Paint By Numbers
Over the Thanksgiving break, Ethel and I decided to do a few things around the house. The first item on our list was touching up the paint around the house - there were a few scratches here and there and lots of cat paw prints.
The builders left us a quart of the paint they used - Kelly-Moore 450-20 Western Acoustic (that brings to mind gunfights and cattle rustling, no?), but it had rust in it, so we took a drive to the local Kelly-Moore store.
We walked into the store and to the counter and waited patiently for someone to offer to help us. After a short wait, the sales guy came over - Painter Boy, or PB for short. I want to characterize the salesperson there as incompetent, but he wasn't. He was just lazy. Probably the son of the owner now that I think about it.
The conversation went like this:
PB: Can I help you (with sort of a "what now?" intonation)All the while, I kept turning to Ethel wondering what it was I had done to elicit such utter stupidity from him. Once in a while, I will say or do something that triggers a bad reaction in someone - just like with the gate guy actually.
Me: I need a can of 450-20 Western Acoustic
PB: 450 has been discontinued
Me: The number? Hmm.. Ok, do you have anything like it?
PB: No, nothing that will match
Me: What does the number mean?
PB: 450 means it's for contractors.
Me: Seriously? Don't you mix colors?
PB: Yes, but it wouldn't match
Me: [thinking he must not be very good at mixing if it doesn't match] Hmm.. Why not?
PB: Because it's different
Me: I realize that, how is it different?
PB: It just is
Me: Is it a texture thing?
PB: No, it's just different. All paints are different
Me: So 450 was discontinued. Was it replaced by something?
PB: Yes, either 550 or 1050, but they won't match, they're different
Me: What's the difference between them?
PB: 1050 is the contractors version
Me: Sounds kind of like the 450, no? Can I get a quart of that?
PB: No, it only comes in gallons
Me: What about the 550?
PB: That comes in quarts
Me: Can I have one?
PB: Oh, ok
Ethel did a nice job touching things up (my job was to make sure the cats didn't get too close to the wet paint) - we should have Painter Boy to see if he can find the non-matching spots.
Labels: customer service, inept, painting, thanksgiving
posted by Milton Dorkenhoff @ 6:29 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
The same thing happened to me except the guy told me it was time to repaint THE ENTIRE HOUSE! This guy was crazy if he thought because I was a girl I was just going to go ahead and buy a bunch of paint I didn't need!
Thanks for the info - I'll be heading back and buying the 550 paint regardless of the fact "it won't match"
I work in construction and that paint is the most common color for commercial and production houses.
Glad I could help out. Sorry you had to deal with a moron too. I wonder if it's a franchise thing - are all Kelly-Moores staffed by dumb people?
Actually I'd like to offer up a clarification. The person helping you was in some ways right and not at truculent as he may have seemed.
Kelly Moore Western Acoustic used to be a STOCK color (meaning mixed by a machine at the factory with no real margin for error). When you buy a stock color, you can later buy the exact same stock color and it will match (meaning you can touch up a wall or with it and not have to repaint an entire wall - unless it has aged considerably).
However as soon as you try to match a stock color the color with a mixed color at the store, it will almost never match and you have to repaint the entire wall, or trim, etc. Same if you change the paint type (contractor vs premium).
So it is actually a real difference. When Kelly Moore stopped making Western Acoustic as a stock color, it meant no one could ever touch up walls going forward with the mixed versions - even if the exact same color. Property management companies had to switch entire wall areas over to a new stock color so they can touch up in the future without having to repaint fully every time.
Hope this helps.
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