So they called and said that my C was ready...

bodywork?

Wow! That is one horrible paint matching job....what excuse did the body shop give you?

-m

Yeah, I would say that is unacceptable. If it were my car I would fight to have it done right or ask for a refund. It's obvious it has been repainted, which shouldn't be the case. I will say that is a hard color to match, though. I can understand their end as well, but just because something is difficult to do doesn't mean it shouldn't be done properly. Other than the color being off, it looks like good work.

I like both colors, but they are clearly not the same color. That sucks, I am so sorry!

This is not right! They should have sent for the factory paint to match your bumper. Hopefully you won't settle for this. Go get em Girl!

Sorry

NOWWWW!!!! YA NEED TO RAISE HELL

I would have had a complete and utter meltdown the minute I saw that.

Take tons of pics, different angles and heights, with a GOOD camera not a cell phone. Document everything. Demand it be repaired again, properly. Or do a chargeback through your credit card company, get your $ back, and go elsewhere. If that repair was due to an accident & repaired by someplace authorized by the insurance company - get on the phone with the insurance. They have local reps familiar with all their authorized repair facilities and can send them out to help.

Any body shop that thinks that is acceptable should be ashamed of themselves. Yes, that color is going to be a *biach* to match....but a good shop can.

Awwww how frustrating.

At least it's something that should be fixable.

This... and do it with good light (though avoid sunlight in the middle of the day, it will wash out colours in photos). I must say these pictures looked a lot worse on my computer at work. At home with the monitor I've bothered to calibrate the difference is much more subtle, but still visibly out.

BG girl, are you sure these pictures are showing some trues color difference or just the shade differences due to usual lighting magic on the SRM ? If they are true difference, that should be unacceptable for a brand new car !

I call b.s. on that. You gotta fight. For you right. For an aceeeeeeeeeptable paint job. (Sorry I was listening to the beastie boys) seriously make them fix it. Raise hell

Thanks for the input everyone!! Okay.. here is what happened. I pulled in and saw my C sitting there. This was about 4:15pm and sunny. I walked around the car and although the dents were gone.. the bumper looked different and I couldn't figure it out because the bumper wasn't damaged. That is when I realized that the bumper looked different because it was a different shade and more metallic than the door/quarter panel. I was upset but I tried to stay calm with the body shop people. They saw me taking pictures and became concerned. LOL I showed him what I was talking about. The new paint was more blue and "flat" if that makes any sense. The original paint on the bumper just had much more sparkle and a little more blue-green. He tried really hard to convince me it was the light. So I backed the car up so all of it was in the sunshine and we looked at it.. then I turned the car around so that the damaged side was in the shade and looked at it. He finally had to admit that the shades were different. You know I could probably handle a subtle difference but I noticed it right away and it was actually worse looking at it in the shade. As much as I hated to not have my car back, I told them that it wasn't okay (I think that they knew that right from the get-go and were just hoping I wouldn't notice) so they are going to re-do it.

I asked them why can't they just get the paint directly from Toyota and they said that Toyota won't send out paint to body shops. And this body shop is a branch of the Toyota dealership! I don't know if that is true or BS. I am thinking about calling Toyota or the dealership and asking if that is true.

You are doing a great job,you don't need to be rude or do any threatening, to get good service. If in the end they don't do a job that is satisfactory to you simply have your insurance agent deal with the problem.
P.S. I guess I don't spend enough time on here but what happened to your car in the first place?

I call BS on this one. They just don't want to pay the premium for OEM Toyota paint. They tried to get by with generic. Guaranteed. Stick to your guns, make them fix it. Sorry you're going to be out your car for awhile longer now.

It really is a pretty color, too!

That's too bad BG. I wish I would have talked to you b4 u took it in. I always go w/ Southern KY Collision for all my painting. Gary Force has a good rep too though. That sucks but, I'm glad you were meticulous about it. I guess you'll be driving the Rav4 some more huh?

@US- I have had work done at Gary Force beforeand everything was fine but I had a silver car then. I don't know if the insurance company had Southern KY on their list but I went with Gary Force because they are with the Toyota dealership so I figured if anyone would have access to the paint or codes it would be them!

@Mandy- I actually was concerned about them not telling me the truth when they said that Toyota wouldn't give them the paint too but I called Toyota Customer Experience Center today and asked them a bunch of questions about the paint and body shops. They confirmed that they do not send their paint to the body shops but rather give them access to techinfo.toyota.com which is a site that gives them all the paint codes and instructions on how to correctly repair Toyota cars. Then I called the dealership and talked to the new car manager that helped me with ordering my car and asking him about the body shop specifically. He also said that he knows that they use the paint codes provided by Toyota but sometimes just one tiny extra drop of a pigment will throw the whole color off. He asked that I update him on what happens when I get my car back and how it looks.

@MNBud- My dad accidently backed into my C

Thanks so much for sharing your experience - this is the kind of information that is so helpful to know!

Congratulations on getting your car back, but what a horrible excuse for a paint job! I can't believe they even TRIED to get you to accept that. You should definitely fight to get either the proper, matching paint, or they should repaint the ENTIRE car so that is all one color.

Ouch, sorry to here about that, I'm certain that everything will work out O.K. Keep your chin up and let us know how this turns out.