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Avery Supreme Wrap product failure, views and advice please?
I’ve been called in as a consultant to advise a fleet owner if his wrap material is faulty or is it an installation issue. I know the guy that fitted the wrap, and I could say without even seeing the wrap, that it would not have been an installation issue as the installer is one on the best in the game here.
Seeing the vehicle, it had what could best be described as an elephant skin texture, so I rang Spandex who arranged the fleet contract installation, to advise them that their client seems to have a claim. The client had already asked the sign shop that fitted it to make a warranty claim, but they refused. It only had a few weeks left on the warranty, and they didn’t think the claim was justified, telling the client that they must have put it through a car wash. He hadn’t.
By the time I was asked to come in as an independent consultant, 4 or 5 months had passed, and the original sign shop had stopped returning the clients calls. When I spoke to the Spandex rep, he admitted he knew of the job in question, and admitted the product is clearly faulty with a known issue but were reluctant to do anymore about it. I pushed them a bit harder, and they eventually came back and asked me to submit a quote to replace the wrap but; they wouldný pay for the removal, only pay $50 per hour for fitting and implied the wrap should only take a day for the complete job, so effectively they were telling me they’d pay $50 an hour for basically 8 hours to fit the job—an impossibility for one man.
To be fair to Spandex, and to show I was arm’s length from the job, and not interested in jeopardising the clients claim, I suggested another sign company that was Spandex approved to do the rewrap. I would have no involvement or financial benefit from the claim.
Long story short, the rep rang me privately and said Spandex planned to ignore the claim and let it die a natural death. If they honour this claim, the fleet of 18 other vehicles would then expect warranty too, and that wasn’t going to happen.
The client decided no to pursue it any further and asked me to strip the vehicle. I started today. The surface layer literally falls off the vehicle leaving all the glue intact on the surface. Its a nightmare. It’s taken three of us, 15 hours to remove the adhesive from drivers side two doors, and the mudguards. We still have the roof, bonnet, tailgate and passenger side to go.
Anyone else had an issue with this product? I doubt I’ll use Avery again based on their response. It’s disgusting.
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This discussion was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by
Shane Drew. Reason: Add photo
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This discussion was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by
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14 Replies
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Quite shocking. Cheese wheels. I’d buy a lot of them. And a cheap drill so if it gets burnt out it’s not the end of the world.
I’d also try attracting averys attention on social media. They may see that the damage this can cause to reputation is bigger than how spandex are viewing it.
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Hi Shane
Interesting post mate.
Just my opinion based on what I am reading…
The key point for me is, Spandex Australia stating it is known and accepted product failure of Avery!
If Avery has indeed accepted this, then, unfortunately, the most you can expect Avery to compensate is for the replacement of the vinyl. Of course, that is unless the customer has an Avery ICS Warranty, which only a tiny percentage of their product users worldwide, will ever have.This is a hard pill to swallow after spending on a premium product you expect to have warranty cover on. In my opinion, all manufacturers need to be clearer on when selling a product based on their “brands reputation”.
Stuck in the middle of this, is your supplier, who now needs to tell you, their customer that all they are getting is a roll of media as a way of compensation for the laborious strip-down vinyl, clean of adhesive residue and re-install the new wrapping film.
So what Spandex Australia might be doing, is trying part compensate the customer for the failure rather than Avery, who I think should be doing it if It is a “known and accepted product failure of Avery”.
This may be the reason Spandex appear to be so tight-fisted over what they are offering. By that I mean, Avery supply the vinyl-free, and Spandex offers something towards the strip and install, to cushion the blow and hopefully keep their customer from leaving them as a result of the Avery fail!
i.e.
$400 Australian Dollars = £221 UK Pounds for 8+ hours labour which is probably going to also be a credit to account, rather than a cash payout.do you have any more pictures, Shane? If not, please take as many as possible and post here.
Is the surface finish deterioration the only visible signs of the product failure?
By that I mean, is the vinyl shrinking, pulling out of recesses, fading, coming away etc? again, if you have pictures that would be great!Even if this claim goes no further than this post, having this thread of replies documenting all the info will help others googling similar problems and may lead them to a solution or at least use it for reference with their own complaint.
Avery ICS Warranty documents attached below.
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Hey Rob, the client would be happy with an apology, but they are offering this guy nothing. They won’t even return his calls. I’ve since found out that only the first four cars had the faulty stock, vehicles 5 to 18 had a new batch supplied. But they didn’t do anything to recall the cars and have the faulty stock removed and replaced.
The issue I have is that Avery/Spandex, knowing the product was faulty, would have been much more honest and should have contacted the fleet and got them to get the vehicles back and strip them before the failure got worse. The top layer literally just sat on the surface. When we removed the film, the whole vehicle was coated in a perfectly even layer of adhesive
You are right though, they may have just offered a new roll, and a token credit to the account of the sign shop, which is all well and good, but that compensation also needs to be fair.
I had a failure on a 3M product a few years ago for material I had fitted to a bus fleet Australia wide. 3M asked me what expense would I incur in replacing the product on the fleet. I worked out labour costs to remove and replace the failed product etc, and it came to $6k plus airfares. They wouldn’t pay my travel costs, but they gave me $6k in stock to compensate me for my troubles.
Avery should do the right thing here and honour the sales spiel that the client was sold on. He feels cheated and rightly so.
So far, it has taken 48 man hours to remove the adhesive, and we still have the roof and bonnet to go. I can’t, in good conscience, charge him what it is worth because he has been cheated by the very industry I represent, and I’d like to build some faith that we are not all as dishonest as some of our suppliers appear to be.
I guess I’m disappointed that Avery and Spandex don’t have enough moral fibre to see that they should do the right thing, no matter how unpleasant. If I have a failure, I fix it. 3M have proved to me that if they have an issue, they make amends.
The fitter did a good job, it did lift around the spotlights on the front bumper but that’s about it really.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by Shane Drew.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by
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Hi Shane
I had a failure on a 3M product a few years ago for material I had fitted to a bus fleet Australia wide. 3M asked me what expense would I incur in replacing the product on the fleet. I worked out labour costs to remove and replace the failed product etc, and it came to $6k plus airfares. They wouldn’t pay my travel costs, but they gave me $6k in stock to compensate me for my troubles.
In my opinion, what you describe 3M did, is exactly what I would expect after a product fail to happen. So well done 3M Australia! Unfortunately in the UK, I do not see 3M handle situations like this in the same way.
Having had a look at your video in your initial post, I am shocked…
It appears the visible surface scaling is due to some form of shrinkage of the vinyl, a bit like a snake shedding its skin. Which is maybe caused by the vinyl not having any real bond with the adhesive. by that I mean…
The Vinyl is applied to the car bodywork. during the day and night, it heats up and cools. the vehicle bodywork is continually expanding and contracting and the vinyl should be moving along with it. if the adhesive doesn’t have the proper bond on the vinyl. the movement, albeit minuscule, is having a visual effect on the surface. So when you peel it, it comes away effortlessly as it has no real grip of the film. Hence why I say it shed its skin like a snake. So you are now left with a coating of adhesive over the vehicle body. Not good!You are 100%, we all make mistakes, it is how you address and fix them that is important.
Personally, If it is just glue that is on the surface. I would prefer to use a chemical cleaner such as tar & glue remover.
Soak and leave on the surface 15 minutes.
Re-soak surface and using an old squeegee, scrape off the adhesive gunk.
Repeat this step if needed.
Once relatively clean, clean down with isopropanol alcohol.
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Thanks, mate, we cleaned most of it off with a chemical glue remover on the fiddly bits but used the caramel wheel on the larger expanses. We’ve spent 50 man-hours so far, and still the roof and bonnet to go. How do you tell the client his $5k wrap is going to take $4k to remove?
I’ve initially quoted a token price of $600, given I think he’s been treated very poorly in the whole situation. I didn’t have any idea it was going to be such an epic failure of the film. I know it’s not really my problem, but at the end of the day, the client is very well known in the area, and the largest franchise holder in the country for the product he sells, so I see it as trying to buy back some credibility in a situation where his negative treatment, experience and comments may well impact the sign industry in the area, and that could affect my business too. He seems a fair man, and very appreciative of my efforts. I was recommended to this gentleman due to my reputation, so it is important to me that he has a more positive experience than he has had to date.
In terms of 3M, I was 100% loyal to the brand at the time, my relationship with the Queensland Manager is very good, he is a great guy and we have a very honest relationship, always have. I’m not sure if they do that sort of thing regularly or if it is only done for shops loyal to the brand. I guess they figured a more negative approach would force my hand to find another supplier.
Sadly, 3M are gradually being priced out of the market in Australia, combined with their distribution channels being bought out by multinationals here that are loyal to Avery and Arlon, so the playing field has changed for me over the last few years. I’m still loyal, but so many of my contracts have moved away from 3M now based on price alone.
Give me back the old days. 🙁
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Having taken the time to fully read this now, Shane, I am most certain of one thing… You, Sir, are a true champion and role model of this industry and our peers. One of the nicest Human Beings I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. You’ve truly gone above and beyond what 99% of others would do and if this doesn’t reap some kind of rewards, be it karma, or on the other side – wherever that may be, than you’ve suffered an injustice!
Top Human’ing Shane.
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Thanks for your kind words Hugh. I appreciate it. You are too kind.
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That is horrific Shane. I have never seen anything like that before. I normally can’t get the vinyl off!!
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I know, right 🙂
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Reading this makes my blood boil.
These days I think Avery wrap is as expensive as 3M if not more so. Everything is sold on buy this vinyl because it is the best there is. buy our cleaner or it voids the warranty if you dont. take our training course or you void your warranty. everything is a push push on their products until you make a claim and you get nothing but a frown and sorry, we cant help!
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👍
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I have never seen anything like that before. If it that was me, I would have my rep meet me at the customer’s place and ask him, “how he is going to sort it?” His product, his problem! You bought from him in good faith. I would have been livid.
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Yeah, Jeff. Wasted my breath even discussing it with them, to be honest. They knew of the client as he had already tried to get it addressed directly with Spandex. They just figured if they ignored it long enough, he would go away. My rep was in on this right from the start as he helped in negotiating the original fleet contract. He understood the failure, he knew the particular vehicle in question but was told, I suspect, by his superiors to not get involved. He is a great rep, but it was obvious he wasn’t able to help, or for that matter, knew I was going to get nowhere so offered no further assistance.
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