thumbs up to Mini Craft

[Zinger]

Hello all,
This subject is not intended to bash anyone , it is only advice. This company sold me some gelkote which was a orange red color that I recieved . I called the fellow and explained that the color was not right , his reply is we make it to a standard from the boat company. Okay please email me a copy of the standard which he did. I could not believe this guy claims that the standard color chip which he made the gel from matches the color he sent me. I'm sure people have purchased from this company without any problems . All's I can say is buyer beware because this guy does not want to help anyone, just take your money . I'm just blowing steam but if a company sells you the wrong color they should stand behind their product . I can't post the photo's but if anyone wants to see them and judge for themselves feel free to send me an email. PS, This guy emails me tells me to watch what I say because he will can take legal action against , another good way the express your company .

[gcarter]

Mini Craft is located about 10 miles from my office and I've purchased a lot of stuff from them in the last 5 or so years. No matter how good a customer I've been to them, they've never done me any favors or passed on any discounts. All that I've ever received from them is what I paid for and a little technical advice.
They can, however, match gel very well.
I think I've decided that the best way to get the right color is to have it matched in some way. Like the center hatch, or even an engine hatch.
Even the boat company may have been responsible for the difference in color. They could have modified it in some way, or even mixed it for another job.
Who knows.
I found my Minx deck had been re-gelled at some point and didn't match the "correct" color gel that I sprayed on the bottom. It was so close it didn't matter.
My point is that when so many folks are involved, it's difficult to determine who screwed up.

[Just Say N20]

We dealt a lot with Mini Craft while I was at Tiara. In truth they are probably in one of the most "no win" situations possible.

They have formulas for all the colors they have supplied to boat manufacturers. So, down the road, someone buys a xx year old boat, which most probably hasn't been stored under a cover for its entire life, and wants to do some gelcoat repair. They order the gel, Mini Craft makes it from the formula they sold the boat company when the boat was new, and send it out. And lo and behold, it doesn't match.

When we were doing repairs on new hulls that needed some work, the colors were always almost spot on accurate. The more time that passed, the less accurate the color match became. I know they kept color swatches of the original colors in such a way as to minimize the color change, so they have something as accurate as possible to match to.

Unless Mini Craft can sample a sanded, buffed out sample of the current color, it is almost guaranteed to not match because of the boat's age and degree of weathering. Some colors change more dramatically than others.

Was it good PR for him to threaten legal action? Probably not, but I can't imagine how many times they must get the "That color you sold me doesn't match" statement through out the course of a week. To be honest, I'm surprised they will even sell gel in small quantities for spot repairs. They have a much higher chance of catching grief for their efforts than they do of getting positive results.

I can understand your frustration, but given what they are trying to do, I guess I would give them some slack.

[Zinger]

As I stated the color he send me does not at all come close to the standard chip which the make the color from . I quart of new gel done to the standard would have solved the problem. Like I said I'm sure this is alot of people out there that purchased items without any problems , but I trying to stress is a company should stand behind the product they sell and not try to pass the buck and claim they made it correctly its not are problem it does not match. Mistakes due happen but the company is perfect. Like I said a quart of the right standard chip color which I should have recieved would have solved everything.