A customer offered me cash to skip the paint booth and just rattle can his quarter panel

So last month, a guy brought in his 2012 Silverado with a decent dent in the rear quarter. I gave him the estimate for proper repair, paint, and blend. He came back the next day and straight up said, 'Look, I'll give you $400 cash right now if you just pull it out, slap some filler on it, and hit it with a can of spray paint from the parts store.' I told him it would look terrible and probably rust in a year. He argued that it's just a work truck and he doesn't care. I've been in this shop for 15 years, and I've seen the results of those quick fixes when they come back later. But part of me gets it, money is tight for a lot of folks. Where do you draw the line between giving the customer what they want and doing a job you're actually proud of? Has anyone else had a customer push hard for a shortcut you knew was a bad idea?

2 comments

2 Comments

hernandez.jordan2mo agoTop Commenter

Where do you draw the line" is the whole job, isn't it?

david_singh612mo ago

Remember that old zoning fight in my town over a backyard shed. The neighbor called it a storage unit, the city called it an unpermitted structure. It took six months and a lawyer just to decide if a ten by twelve building was okay. That line gets drawn with a ruler in some offices and a grease pencil in others.