Chipsaway or similiar - experiences ?

[Dave_au]

Hi guys,

Just wondering whether anyone has had any experience with this company (www.chipsaway.com.au), or any others in the treatment of stone chips. I'd probably prefer not to respray the whole panel.

Thanks

- Dave.

I am currently experiencing major problems with Chipsaway, i thought for convieniance and $$$$ that i would give them ago, WHAT A MISTAKE, they have completly @#^&%_+*&^ the job. Paint colour doesent match, overspray everywhere, the operator did not attempt to clean up,insects in the paint what more do i need to say. I have arranged for Chipsaway to come back next week , but thinking it would be in the interest of all to get my $200.00 back and go to a panel beater and spend the extra $ for satisfaction. To date it has been a mistake to contact chipsaway, but if this changes next week i will advise.

regards

[Psycho Chicken]

We use a similar company at work. Mainly to clean up scratched bumpers on used cars so they look better.

Don't even bother if you give half a toss about how your car looks. Bumpers have stuff all gloss to them, over spray everywhere (they don't even bother masking up the air con condenser). I'd hate to see the end result 12 months down the track. I've only seen their work on plastic bumpers, which are naturally a slightly different shade to painted metal, so you can get away with a slightly mismatched colour. I dread seeing their work on panels.

There's no way in hell you can get a good finish in such a short ammount of time while doing it in a driveway.

Take it from me i wish i had not seen their work on panels.

[I bleed ford]

there are some things that have gotta be done the right way...temp fix ok but i'd be saving for the cash to fix it properly

[MoreHPformyXR6]

[QUOTE=Monaro Man]I am currently experiencing major problems with Chipsaway, i thought for convieniance and $$$$ that i would give them ago, WHAT A MISTAKE, they have completly @#^&%_+*&^ the job. Paint colour doesent match, overspray everywhere, the operator did not attempt to clean up,insects in the paint what more do i need to say. I have arranged for Chipsaway to come back next week , but thinking it would be in the interest of all to get my $200.00 back and go to a panel beater and spend the extra $ for satisfaction. To date it has been a mistake to contact chipsaway, but if this changes next week i will advise.

regards[/QUOTE
Hi There
I have a little car park scuff mark & a small scratch on the front passanger corner of my bumber that i had a quote frome chipsaway in adelaide on friday for $120 the mark is hardly noticeable but i know its there i have a shockwave BAXR6 so from your experience they have made it look far worse?

Do not go near CHIPSAWAY what more can i say.

[GTP 320]

As in most case's if you want to get a professional job done then it pays to take it to the right tradesman ,it will cost you more but in the end at least you will be happy in most circumstances.
Cheers John

[MYVYSS]

you get what you pay for...thats all I am saying....

[SVR73]

At work (mazda dealership) they use chips away and the end result is overspray on the windows and panels, ИИИИty repairs and poorly matched paint

The trick though is finding the right tradesman.
So many of the guys who work for them vary dramatically in the quality of their work and the cleanliness of their vans
One guy who comes to us has a van that looks like a pro painter had used it every day for thirty years

There are better companies around.
What annoys me is that dealerships get these guys to buff fibreglass and plastic bumpers/spoilers when they should allow their detailers to do it and if they can't, employee a quality detailer who can

These chips away guys can't even buff properly. swirls, holograms, pad residue everywhere and they wipe the panels clean after each buffing step with some old rag
they refuse to switch to a superior and amazingly cheaper or same price range of polishes and compounds for their buff machines

I give up on them

[AUXRVIII]

I had one of these blokes give my car the once over just after I bought it & was extremely happy with the results.
http://www.ducomagic.com.au/

Well i met with the Man (Peter) what an %$&*# son of a *&$%#! from CHIPS AWAY Melbourne thinks he can *&%$# up the side of my car and getaway with it, not in my life time ( and if only for principle of the matter), i cannot believe these guy's are trading under the banner of CHIPS AWAY when they went under in approx 96 in OZ. He (Peter from CHIPS AWAY Melbourne) has offered to pay back my $200.00) is that not an omission of guilt ? but that leaves me short $900.00 to rectify his %^$#*! up, well i wouldnt be so sure because i will see him court.
THINK TWICE IF CONSIDERING USING CHIPS AWAY IN MELBOUNE< JUST ASK ME>

[rxj]

This was an my e-mail I sent to "Chips Away Australia" back in July 2005.

Message: I'm hoping you can help. I have two vehicles which both have
stone chips. My wifes car (Toyota Corolla, metallic black) has a few chips on the front grill and quite a large chip next to the right front indicator lense which is about the size of 5 cent piece which needs to be fixed. My vehicle (Ford Fairmont, Metallic Ice Mint Silver) has one large chip on the bonnet which happened today which I would like repaired.

Here is the response...
rxj apart from the fact that we don't have anyone in your area the chips you are referring to we usually recommend that the customer does it themselves.
Get a sample of the paint from your dealership or perhaps an Autobarn store and a No. 1 artist brush and simply apply the paint with that brush.working from the centre of the chip to the edge. Make sure you mix and shake the paint really well before applying

At the end of the day apart from the fact that we make up the paint ourselves the application for chips of this size is exactly the same.

As you can see from the before and after photos on the website we provide a cost effective service for reparing scrapes ans scratches and some more significant damage.

regards
Peter C

1. I live within the Melbourne CBD (30kms from the city)
2. So why do they call themselves "Chips Away Australia" if they cannot repair chips? :

[SVR73]

Yeah useless
Duco magic I don't understand why they cover over scratches with their CPP when they should remove them
Besides that they definately look to be a superior service

[MoreHPformyXR6]

Originally Posted by SVR73

Yeah useless
Duco magic I don't understand why they cover over scratches with their CPP when they should remove them
Besides that they definately look to be a superior service

Does anyone know if Duco magic service is avaliable in Adelaide?
I ask because i had Chipsaway give me a quote of $120 last friday but after what ive read i dont want the to touch my BAXR6 MkII Shockwave.

[DOC]

Originally Posted by MoreHPformyXR6

Does anyone know if Duco magic service is avaliable in Adelaide?
I ask because i had Chipsaway give me a quote of $120 last friday but after what ive read i dont want the to touch my BAXR6 MkII Shockwave.

How big is this scratch ? is there a pic

[MoreHPformyXR6]

Originally Posted by DOC

How big is this scratch ? is there a pic

Ive only got a camera on my phone & the quality is crap it wont show but two hairline scratches maybe inch to inch & a quater max

[DOC]

Originally Posted by MoreHPformyXR6

Ive only got a camera on my phone & the quality is crap it wont show but two hairline scratches maybe inch to inch & a quater max

ok are they deep, ? have you tried scratchx ?
will send a pm

Pete

[MoreHPformyXR6]

Originally Posted by DOC

ok are they deep, ? have you tried scratchx ?
will send a pm

Pete

No not deep but the have removed clear coat
I havent tried anything except a guy at works into cars & he said dont buy any over the counter cut or polish stuff that could make it worse.

[AUXRVIII]

Originally Posted by MoreHPformyXR6

Does anyone know if Duco magic service is avaliable in Adelaide?
I ask because i had Chipsaway give me a quote of $120 last friday but after what ive read i dont want the to touch my BAXR6 MkII Shockwave.

I posted a link earlier in this thread. On the website there is a form you can fill out for them to contact you.

[ChipsAway Adel]

Originally Posted by Psycho Chicken

We use a similar company at work. Mainly to clean up scratched bumpers on used cars so they look better.

Don't even bother if you give half a toss about how your car looks. Bumpers have stuff all gloss to them, over spray everywhere (they don't even bother masking up the air con condenser). I'd hate to see the end result 12 months down the track. I've only seen their work on plastic bumpers, which are naturally a slightly different shade to painted metal, so you can get away with a slightly mismatched colour. I dread seeing their work on panels.

There's no way in hell you can get a good finish in such a short ammount of time while doing it in a driveway.

Please don't base the results achieved by other mobile services on the experience you may have had with just one. I own ChipsAway (Adelaide) and we have 14 vans operating throughout the Adelaide area. All of my operators are qualified spray painters and we pride ourselves on our quality of work and level of service. We also provide a lifetime warranty on our work. I have seen plenty of examples such as you describe coming from the other mobile boys, but you won't see them coming from mine. We service prestige yards and carry out work on new cars (transit damage etc) for a number of major dealers - and we work on panels (including bonnets, roofs and boots) as well as bars, providing perfect repairs with all the attributes of the original paint. The problem we face is that ChipsAway was originally a franchise (started in 1996) and most of the franchises were bought by people who didn't know the first thing about painting - and some still don't - hence the poor experiences detailed in this forum. Time taken and driveway venues don't determine the quality of the job - experience and skill does. I have spoken to the guy who started this thread and I have spoken to the (independent) ChipsAway guy who did the job, and I think that the job should never have been taken on, given the location of the damage and the colour of the car - very difficult to blend the Holden yellow as it throws a red halo at the edge of the blend - and the job was attempted under a tree as there was no other shade, hot day etc - if anything could have gone wrong with this job it did! Having said that, the technician did not respond well to the customer's subsequent complaint, so now he's happy to bag the lot of us. I am very sympathetic to his grievance with the ChipsAway operator, but if he got charged $900 by a panel shop to repaint a rear quarter he got ripped off there as well!

[Mack 6]

I agree. I used to work at a yard in adelaide and the guy (Nigel I think) was great. always did a professional job for us. We did get someone else at short notice and his work wasn't quite up to standard, so next time we waited for Nigel.

As a franchise it's hard to get a guaranteed good guy first time, but if you do, recommend them, If they terrible, perhaps make a note to the company head office about the quality of that particular operator only.

[ChipsAway Adel]

Originally Posted by rxj

This was an my e-mail I sent to "Chips Away Australia" back in July 2005.

Message: I'm hoping you can help. I have two vehicles which both have
stone chips. My wifes car (Toyota Corolla, metallic black) has a few chips on the front grill and quite a large chip next to the right front indicator lense which is about the size of 5 cent piece which needs to be fixed. My vehicle (Ford Fairmont, Metallic Ice Mint Silver) has one large chip on the bonnet which happened today which I would like repaired.

Here is the response...
rxj apart from the fact that we don't have anyone in your area the chips you are referring to we usually recommend that the customer does it themselves.
Get a sample of the paint from your dealership or perhaps an Autobarn store and a No. 1 artist brush and simply apply the paint with that brush.working from the centre of the chip to the edge. Make sure you mix and shake the paint really well before applying

At the end of the day apart from the fact that we make up the paint ourselves the application for chips of this size is exactly the same.

As you can see from the before and after photos on the website we provide a cost effective service for reparing scrapes ans scratches and some more significant damage.

regards
Peter C

1. I live within the Melbourne CBD (30kms from the city)
2. So why do they call themselves "Chips Away Australia" if they cannot repair chips? :

To clarify this - ChipsAway started in 1996 as a franchise operation, based in Melbourne (see website www.chipsaway.com.au for detail). After the collapse of the master franchise in 1999, we all went on independently. Each operator brings a different level of skill and experience to the market place, and you will see varied results - just as you will amongst all the other mobile guys, many of whom are spray painters but still get varied (poor) results. ChipsAway (Adelaide) has 14 vans operating in the Adelaide area and we predominantly service a large number of car yards with about 20% of our work being retail (private clients). Clearly, we do more stuff right than wrong or we wouldn't be able to generate so much work! We do repair chips - you have to understand, however, that some chips can only be invisibly repaired by spraying a patch, and some colours are extremely difficult to blend over a small area. So the most cost effective (as opposed to cosmetically effective) solution is often to just brush touch the chips - covers up the exposed metal and takes the eye off the mark, even if it doesn't provide a perfect repair.

[ChipsAway Adel]

Originally Posted by SVR73

At work (mazda dealership) they use chips away and the end result is overspray on the windows and panels, ИИИИty repairs and poorly matched paint

The trick though is finding the right tradesman.
So many of the guys who work for them vary dramatically in the quality of their work and the cleanliness of their vans
One guy who comes to us has a van that looks like a pro painter had used it every day for thirty years

There are better companies around.
What annoys me is that dealerships get these guys to buff fibreglass and plastic bumpers/spoilers when they should allow their detailers to do it and if they can't, employee a quality detailer who can

These chips away guys can't even buff properly. swirls, holograms, pad residue everywhere and they wipe the panels clean after each buffing step with some old rag
they refuse to switch to a superior and amazingly cheaper or same price range of polishes and compounds for their buff machines

I give up on them

I'd bet my left one that your dealership is not using ChipsAway (Adelaide)! If it's the one I'm thinking of, you are using our oppos - and what you've described is exactly the reason we have replaced them in more than a dozen yards over the past few years. Give me a call on 0427603332 if you want.

[ChipsAway Melb]

There is always 2 sides to a story.
When Monaro Man decided to proceed to have the gouges in the rh 1/panel repaired he was asked whether he had a garage in which to do it - his response was yes.
When I got to his place the temp was 35c and the car was parked under a tree (about 4m high) in the street and no garage!! Told him I wasn't impressed but we proceeded anyway (having just travelled from Doncaster to Williamstown 35 to 40kms).

As the clear coat was being applied there were insects appearing from everywhere (must have thought it was a flower being bright yellow). Amazingly only a couple got stuck but what is one supposed to do other than walk away in the first place?

Unmasked the car and Monaro Man checked it over and paid me. Half an hour later he's on the phone complaining about the insects,the blend out and suddenly the color. Went back the next working day to fix the problems and by now he's had the "advice of a paint expert" so when I get there he refuses to let me touch it.

With his threats of suing etc the money (he paid cash no invoices bloody cheqpskate) was refunded.

As per my Adelaide colleague we pride ourselves in the work we do in the situations we work in and I can assure you my business (10 years) is built on referrals.

[SVR73]

Originally Posted by ChipsAway Adel

I'd bet my left one that your dealership is not using ChipsAway (Adelaide)! If it's the one I'm thinking of, you are using our oppos - and what you've described is exactly the reason we have replaced them in more than a dozen yards over the past few years. Give me a call on 0427603332 if you want.

The vans are white and blue with CHIPS AWAY on them
No doubt that each operator is different so I am not saying chips away oz wide is crap - far from it
The main problem at city mazda is overspray and they don't clean up their mess and vehicles require washing

Vans are cluttered and looks unprofessional and I do recommend that they or you switch to menzerna and optimum polishes for any buffing
Far superior results cheaper than 3M or farecla with no swirls or mess
That's what I use most of the time

[MoreHPformyXR6]

Originally Posted by ChipsAway Adel

I'd bet my left one that your dealership is not using ChipsAway (Adelaide)! If it's the one I'm thinking of, you are using our oppos - and what you've described is exactly the reason we have replaced them in more than a dozen yards over the past few years. Give me a call on 0427603332 if you want.

Thats a bet u dont wont to loose & after reading post 26 by SVR73 i hope he doesnt hold u to it.

[AU-MUSTD]

I have used scratch busters before on a dent l thought impossible to get out as it was right on the corner of aaaaaaa 90 bend but because it was kind of a friend of a friend wwe gave him a go. The job come out perfect and l would highly recommend them. Just like all thats been stated in this thread there are good guys out there that can do the seemingly impossible.

[ChipsAway Adel]

Originally Posted by SVR73

The vans are white and blue with CHIPS AWAY on them
No doubt that each operator is different so I am not saying chips away oz wide is crap - far from it
The main problem at city mazda is overspray and they don't clean up their mess and vehicles require washing

Vans are cluttered and looks unprofessional and I do recommend that they or you switch to menzerna and optimum polishes for any buffing
Far superior results cheaper than 3M or farecla with no swirls or mess
That's what I use most of the time

Like I said - give me a call and give me the facts. Interesting that I haven't heard any criticism from the management or the salespeople - you'd think they would be complaining if our work wasn't up to scratch. We have had plenty of people prepared to criticise but very few can support their criticisms, and plenty have accused us of poor work that turned out to have been done by other operators. Nevertheless you may be right - but I'd much prefer the opportunity to see what you're talking about than bat it back and forth on this forum! :

[SVR73]

Yeah for sure, I'll ring you tomorrow avo

All the car cleaners there including myself noticed overspray alot of the time but the used car and new car managers never say anything, they don't have my trained eye from being taught by thousands of the worlds best detailers and enthusiast detailers via half a dozen US based forums