My review of TMC London (Tint My Car) Pic Heavy

[ddcboyle]

This is going to be a long read, so just go with it

 

Took my car to TMC London in September 2012

 

Mid way through wrapping my 350z green, I twisted car and knocked a lamppost. It didn't do much damage, but to repair the front bumper would be pointless as it would cost as much as getting a nismo v2 bumper. So I went ahead and bought the nismo v2 front bumper and canards from EpRacing.

 

Shortly after, I searched through vinyl wrapping garages in my area, there were various ones that came up, a few me and my friend who helped wrap the car, had been to but didn't like the way they worked. Looking on a website I enquired about TMC London doing the job.

 

I was looking to have the front bumper fitted, sprayed and wrapped. Yes I can wrap myself, but I thought it would just be simple to get the garage to go through the whole work themselves so it was less hastle having to remove the bumper again to wrap it once I got home.

 

I asked about the price, got quoted £360 if I provided the Hexis gloss apple green vinyl, to which I agreed and the girlfriend paid for it on her credit card. I dropped the car off at TMC London and said I would be back in a week, on the sunday morning to collect the car.

 

A week later, on a sataurday, I phoned up TMC London and told them I required the car back that day due to me being posted away for a few weeks and needed the car. We arrived around 2pm, asked TMC if they were able to do it, and they said yes. They said "we normally wrap the car, and leave it for a day to set, otherwise it will peel" <-- If you leave it for a day, why wasn't it wrapped on sataurday already?? But I agreed, that if the vinyl started to peel back, it would be my own fault for not leaving for a day and accepted that (because I knew 100% it wouldn't lift) At around 7pm we came back and collected the car. I got told there was some bits still in their workshop and if I wanted to collect them another time (washer hose assembly, liscence plate, canards, all the fixings etc), and I said yes. initially I just looked at it and went, "yep its green", but only when I got home did I realise how bad the job was.

 

In the morning I went to inspect the work, and straight away I noticed certain points;

1- They hadn't removed the headlights for the wrap, and had just stuck extra pieces of vinyl on which were obvious

2- There was stretch marks over the right hand corner, but I provided 4m of vinyl so there was no need to stretch

3- Next to the wheel arch, they had again, added another separate piece on

4- Lifting up the bonnet, a second piece had been added on, instead of lifting the bonnet up before they started.

5- They had fitted the bumper with wood screws, so I was unable to remove the screws and refit without having to drill another hole. So this just kept causing issues with fixing my headlight bulbs. When the car was at the zedshed, Keyser pulled out one of the screws with his hand, so, imagine if it fell off while driving.

6- The passenger side wheel arch had not been fitted properly, and had just screwed the wood screws into the fender

7- There were no plugs for where the bumper touches under the bonnet

8- Due to the bad fitment and wrong screws/plugs, the bonnet overlapped the bumper on one side, which is obvious to just looking at the car that it doesn't fit.

9- The paintjob on the centre of the bumper must have had 1 layer, because it was all chipped after a week, showing the original white plastic of the bumper.

 

So obviously, I phoned up TMC London to ask what the hell they had done with the money. Straight away their answer was "You told us you needed it for sataurday, and we done what we could. You said if it wasn't done properly you can always rewrap yourself" and carried on to say they had CCTV footage of me saying this. I told them to send a copy of the CCTV footage, and that I wanted all this sorted out, along with my things back.

 

TMC London said if I could get the bumper fitted properly, and an invoice, they would return the money for the bumper fitment. They also said they would rewrap the front bumper free of charge. So I was happy with this answer, but I had 0 funds to go get the bumper fitted.

I asked if they could send liscence plate etc to my home and I would pay the p&p. They agreed.

 

Around a week later, I get a parcel at the door, signed to "Damon-Bean Boyle"... Bean instead of Dean, cocky little prats. Opened the box, and there was no bubble wrap, no secure boxes, it was just one big box with everything thrown inside. Reflectors were cracked, washer assembly broken, missing screws and bolts for fitment, canards which were black were not chipped and torn apart.

 

Straight away, back on the phone to complain about this. They had told me to go take it up with the delivery provider. As if it was their fault that TMC didn't put "fragile" or use bubblewrap. I declined, and told them I didn't deal with the delivery company, I dealt with TMC London. All they could think about was getting their £27.99 for p&p. I just wasn't happy at all with how things were panning out, and didn't want them to touch my car again, if they cant even put bubble wrap in a box.

 

There was constant emails for a few months, with TMC London trying to blame me for the job. Telling me I hadn't given enough time... Im pretty sure if a garage knows they don't have enough time, they say they cant do the job? Or is that just me being thick. Followed by, they are getting bailiffs involved to get the 27.99 back.

I believe I was reasonable with this, I told them the can get their 27,99 once the situation is resolved, and that I wouldn't be paying more whilst the bumper is still wrecked. And the fact bailiffs will never get on a military base, so they can send as many of them as they wanted.

 

In December I visited citizens advice beaurea and was given a copy of a letter, that I just had to fill in the blanks and send to TMC London that I wanted a refund. TMC London refused this, so I sent the actual citizens advice log of me claiming for the money and would be getting other companies involved. TMC ignored this. and had no response for weeks, after sending an email every week for a month.

 

After things happened at work, I got back onto the case with the bumper. In April we contacted Lloyds Credit Desputes, since the girlfriend had paid for the work on her card.

 

This involved constantly sending more info about every single possible event, multiple times but obviously I just kept gripping through. The final piece they required was for an invoice from a garage to say that the bumper would need worked on to get it upto the standard it should have been. I had an agreement with one of the garages to have it fitted there if they were able to provide an invoice, and we got the ball rolling.

 

July 2013 we had confirmation that we would be refunded double the amount paid to TMC to fix the bumper correctly.

 

We are now just waiting for the payment to arrive where I will;

Have the bumper fitted correctly at the garage chosen

Fit the canards

Rewrap the bumper myself

 

Pictures to follow

Edited August 7, 2013 by ddcboyle

[OV53]

What a bloody carry on!

[ddcboyle]

 

 

 

 

[OV53]

Absolutely unacceptable mate, glad you're finally starting to see some progress now. Just goes to show how dishonest some fizuckers are.

[StevoD]

Hmm this puts me off the idea of getting my Z wrapped

[ddcboyle]

Hmm this puts me off the idea of getting my Z wrapped

 

If your getting zed wrapped, either stick with he main ones people use on the forum, or give it a go yourself. Been to 3 wrapping garages so far for my car and mates car, and everytime we got something done I thought "I can do better". Qualification means nothing for wrapping.

 

But don't let it put you off, just choose good garage. Buy some vinyl for like 20quid and give it a go

[ddcboyle]

around 15more photos to upload in 10minutes.

 

These are photos of certain angles of the bumper, to point out extra pieces added on, stretch marks, and the b&q screws.

 

Any questions about the photos, just ask

[ddcboyle]

 

 

 

[HORNZEE]

What a bunch of cowboys robbing b#####ds glad you are finally getting it all sorted

[Will370z]

That is shocking, good to hear you are finally getting it sorted

[Squee]

That's terrible workmanship! I can't believe they let it out like that?!

 

You say they sprayed the bumper? So I'm guessing maybe they had to leave it for a few days for the paint to set before wrapping so they rushed the wrap and screwed it up so bad?

 

I've recently wrapped my ZX (first car I've wrapped) and although it's far from perfect it's probably better than those cowboys!

 

Glad it seems you're getting it sorted tho

 

S.

[K370Z2]

What a good post and a warning to us all

[ddcboyle]

That's terrible workmanship! I can't believe they let it out like that?!

 

You say they sprayed the bumper? So I'm guessing maybe they had to leave it for a few days for the paint to set before wrapping so they rushed the wrap and screwed it up so bad?

 

I've recently wrapped my ZX (first car I've wrapped) and although it's far from perfect it's probably better than those cowboys!

 

Glad it seems you're getting it sorted tho

 

S.

 

Yep, they had the front bumper for around 2 weeks, and when I came to see how it was coming along, a few days before I had to collect the car, it hadn't even been started. My guess is, they sprayed the centre with a tin of black spraypaint, let it dry then threw some vinyl over it as a bodge job thinking that, because I wrapped a whole car, ill just redo the bumper and forget about the money... as if...

 

they have multiple photos of Ferraris and lambo's they have done, but every photo is from a distance, like my car. at a distance in photos it looks perfect, but anyone at AceCafe would have seen the state of the front bumper in real life.

 

Goes to show, photos on a website mean nothing. Peoples reviews (they removed my review) mean everything.

 

From what I believe, I went to a garage which is called, Tint My car, so they probably only tinted and maybe done occasional car when the boss was in. But, maybe the boss wasn't in, they thought theyd give it a go. Fit a bumper?? my mate fit one to his saxo, ill go give him a ring. yep wood screws, that will do. Spraypaint a bumper? ive spraypainted my bottle of evian water before, ill give this a go. 1 layer? looks black enough to me.

[JackStrong]

Well done Bean , what a bunch of pricks!!

[Zhorno]

I would ent of been able to keep calm an just email them ! Wat a bunch of twats tho

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[taras]

This sounds disgusting. Did your partner call the credit card company up to reverse the payment?

[sipar69]

If all else fails slap a small claims court summons on them for breach of contract. Saying that you didn't give them enough time would not be a legitimate defence for such poor quality work.