Tint for Tat

On April 29th, I took my truck to Alta Mere Tinting in Yukon, Oklahoma to have the front windows tinted to match the rear side windows and back. The entire process took about two hours. One of the main reasons I chose Alta Mere is that they are a large national chain and they offer a lifetime guarantee. I have seen tint jobs that look terrible after only a couple of years, so picking a place that offered a lifetime warranty was really important to me. After picking up my truck I was told not to roll down the windows for 3-5 days, common rules after getting windows tinted.

Throughout the next week everyone I showed my windows to said, “man, what happened to your tint?” Bubbles formed in both windows. On the passenger side a dozen or so small air bubbles ran right through the middle of the window. On the driver’s side there were more bubbles, but not as concentrated in one location. On Friday May 5th (my day off), I called Alta Mere to ask about getting my tint fixed. Since it was my day off, it would have been really convenient. I was told that Alta Mere does not do warranty work during the weekend, and the earliest I could bring it in was Tuesday. That was never mentioned when I bought the tint! I made an appointment to bring the truck back in on Tuesday, May 9th.

On Tuesday May 9th, I brought the truck in. I was met by the manager of Alta Mere who said, “alright, let’s see these supposed bubbles!” I showed her the passenger side and she began telling me how I could fix the tint by poking holes in the tint with a stick pin and pushing the air out. I can tell you right then I started to get mad, because if I were any good at working with tint I would have bought the $10 roll of tint from the flea market and done it myself instead of paying them $86 to do it! Then she wanted to see the other side which I showed her. After looking it over the manager said, “yeah, this is really bad. I’m going to redo it.” So, after waiting 30 minutes, the manager brought my truck back around and told me “not to roll down the driver’s side window for another 3 days.” Wait, why just the driver’s side window? Well, they decided to only redo that window, because they felt I could fix the other one myself. I was not happy. I went home and stuck my tint with a stick pin. It left a hole in the tint that you could plainly see light coming through, and from the outside of the window you could still see where the bubble was. I tried a couple more times and just ended up making things worse. I called Alta Mere and let them know that I was not happy and that it was not working. They told me to bring the truck back in on Wednesday, May 10th.

On Wednesday May 10th I brought the truck back in and the first thing the manager said to me was, “I’m sorry, I was just being lazy, I should have redone that window too.” Yeah, no kidding! I explained to the manager that I am not a very picky person when it comes to things like this, but when you buy a brand new truck and then buy brand new tint and the first thing people say when they see your car is “what happened to your tint?” something’s wrong. She agreed, and another 30 minutes later, the old tint had been removed and replaced on the other window.

I am glad that Alta Mere took care of the problem, but I’m worried that the new tint will form bubbles soon as well. I suppose only time will tell on that front. I was also careful to be nice when I went back the third time, because if it’s not right, I have a feeling Alta Mere will get tired of seeing me on a regular basis.

On a semi-related note, you can order two 12″x24″ magnetic vehicle signs with messages such as “I got this crappy tint job from Alta Mere” for $75 from SpeedySigns.com. I haven’t ordered them, but you know, just sayin’. Hope those bubbles don’t come back.