I had researched and researched where to a) take off my rear tint (inspection said so) and b) apply new tint. I found a place that was raved about so I figured it had to be good. I brought it in at 11 and left at 3:30. I kept thinking a job well done takes time. The front office lady was great. I get the car back finally, the sides look good. The rear looked terrible! I could of bought film at walmart and had my 7 year old put it on better. To top that, the a-- scuffed my freaking front seat leather. Supposedly they are award winning! I emailed them when I saw all this and got a good response, bring it back and they will let the COO and CEO of the shop know. I will do that and if they don't fix it, I will of course let folks know who to avoid in Maryland. But how do you find a place that actually respects your car AND does a good job? I'm sick of paying for crap work.
That's a tough question - besides online ratings & reviews, & BBB comments (if there are any), I like to have personal interactions with anyone working on my car. That usually means finding small shops where the owner is working also on-site everyday running things, and a friendly, open atmosphere where you can stroll through the shop, chatting with employees, and able to observe & see how a place is. If a small service shop is filled with a bunch of uptight people that aren't sociable, friendly, and easygoing, that's a red flag for me. But, getting a firsthand look around tells you a lot - things don't have to be pristinely clean and organized, but such signs can help with re-assurance that whoever might be in & around your vehicle has a mindset that they care about the customer, your car, & their work. Takes some time though.
Thanks for both response, I did research prior to bringing in the car for tint and this place seemed excellent. Even mentioned they do BMW's and luxury cars all the time. The workers were extremely nice and the place was well done. As a bit of a followup; I did contact them again and the issue seems to be the micro-dots around the edges of the glass. The 335 seems to be notorious for that being an issue. I got some additional responses from other 335i owners saying theres is worse then mine. It seems some shops will put a piece of vinyl at the top and then tint that and it works better then the tint on the dots. I may try that and will let you know the outcome.
I know if you remove the glass for the side windows that will keep the dots from happening. I did that for my M5 and they turned out great.
