Date:         Sat, 28 Apr 2007 01:26:16 -0400
Reply-To:     Benny boy <huotb@VIDEOTRON.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Benny boy <huotb@VIDEOTRON.CA>
Subject:      Mechanic VS customer (i need you imput!)

Hi, in life, i restore, fix, repair, find a way of saving a van call
Vanagon, not easy sometime! i work hard, 7/7 more than 13 hours a day, i
love my job, i love life! i take pride on what i do. This is the only way
for me, the full way, the hard way, i'm very honest and it can not be
otherwise for me(not good for business!). If one day i get up from bed and i
feel like doing something else, i will. But for now, i rebuilt a nice
campers van call Vanagon, this van is not only a way to earn my life but
also a way of life for me. But in my line of work, i have to deal with a
thing call customers! most of the time, they are pretty cool, but! they are
not my friend, this is the way things are, sadly.

So, in the past 2 weeks, i have been working on a Van, yea, hard, 14 days,
more than 12hrs per day, 7/7, this is one of the BEST paint job i have did
so far, better then my own Red Tornado van, the rust part has been worked
carefully. On that job, only 1.5 days are for the paint job part, the rest
was removing rust, fixing metal part, welding... anyway, short story: First
of all, i had say NO to this cutomer before! yea, it was to rusty... so
after i wile he came back and told me, i want YOU to do it, what is your
price, i said 5500$ CAD (about 4800USD), so i did the job... painfull.

Remember that the pictures you see are only a fraction of the one i took, or
the one i could have taken. they don't show all the welding, gluing, grinding...

But sadly, when done, something was wrong... the color match! everything
else is perfect! the work done, the rust, the paint job is one of my best
ever, but the color match is sadly a bit offset.

So, look at all those pictures and tell me how to deal with that? i am ready
to offer him to re-paint the van (sadly, the color code is the right one,
Valspar and Dupond have the same result??? the color is tricky!), but i
don't know how i can change the color... even my friend who is a 20yo
painter told me that metalic blue is dificult to match!!! and on a 20yo van,
it's worse. should i lower the price! i'm ready to remove 1000$, about what
the paint cost me (remember, i use high quality paint).

The new color is simply... nicer (others have confirm!), i also offered him
to paint the inside of the door and door for free to match the exterior.
Waithing for an answer, but he is not happy with it!

http://www.benplace.com/87_dove_blue.htm

Anyway, a long story to tell you how hi feel about me working like a dog and
an unsatified cutomer.

I want your advices as customers? just remember one thing, this van was a
piece of junk... ready for the garbage.

Thank you for your time and imput, and thanks for any advices, if i have
bored anyone whit this post, i'm sorry.

Regards, Ben
http://www.benplace.com/vw2.htm