My Experience With Jeff Kleiner Part 1

[BadAsp427]

Part 1:
Did you know that I literally almost gave up on my build this September while my car was with Jeff Kleiner getting the paint and body work. It was a very frustrating and deflating time of what was a fantastic journey to that point. I was remarkably close to advertising that the car was for sale and at Jeff’s ready for the new owner to pick a color. What caused these extreme feelings? The way that I felt I was being treated as a customer. Now, I have been told that you can have your paint and body work with “Low Price, High Quality, and Quick Turn Around”, but you can only have two of those. I do not agree 100% with that thought as I have seen all three from other paint and body shops over the years. But I do understand this premise.

So let me start with the bottom line so that you can decide if you wish to read about my experience with Jeff Kleiner or not. Here is the Bottom Line: while Jeff Kleiner is very much applauded and idolized here on the forum, his customer service and communication skills are very much lacking. His body work is great and his paint skills/abilities are good. If you are on his waiting list you should be aware of this and accept it if you wish. Just know, you will get fantastic body work and a pretty good paint job. If you are not willing to put up with his antics, poor communication, lace of time commitments, etc., then there are several others that can do the same job, perhaps even better. I hope this long post in some way helps you with your build.

Recently I posted in my build thread about what you really pay your body shop for. I talked specifically about the fit and finish of the panels and gaps. In that post, I was specifically and only talking about just that, the body work that I received. (View that post here if you wish) There are other parts of the transaction that should always be considered as you decide on who and when you are going to have your paint and body work done.

I am going to share my journey to get the car painted with Jeff Kleiner. I fully understand that Jeff is a very well-respected builder and painter of the Factory Five community. And I also know that what I am going to share is going to ruffle a lot of feathers, but this is and has been my experience and I also know that after talking to several others, it was their experience as well. I also know that several of our fellow builders have gone other directions to have their paint and body work completed because of remarkably similar experiences with Jeff Kleiner.

So you ask what has me feeling this way and feeling so strongly that I would post this in a public forum. It all really boils down to how I was treated as a paying customer. Remember, while I do not believe that Jeff Kleiner is an official vendor of the factory five forum, many people have chosen to promote and hire Jeff to do their paint and body work. So what did I expect to receive from Jeff Kleiner as a paying customer? I expected first fantastic paint and body work and perhaps equally important, open and easy communication. I expected timely completion of the work that I hired Jeff for and updates throughout the process. I expected that when I was told something would be done, it would be done as promised. Jeff Kleiner while he may do fantastic body work and relatively good paint work, he lacks any resemblance of good customer service.

Let me explain.
I immediately got onto Jeff’s waiting list at the beginning of my build back in Aug 2018. Jeff told me it was going to be about 9 – 12 months so this was perfect as I planned to drive in gelcoat for a while after I completed the build, and I did. 10,000 miles worth. My time finally came up in November 2019, right at the same time I was working with BluePrint Engines to fix a problem I was having. The decision was made to postpone sending the car to Jeff until after I receive my engine back and installed it. Jeff told me that he would just move up the next job he had to do and move me in behind that person. This was perfect. So, Jeff started working on the next job, I sent my engine off to BPE and all was right on track. Now, in January 2020, I have my engine back in, the car is ready to go to Jeff. I called, left messages, and texted Jeff several times, before he finally returned my call. I asked him when he would be ready for my car. I could never get a straight answer out of him. In fact, he told me “You will get your car up here when I tell you you will.” This is what he told me, a paying customer. I should have dropped it right there and found another paint and body person. But I was one of the biggest promotors of Jeff Kleiner and I wanted my car done buy what I thought was one of the best. I waited and waited and then I see that Jeff took on more work after the one car that he moved into my place. In fact, all told, he completed 5 more cars during the time he was supposed to have mine in his shop. I will give a pass on one of those cars as it was a last minute one dropped on him by Dave Smith, the 25th Anniversary raffle car that had a tight deadline. But the other 4 cars, no pass given. He flat out treated me like I was nothing. Again, I should have run, found another painter, but no, I thought to myself, I am going to get my work done by the best, by Jeff Kleiner.

Finally, that day came when Jeff called me and said he was ready for me to bring my car up, it was next. This was the week of July 1st, 2020. I personally delivered my car to Jeff Kleiner 8 days later on July 9th. During that visit Jeff had two other cars in his shop, one that he was putting back together after paint and another one that looked to be getting very close to getting paint sprayed. Because of the extreme lack of communication over the previous several months, I made it a point to ask some very direct questions while I had Jeff in front of me. One of those questions was specifically how long it would take him to complete the work on my car. Remember, up until this day, I had always been told the generic answer of 6 – 8 weeks. During this face-to-face conversation, I asked this question, “you’ve always told me that it takes 6 – 8 weeks. Based on what you have here now, what do you think?” He told me my car was after that one, (gesturing at the one almost ready for paint) and because he would have his grandkids for a week during the summer, it would be 8 or 9 weeks. Great, a firm commitment of 8/9 weeks. I also had a small amount of work I wanted to do on my car when the body was off for the last time before paint and he was to contact me so I could make the 11 hour drive up there to do that work. This was all very well understood by Jeff and we had a plan. So, with this information, I left, expecting to return in 3 – 5 weeks to do some work and then again at the end of August to pick up my completed car.

Over the next several weeks, I had not heard from Jeff, I sent him text messages and even tried to call him. He would not respond. I asked him several time for some photos to put on my build thread, nothing. This is the way Jeff treats his customers, with little to no communication. Finally, Jeff reached out to me, well into September (weeks after my car should have been completely finished) to let me know I could come up and do that extra work I planned to do. I went there on September 19th.

Continued: