Getting screwed by chrome shop(Houston)

Thanks for the heads up.
Has anyone had experince with DMF (Decorative Metal Finishing) in Escondido Ca.? I saw them at sema and the stuff they had looked pretty good.

thanks

 

Thats amazing, I have problems with a place also called Superior Plating, But they are not in Houston. We have sent the product back about 7 times now, and they still cant get it right. You would think that after sending them back the first time they would pay more attention in QC. The name must be cursed??

 

Kyle, thanks for the information. It is important to let friends know about the problems you encountered.

 

Thanx (oops I mean Thank You) for the feed back.. Just trying to help a HAMBer out. I wish there was a list if good and and bad companys on here. But just cause they did good for someone they might screw someone else. I better stop writing now so it won't be too much for someone to read. (HA HA)... sorry for too many ..........'s

 

The fumes are supressed and ventilated outside, similar to a paint booth; so that idea doesn't work too well. Chrome fumes are very heavily monitered.

It sounds like they screwed up and tried to hide it; now they are paying for it with an understandably ticked off and persistant customer. They should just come clean and tell you the rest of the story, but that won't happen.

I make sure the customer knows right away that turnaround time is an estimate. Too many things can happen to change it, from personell issues to contaminated plating solutions.

There are a lot of ornery and crooked platers out there. I have met a few. We are not all bad, just like mechanics and bodymen are not all bad.


www.ChromePlatingIN.com

 

I love that phrase 'Lifetime Warranty" yeah right!
Whose lifetime...not yours I bet.
The suppliers lifetime...nope.
I know, the suppliers dogs lifetime...m'mmmm.
Maybe the parts lifetime...could be.

Now what's the expected 'lifetime' for chrome? The industry standard? The particular shops standard?

Buggered if I know, but it looks good on the advertising, and the gullible keep falling for this nonsense.

 

Another good buzzword is "triple plating." That phrase means nothing. The thickness of the plating is a whole lot more important than the number of layers.

I don't know about others, but our warranty is against plating defects only, and for as long as you own the parts we plated. Like if the plating starts coming off, blistering, peeling. That kind of stuff. No matter what, Time will have its way and eventually make chrome old, but the plating should never delaminate, especially on the show side of the part. Keeping it clean, dry, and waxed will be your best bet. If the plating is crap, you will know it within a year.

Wherever you have plating done, ask lots of questions. I wrote a fricken novel on this thread
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...ighlight=trick+to+finding+good+chromer&page=2

 

You sound alittle cynical.
You obviously don't know the owner of Advanced Plating Steve Tracy. His world is as good as gold with me. The piece he redid for me was years old. All the parts he's done for me have a lifetime warranty, the life of the chrome on the part. At any time if the part does not look perfect I can return it to him at no charge. On the back of each part is the order number etched in so they know it's a part they did for me.

When you know you're going to keep your car for a long, long time it is certainly worth paying alittle more to have the job done right the first time and to know that you're only paying for the job to be done once, period.

Steve Tracy and the boys at Advanced Plating ROCK!

 

Not cynical, far from it and perish the thought I may ever become so. I have an inate 'critical thinking' ability, most of the time it works.

You are right, I don't know the owner of Advanced Plating, (one could reasonably ask, how could I?).

You obviously have a good working relationship with him and his business. How did that come about? Did you ask questions before dealing with him, or did you take him at his word? If you asked questions and were satisfied with the answers you had the basis for placing your first order with him. Based on their performance you have continued to do business with them, an arrangement which benefits you both.

Let me explain my motive for quoting from Ebbspeed. First, he has searched Advanced Platings website and has not found any reference to a 'lifetime warranty'. As he comments you may be grandfathered into an earlier period.
Second, Ebbspeeds post is one step removed from yours, in doing so I sought to distance my comment from your business relationship, and in doing so attempt to avoid the personal comment. I'm sorry you took offence, my comment was meant more in a general sense rather than specific.

At the end of the day 'lifetime warranty' means nothing unless you get the supplier to define lifetime. By way of example we could assume your plater will make good any defects while the part is owned by you. But when you sell what then. So we must then assume that in this case 'lifetime' regards the period of your ownership and is non transferable. Now that's an interesting definition of lifetime.

Phil

PS. I thought ChromePlaterJosh who works in the industry has made some
relevant comments.

 

ChromePlaterJosh, Thanks for all the info.including the "novel" that you have posted about chrome plating. I have printed it all out for safe keeping. As a professional plater actively in the trade it's great you post.

 

Another vote for Spacecoast Plating in Melbourne, Fl. They did a kustom 51 Chevy grille for me that had 11 53 Chevy Teeth. Cost an arm and a leg but the were so cool to deal with and they did an amazing job.

 

"
Quote:
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr> <td class="alt2" style="border: 1px inset;"> Originally Posted by hotrodladycrusr
They are the best in my opinion. Excellent chroming, lifetime guarantee on the chrome. In other words, pay for chroming the piece ONCE and IF anything ever happens and it doesn't look as good as it once did send it back to them and they will redo it at no charge. Of all the pieces that they have done for me and my pops, I only sent back one piece after a couple of years. I could see some very faint shadowing in one of my tail light bezels under certain lighting. I called them up, snet it back and they redid it, absolutely awesome. Their pieces look like jewelry. Yep, you might pay alittle more then the average place BUT you certainly get what you pay for in the world of chrome plating.

Advanced Plating
<cite>www.advancedplating.com</cite>
1425 Cowan Court
Nashville, TN 37207-5628
(615) 227-6900
</td> </tr> </tbody></table>
I couldn't find anything on their site regarding a lifetime warranty. Max I saw was one year. You might be grandfathered in on an earlier lifetime warranty that they had, but it appears that's not what they offer now."


Everything I have seen, or read, on Advanced Plating seems top notch,including their displays at shows. I have no reason to doubt that they are the very best at what they do. But,this is not a "lifetime" warranty:

"CHROME AND POWDER COATING
Plating is guaranteed to be free from defective workmanship to the original purchaser. Under this warranty the part will be processed, at our option, without charge for the plating. The part must be returned to us with a copy of the original invoice. This warranty does not apply to plating that has been misused or abused. The warranty covers a period of one (1) year from the date the part was originally processed, not from the date installed. We pay no disassembly and/or assembly costs. This is a one (1) year limited warranty. No other warranty is either expressed or implied."

 

Yep, seems they'd changed things up abit, including revamping their website. No doubt in my mind that I'm Grandfathered in, and the new pieces I have him do in the future will be as well. Not that I'm really worried about the pieces not being perfect the first time.

One year is certainly better then nothing.

In my world it's important to build relationships. Whether it be in the tradtional hot rod and custom world, my personal world or my career world. I do my very best to build strong, long lasting, mutually beneficial relationships. Steve Tracy and the guys that work for him are a prime example. I'd do just about anything for that crew, include making sure they have fresh baked goods at events and they in turn treat me and Big Olds extremely well going out of their way for meeting my timeframes and pricing needs. Perhaps I'm getting special treatment but the road is a two way street and I in turn am very good to those fellas.

 

I find that you do better business with the guys in THE BACK. They usually put some ditzy girl to answer the phones and she dont know or CARE.
Drive around back with a six pack of cold cokes and you'll see what's goin' on... Jus my two cents. Mikey

 

Sorry, I've got to call you out here. What you said isn't "ol skool", it's uneducated (nicest I could come up with). There are plenty of women,especially on the HAMB, who know their stuff-quite possible better than you do. There are plenty of "ditzy guys" who don't know crap.Read the threads on autoparts stores. Gender has nothing to do with it. And as Hotordladycrusr said in the post above yours, it's really all about establishing mutual relationships and trust.

 

5 window- I meant no disrespect to Hot Rod lady cruiser or any female for that matter. It's just been my experience and mine alone,apparently, that shop owners will hire minimum wage employees to answer phones and take customer complaints (wether male or female) all the while the real action is being done in the back of the shop.
Having a mobil welding business in So.CAL for 22 years, I have found that all the work is being done in the back and that the front office is a place for elevator music and shag carpets. There are usally two or perhaps three girls in the front doing thier nails.
Production and shipping and recieving is always in the BACK. I had guys that I used to stuff a twenty in thier shirt pockets and I could do anything I wanted to. They had me put on an employee shirt with Pedro's name on it and I could use the power hot chemical washer,magnaflux,bead blaster, belt sander and polisher.
I didnt wanna go near the tanks.But if I hung out long enuff I got my parts that DAY. I ate lunch with those guys.
A good place to go now for that guy is EAGLE PLATING in Jacksonville,Texas. The owner's name is DAVE. IT's gonna be a long drive for him, but the shop is reliable.
I've had long talks with DAVE and he told me it's all in the prep work. If you bring him parts that looks like it's been in the bottom of the ocean, it's gonna cost a lot and take a lot longer. If you take the time to bead blast it and sand it down to shiney metal it costs a lot less and takes a lot less time. Pitted metal has got to be sanded down until the pits are gone. Sometimes they can be filled if it is a really rare part. But it costs more to do that.
It's just like body work. There's hours and hours of body work and sanding filling and priming just for a guy to shoot the finish coats in just a few minutes for each coat. Same Same. Sorry for the length of this post. And I regret what I said about "ditzy girl" if it offended anyone. ( But truthfully THEY WERE.)Mikey

 

I have heard and have been to this shop before. I heard some horror stories but dont know it they were true or not. I work at a chrome plating shop but we plate for the oilfield not decrotive plating. Airline Plating in Houston is where I tell people to go when they call us asking for plating car or bike parts. They have done some nice work for us on drill bits and other things that we have sent over, I dont know if they do bumpers though....

 

Cool. I've got three daughters-all way smarter than their old man-guess I'm touchy.

 

UPDATE.... After waiting around a couple days I called them to find out the status and they said thet they would meet me on monday and bring it to me.
Well monday came and went and never heard from them..I call and left a message on their machine "that the next time that we talk it will be thru an attorney" and the next day I get a call and they say that they had my original bumper there and would be bringing it to me.
It ended up ok in the long run and the quality of the bumper is good just their customer service SUCKS and phone skills are poor.

I know not all platers are like this ,but I figure I would let fellow HAMBers know...KYLE

Pictures comming soon...

 

The situation reflects poor business practices throughout the whole company.

 

Advanced has done work for me. Quality work. When it looked like they were going to fall behind on delivery time I was contacted way before the due date. I wasn't happy about the delay because it was going to cause me to miss the Detriot 08 Autorama.
Got to speak to Steve Tracy and told him our problem. Stayed very civil with our communication and he was able to meet/beat the original delivery date. Good guy.

Saw Steve again at the NSRA Nats in 09. The work the had done was over a year old. He commented about how nice the motor in the roadster looked (100% plated Olds TriPower). I mentioned that there was a small place on the intake that I wasn't happy about. He said really, could I point it out to him. I showed him and he agreed, said absolutely... send it back and he would do it again. I'm goin, shit Steve, I can't afford to have it redone again. He then said, "I don't know why not, I'm picking up the shipping both ways and will redo it free of charge".
I still need to get it back to him. I dropped him a note and told him the car still wasn't available and he said no problem, just give him a call when I want to do it.

One thing about chrome plating, good chrome ain't cheep and cheep chrome ain't good.