no end - they don't look 'newly refinished'.
I rang today and asked if they could sort this and wasn't exactly given a 'no', but got 'bring them down and 'we'll see' if it's something we can do'. He suggested it might be damage to the wheel, or defect in the metal etc but his overall tone sort of felt to me like he was just Now given that I paid for a full refurb here, even if it was, surely this is something that they would have rectified first before applying the powder coat. Wheels are sanded, smoothed, filled, welded even if needs be and smoothed again so I'm not really sure how that's an excuse. I paid for a full refurb, not a 'strip the paint, leave any dents in the finish and respray' job.
They do actually offer a courier service apparently for a £20 fee but he seemed unwilling to offer this. It's about a 50 minute drive for me, 20 minutes of it driving dodgy narrow supposedly '40' roads and single track lanes full of horseriders, walkers, cyclists etc. Given that I dropped them off and collected them, I expected a little courtesy here.
I'm considering phoning back tomorrow and asking if I can send pictures of the defects etc, as I really can't be bothered driving down there only for someone to decide that it's not something they're willing to do again. Not saying they were completely unreasonable here, but just seemed a little unaccommodating... I understand that accidents happen but I'm really not sure how you can pass a job as done when there are this many errors with what is meant to be a 'standard' finish that you provide. Is this something you'd be unhappy about yourself or am I just being a fussy sod? Are these common finishing problems with powder coat alloys?
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