The Paint Saga

OK I know ear­lier I had said that this whole sit­u­a­tion was dri­ving me out of my mind, and the saga con­tin­ues sort of.…  In today’s econ­omy you would think that peo­ple would be trip­ping over them­selves try­ing to get busi­ness, but in this sit­u­a­tion I have spent the last 8 weeks try­ing to find some­one to paint this car so we could begin to move for­ward.  Being a busi­ness­man, I can­not imag­ine run­ning my busi­ness like those that I have dealt with over the last 8 weeks.  My first con­tact was with High Veloc­ity Body Shop who while a very small oper­a­tion thought they would be inter­ested, they made an appoint­ment the fol­low­ing week to inspect the car, were one of the few who actu­ally did what they said they would, but blew my doors off with an esti­mate in the stratos­phere!  I’m sure they would have done a qual­ity job but if I paid that num­ber to paint the car it would be noth­ing but garage fur­ni­ture, as I would be afraid to drive it any­where, so I had to toss that esti­mate and move on (we blew 9 days here).…

Next up comes Orchard Auto who says they are inter­ested and to call them the fol­low­ing Sat­ur­day and they will come out to look at it, Sat­ur­day arrives, I call them and they are to busy to come that day and blow me off, telling me to call the fol­low­ing Sat­ur­day, I don’t know about you, but I’m not chas­ing any­body to give them my money, and if that’s the way they treat me before the car arrives what will it be like when it is actu­ally there, ho hum, another 9 days wasted.…

Next Bozo in line is West­ern Mass Col­li­sion, Andre who owns the joint lives about 2 blocks from where the “Gray Lady” lives, says he is inter­ested, will come over and look at her, jerks me around for another 9 days, calls to say he will be over, never comes and the worst part about this one is that his son-in law is a very good friend of mine, but alas it is not to be and as of today he still has not looked at the car, nuff said here, just stay away, another 9 wasted days…

Now I go to John’s Auto Body, right here in South Hadley, stopped in because there was a clas­sic sit­ting right in front, of course the owner is not in and he is the one I need to talk to…  Two days later I go back again and again I’m told the owner is not there, but this time I speak to his brother who assures me that he prob­a­bly will be the one to come look at it, takes my name and num­ber and lo and behold the phone never rings.… Another one for the Bozo list, scratch 7 more days.

Now I try DMS Auto Body in Chicopee and per­son­ally speak with Wes­ley who owns the place and he assures me he will call and come see the car prob­a­bly over the week­end.… Tic Toc Tic Toc, yep you guessed it no call, how the hell do these peo­ple actu­ally stay in business?

Well, here we are eight weeks later, I’m dis­gusted and have a real bad taste in my mouth and fig­ure at this stage I’ve got noth­ing to lose, so I take a ride over to MAACO.  I meet with Joe Houghton who owns the shop, he spends 30 min­utes with me,  gives me a tour of the shop, is very thor­ough inves­ti­gat­ing my expec­ta­tions and very clear about what he can and can­not do for me, he promises to call me no later than Wednes­day.  I leave with a pretty good feel­ing think­ing I may have found the right guy, but only time will tell.  Wednes­day comes and Joe calls exactly like he said he would, meets me right on time, looks over the car, tells me he will go over the num­bers and call me by Fri­day.  I speak with him on Fri­day and he is not quite ready with the num­bers, asks me to give him until Sat­ur­day morn­ing and he in fact does call as promised with what I believe is a real­is­tic esti­mate for what I want, more than what I want to pay, but fair to both he and I.  Joe has the job!  The “Gray Lady” trav­els by flatbed to his shop this com­ing Sat­ur­day and will be there for approx­i­mately 3 weeks.  All I can say is that if Joe deliv­ers what he promised at the price he quoted, I’ll be a happy camper and glad to have this phase of the project over with.  Joe is the only per­son I’ve dealt with in this mess who actu­ally did what he said he would do, when he said he would do it.… A breath of fresh air in this crappy sit­u­a­tion.  Joe has agreed to allow me access to his shop so that we can doc­u­ment his efforts through this site.  Based on what I have seen so far I would not hes­i­tate to rec­om­mend Joe or his Com­pany, we will see how this ulti­mately plays out but I have high expec­ta­tions that he will in fact do every­thing he said he would.…

Till next time.

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