WTF at my luck or is this normal?

[tpark]

I want to start out by saying that I won’t name the shops/people involved in these series of events because I just want people’s opinion on SoCal shops.

I purchased my M3 back in March and I had a vision for what I wanted the car to be like. The very first thing I wanted was an Atlantis Metallic Blue wrap on my car with some basic performance goodies so I went to a well-respected shop in the OC to get a wrap, a tune, and some bolt-ons. I then dealt with a sales guy who told me I couldn’t do AMB because 3M discontinued it so I chose the next best thing: Atomic Teal. When I saw this wrap, I really didn’t care that much about AMB because it was a stunning color.

Fast forward a couple weeks the wrap starts showing signs of major peeling and bubbling which I was told was normal so I brought it in for a follow up appointment. The issue now was the sales guy got fired, and he didn’t tell anyone else at the shop I was coming in. So I drove from LA to OC to be sorely disappointed, and I pretty much had to beg the shop owner to at least give me a complimentary oil change for my troubles.

I got the complimentary oil change, but this time one of the shop techs - for who knows what reason - reset the BMW oil change maintenance interval so now I can’t get the next oil change from BMW service dept. I told the shop owner about this and he didn’t do anything about it other than confirm with the tech that he in fact reset my maintenance interval. I feel they did it intentionally to spite me for asking for freebies and didn’t plan on me finding out.

Whatever – I can just pay out of pocket for my next oil change, and I’ll probably do it myself. I’ll just avoid that shop from now on and I don’t have to deal with anymore pain in the ass situations. Except now the wrap is peeling everywhere. I must have gone back to the guy who did my wrap about 6 times in the span of a couple months, and the only thing he would do is just slap more vinyl on top of the peeling areas, which would then peel again in a couple weeks. After looking into a TON of vinyl wrapping videos, I discovered that this guy who did my wrap did a really sub-par job. Everything is so damn messy I am currently considering taking off the wrap altogether.

It gets even worse from there – a few months later I wanted my wheels powder coated to be a satin champagne-gold (like in this picture: https://www.acquiremag.com/cars/bmw-...rts-concept-m2 ), so I took it to another “reputable” wheel guy in OC to take care of it. I sent this guy pictures of the exact color and finish I wanted. Turns out this guy just sent it to another place to get the powder coat done, and finished it in a BRIGHT brushed, metallic gold. I expressed how terrible I thought the wheels looked and after telling me the “The wheels look great! You’ll get used to it” the only thing this guy offered was to spray paint over the powdercoat to the color I wanted. Okay now I’m LIVID. This guy single handedly ruined a $3k set of wheels and my car is aesthetically ruined.

Now I have very little trust in SoCal shops, which sucks cause I had a ton of mods planned for my car and now I feel like I have to just do everything DIY. Everyone here is just out to take your money and do a subpar job because maybe the demand is there due to the car culture. Are shops supposed to be this bad or am I just comically unlucky?

[jdzumwalt]

I would be pissed too. Spend some at cars and coffee. Find out who did what and what works. I’m from San Diego and we have plenty of shops that do stand up work.

[PshhhhhMW]

Pics of car plz

[Jeef]

Sounds like bad luck to me or you chose the wrong shops

[r0wr]

Post the name. Not sure why you're blinding it if all your claims are legit.

[DrunkTyrion]

I could recommend a shop for wraps and powder coating near in city of industry if you want, ive had my wrap for about a year and a half now, so far so good, they threw in some mod parts for free, such as spoiler and rear diffuser but you might not get THAT lucky with them. But TBH not all shops are like that sorry to hear that

[NoMoreAudi]

Another reason why I don't wrap my cars anymore. When you see a car that is wrapped at a shop, it is usually NEVER driven outside a showroom or the wrap is NEW. Fast forward 3, 6 or 12 months and the wrap will show signs of peeling, lifting, bubbles, spots, etc.

Also, youtube videos don't show imperfections in the wrap.

[TXSoxFan]

Originally Posted by r0wr

Post the name. Not sure why you're blinding it if all your claims are legit.

Agree with this.

Why are you protecting shops that are doing sub-par work? If it were me I would want to let others know so they don't end up with the same issues.

[RRedline]

I get the complaints about the wrap. If the shop is responsible, they should make it right.

However, they changed the oil and reset the maintenance interval...isn't that what you're supposed to do?

I feel they did it intentionally to spite me for asking for freebies and didn’t plan on me finding out.

OK.

[tpark]

Originally Posted by RRedline

I get the complaints about the wrap. If the shop is responsible, they should make it right.

However, they changed the oil and reset the maintenance interval...isn't that what you're supposed to do?

OK.

Well no, since I was planning on 5k mi oil change while BMW oil service interval is 10k

[tpark]

Originally Posted by CASoxFan

Agree with this.

Why are you protecting shops that are doing sub-par work? If it were me I would want to let others know so they don't end up with the same issues.

For the shop, it's complicated where I feel more comfortable not calling them out because I know a lot of other people have had good experiences with them but I actually don't mind calling out the wheel guy - Son Tran at On-Site Wheels

[tpark]

Originally Posted by NoMoreAudi

Another reason why I don't wrap my cars anymore. When you see a car that is wrapped at a shop, it is usually NEVER driven outside a showroom or the wrap is NEW. Fast forward 3, 6 or 12 months and the wrap will show signs of peeling, lifting, bubbles, spots, etc.

Also, youtube videos don't show imperfections in the wrap.

To be fair, I know a lot of people that have very durable and quality wrap jobs. I'm talking about things like just cutting the lines for the front bumper tow cap instead of taking it out and wrapping it separately

[JamesGames]

There are many shops in southern california, why not give another shop a shot, we are saturated here compared to many other parts of the USA. Some drive hundreds of miles to have a socal shop work on their cars.

[louielouie]

Originally Posted by tpark

For the shop, it's complicated where I feel more comfortable not calling them out because I know a lot of other people have had good experiences with them but I actually don't mind calling out the wheel guy - Son Tran at On-Site Wheels

Dang, I'm pretty surprised about Son Tran.

I had my wheels done there and have nothing but good things to say.

[tpark]

Originally Posted by louielouie

Dang, I'm pretty surprised about Son Tran.

I had my wheels done there and have nothing but good things to say.

Yeah like I said, these were people that forum members have vouched for in the past so I'm just a skeptic at this point

[MisterF80M3]

To be fair, that gold color is very hard to get right. But it doesn't look too bad on your car.

[msmching]

Originally Posted by louielouie

Dang, I'm pretty surprised about Son Tran.

I had my wheels done there and have nothing but good things to say.

+1 on Son Tran.

I remember him as a very reputable wheel guy around the SoCal.

[BzsBimmer]

Not saying it’s right, but since Son Tran outsources the painting of wheels, it’s not “him” per say but since it was his supplier, he should work it out with them.

I would still recommend him in wheel repair and finishing that HE does himself.

As for the oil change, not sure I understand the frustration. Since you got a “free” oil change, you could consider that the dealer one as the swap since you were going to pay for a mid service change... unless I misunderstood.

Either way, if I were in your shoes with a bad wrap and wheels, I’d be pretty heated as well.

[louielouie]

Originally Posted by tpark

Yeah like I said, these were people that forum members have vouched for in the past so I'm just a skeptic at this point

Yea, I don't doubt your experience; I'm just surprised.

Bought my wheels used and they were quite beat up so they were stripped, powder coated and resurfaced. PC was just gloss black though - could be partly why I had no issues.

[tpark]

Originally Posted by BzsBimmer

Not saying it’s right, but since Son Tran outsources the painting of wheels, it’s not “him” per say but since it was his supplier, he should work it out with them.

I would still recommend him in wheel repair and finishing that HE does himself.

As for the oil change, not sure I understand the frustration. Since you got a “free” oil change, you could consider that the dealer one as the swap since you were going to pay for a mid service change... unless I misunderstood.

Either way, if I were in your shoes with a bad wrap and wheels, I’d be pretty heated as well.

Last oil change around 10,000 mi, I was at 15,000 so I wanted an oil change every 5k miles, and BMW maintenance program only does every 10k mi so next one would have been 20,000 instead of the 15,000 that I wanted to do. Does that clear it up?

[tpark]

Originally Posted by MisterF80M3

To be fair, that gold color is very hard to get right. But it doesn't look too bad on your car.

It'll look better if I take the wrap off and it's MG underneath. That's why I had to think about it for a long time if I want to just redo it or not, but it's still shitty that he gave me confidence that it would be done exactly how I'd asked. It wasn't even like he said "Hey, this color is hard to do, are you sure you want us to try?" It was "Yeah yeah, I can do it no problem" just trying to make a sale.

[redEYEjedi]

In regards to Son Tran, I've used him multiples times to repair curb rash since that's what he's known for. Since the very beginning he was the mobile wheel repair god. With that said, I would have never considered him for powder coat or color change. He's not known for that. Someone like VR wheels would make more sense for that.

I guess the point is yes there are tons of vendors in SoCal, but you have to know who to go to for the proper work to have realistic expectations.

You can't go to a steak house and order the bbq expecting it to be good.

I think sharing the company names would be productive in keeping the companies hungry to improve and help other potential customers. There are TOO MANY subpar shops in this industry. I wish we could weed a lot out. Seriously.