On April 28th, I decided to surprise my wife while she was out of town and have her beloved 1996 Jeep Cherokeepainted at EarlSheib, 5550 Lankersheim Blvd, N. Hollywood CA 91601. The manager, Earnest, sold me a two-tone paint job for six hundred dollars and said the car would be ready the next day.
The following day I called at noon and Earnest told me the car wasn't ready. I told him not to rush it, "Take another day. Just please, do a good job."
"I will," said Earnest.
The next day when I picked up the Jeep, I noticed there were several things wrong. They hadn't taken off the pin stripe completely, sections of it were still stuck to the car and painted over. The rear bumper and body molding had chips all around. The Jeep emblem was painted over. They had broken the rear wiper blade and the driver's side wiper was remounted a quarter of the way up the windshield.
When I pointed these things out to Earnest, he told me that they got MOST of the stripe off. I said, "Look, I know it's only a six hundred dollar paint job but this is unexceptable." Earnest told me he could get the rest of the stripe off and repaint it for a hundred dollars.
I went nuts!
The result, Earnest agreed to sand the rest of the stripe off and repaint as well as repaint all the other mistakes at NO CHARGE. However, he wouldn't be able to do the work until May 27th. Almost a month later!
I waited the month and took it back on the 27th. Earnest told me the car would be ready at ten the next morning. When I called this morning at ten, the car wasn't ready. Once again I told him to take his time and do it right. At two o'clock, I went to EarlSheib.
They sanded the stripe off but didn't putty and fine sand. The result, it looks as though they painted the car with a brush all along the belt-line.
Not only that, they didn't re-spray the silver molding and bumpers. Instead, they used the WRONG COLOR touch-up paint. It looks like the car has silver scabs!
I went nuts!
I told Earnest, "I wanted my money back." To which he said, "You have to call my supervisor."
Why do I have to call your supervisor? Why don't YOU call him?
He said all he would do is give me the number.
No surprise, I've called the supervisor, Ron Jamali, at (818) 981- 9992 three times and left messages.
No call back. My guess is he won't.
I hope that anyone who reads this and decides to go ahead and let EarlSheib paint there car anyway, doesn't pay in cash or with a credit card.
Pay by check. This way, you can cancel the check when they ruin your car.
Better yet, break out fingerpaint and let your preschooler do a better job.
i painted my first car at One Day paint and body. the paint peeled off within a year. but they did fix it when i brought it back.
i painted my second car - a honda prelude - at Earl Scheib - it was white over white. the job was fine and i had no problem.
i painted my third car - a honda civic del sol - at Earl Scheib. It was black over black and the results were AMAZING. was completely impressed with the job.
i painted my 4th car - a 2001 honda passport - at Earl Scheib. the original color was hunter green. i painted metallic grey over it. loved the work. but after the years, there were a lot of chipped paint. but i was too lazy to bring it back for repair.
i just painted my 5th car - a 2006 honda accord - at Earl Scheib yesterday. the original color was silver. i just really don't like silver, so i painted it metallic grey. so far i like it. but i guess when your original paint is nice, a new paint job isn't that noticeable.
maybe i'm just a paintjob ***.
overall, if your car is over 5 years old and you don't like the color, just paint it.
if your car is over 10 years old, just paint it.
i've had yet to find the car less desirable after a paint job.
A real paint job for a car will cost you about $2000-$4000. That is for one that will look good, not contain mistakes and over spray, done by skilled competant professionals, and will stay looking good for 6-10 years.
Basically, near "factory quality."
Be prepared to pay the piper, or be happy with the BS metered out by the likes of Maaco and Earl Scheib. They are really geared to painting up old junkers for a cheap price. You never take a good car there. Looks like you and many others learned the hard way. See those beautiful paint jobs on restored cars in hot-rod mags and car shows and such? Those are $4K - $6K paint jobs.
I'm enraged just reading this. Please tell me the author chose the name "Ernest" as a nod to poetic license. There are so many things about this that scream "crooks" it's a waste to point them all out. I'll only mention that you know you're in trouble with a scam artist when they can fit you in for a first visit and mess up your car on a moment's notice, but to fix their bad job it's a month wait. A month wait! Beverly Hills plastic surgeons aren't booked a month solid and this outfit that does crap paint jobs on cars is booked for a month! No, it's time for either a local news expose or time for the state to get involved. Actually - both!
![]("http://www.pissedconsumer.com/templates/pc2/images/spacer.gif){kind=spacer}
Comments
Comments (6)
