Avant owners, after tint was installed, were there scratches in the rear window tint?

[lookaught]

I just had my car tinted by a shop that I've used personally about three times in the past with awesome results... but and I've noticed quite a few scratches from the squeegee on the rear window in particular. I know that all tint is plastic and can scratch, but these are pretty noticable and I can even easily catch a nail in the scratch if i brush over them.

Normal? I was thinking that the curve on the glass forced the edge of the squeegee into the tint, but that this could have been avoided. Im going to have it looked at by the shop owner in a few days (of course after its pretty much stuck on for good) and Im curious if other avant owners have this problem. I dont want to raise hell if its a somewhat unavoidable problem.

Huge deal? No. But the fooking tint cost $300, it should be damn near perfect. From the outside it looks great, very, very few tiny bubbles, etc, but these scratches are annoying me already....

Thanks for any advice.

[fritzner]

i had my B6 avant tinted about 2 months ago and i havent noticed any scratches.. but i need to double check and look closer to be sure..

tint is not that hard to remove, especially if it is pretty fresh.. a tint shop should certainly know how.. but generally you pick at a corner and you can pull it off.. getting the glue off isnt much fun, but goo gone and a steel wool work pretty well.. a razor blade can be used but you have to be careful around the defroster..

hope you get it sorted out.. i will be in PA soon and need to get my C5 Avant tinted.. but $300 is a bit much, did you get fancy tint??..

good luck..

[lookaught]

No its nothing fancy, Johnson Films Silhouette 40%, but in the past I've taken cars to this shop and the tint has come back PERFECT. Im very suspicious that they farmed out my car to one of the other guys in the shop even though I specifically requested that the owner do my car (he is the person that did the other cars in the past).

Im going to call and discuss it with the owner today, and will hopefully have it looked at tonight. It should either be redone or I'll be expecting a very large refund. Its pretty cold in Pgh today (like 60) and for the next few days so if they have to take it off it shouldnt be too difficult.

$300 is steep, but if the tint was perfect I would be happy to pay it. But the tint is not, and Im not going to pay that much for a shitty job. Im even more annoyed b/c of the time though, the shop is NOT close to me.

[autophiles]

That sucks man.. there's nothing worse than paying good money for a shitty tint job! I just had my Avant tinted by a friend that owns a tint business in town.. he only charges $200 for Wagons.. and charged me $180. I guess it does have some advantages to know the owner. G/L with the back window.. hopefully he'll re-do it free of charge since you were a repeat customer, etc.

[lookaught]

Not only am I a repeat customer I've referred at least ten other people to his business and in the past every car has come out perfect... except mine! I expect he will offer to redo the tint, but the waste of time is really annoying, I've already driven a combined 110 miles for this fooking tint b/w dropping off my car and going back to get it in a separate car. Its going to be an intersting phone call at 10am...

[autophiles]

Not only am I a repeat customer I've referred at least ten other people to his business and in the past every car has come out perfect... except mine! I expect he will offer to redo the tint, but the waste of time is really annoying, I've already driven a combined 110 miles for this fooking tint b/w dropping off my car and going back to get it in a separate car. Its going to be an intersting phone call at 10am...

Damn.. that sucks man. G/L with the call!

[doobiesdaddy]

I had my allroad tinted and it came out great. No scratches and the ceramic dots on the edges came out great too. Sounds as if you got a bogus install. Good luck getting it sorted out!

[Savant05]

Damn mine cost 330, but it was for 3m lifetime warranty tint..no scratches yet...

[JaiMoney]

I'm a window tinter and I can offer some input as to what happened and what could (should) be done. As far as good business practice goes, he should've never let it leave the shop like that. Good chances are that if you notice the scratches then he or the installer did as well. I'm very peculiar when it comes to my work and I don't let anything "fly."

What I would do in a situation like this, regardless of what/how it happened would be to replace the tint on that window for you for free. The installer probably used dull tools on where the scratches are. The scratches are probably closer to the edges right? That's because plastic squeegees are used to get the minor details out, like final water bubbles and stuff like that. The center of the tint probably doesn't have any scratches at all, because the squeegee used for the majority of the glass is made of silicon, very hard to scartch using a silicon squeegee.

Tell him to redo it because it is scratched. He could've easily avoided the scratches by wrapping his card with a paper towel, because the tint scratches so easily. Now he's gotta strip it and retint it. Removing all the glue that's left over is gonna be a bitch, and if they stripped it before any of it healed then they wouldn't have had any glue left over at all. Hope this helps some!

And 300 bucks? Good god I would've made sure that thing came out PERFECT if I had you pay that much

[lookaught]

No the scratches are actually right in the middle of the glass. Looks like its from the edge of the squeegee or perhaps something was knicked.

I agree its not acceptable. Im almost positive that he had an apprentice tint it and then just let it fly. I have not had a chance to call to get this sorted out b/c of work but will do so this afternoon.

Thanks for the input everyone, obviously this isnt right, and needs to be corrected.

[lookaught]

Damn mine cost 330, but it was for 3m lifetime warranty tint..no scratches yet...

It does have a lifetime warranty. I agree 100% that $300 is really expensive, but based on the work the shop owner has done for me in the past it is worth it b/c he does an outstanding job. It's just that the owner didnt tint my car this time (even though I requested that he do it) and now everyones stuck in some shit with no shoes on.

fvck. I hate other people.

[lookaught]

I called the shop and spoke with the owner and he was very apologetic and offered to redo everything that was scratched after about three sentences of me explaining that I was not happy.

Going to have it looked at on Saturday, then will have it done either Saturday or Monday.

Im crossing my fingers that this goes better this time around. At least he was really easy to deal with an super nice about it, that makes it easier to deal with.

[JaiMoney]

That's a good thing. I really don't know how he scratched the middle unless he used a plastic card to squeegee to do a once over after it was applied. That's a good thing that he is offering to resolve the issue. That's what I would do as well. Good luck!