I'm sorry that you had this experience. I've been messed up so many times by paint, mostly because whoever mixed it did it wrong or didn't understand how to match. I finally found one guy who really knows how to mix paint and get the right color. I don't know what I'll do when he retires.

She assured me that their computers take that into consideration and it would be the same color. Off I went with my 8 gallons of paint for the ceiling.

If you are color-matching or custom tinting, always check EVERY container against the sample by dabbing a little bit from the container on the paint chip and letting it dry.

That is such a disappointment. It is crazy with the paint not matching like they say it will. Often not even close, in my experience.

I have found that SW hires very young people who seem to know very little if anything. I have found far more experience and know-how at Benjamin Moore. I don't even bother asking things at SW unless I get the manager at one particular branch. She seems to be very well trained.

You are so right to check first and each gallon, too. Painters also box them so any slight variances will be evened out (pour a few gallons together and mix them).

And you worked so hard on this!!

This post was edited by snookums2 on Sun, Feb 24, 13 at 18:54

I know how you feel - although I didn't spend quite $1500 on paint, I made some big mistakes a few times with paint... and of course they won't take it back once it's tinted even if it's not opened - not even for partial store credit! I tried selling the perfectly good (just not the color) paint on CL for 25% of the price but not takers. I have found uses for some of it during the past 6 months...

The good news is I think once you have the sample-painted area repainted with the other paint, it will not call your attention as much and it will probably look just great.

another thing I found out is that not every store uses the same recipe for the paint. At least BM on the paint sticker they place on the can has the formula date. Bought a can of paint at another BM dealer and the color did not match, so had to go back to the original dealer.

Why are they not responsible for this?

First, I'd go to the store manager about, at minimum, either replacing the paint with the right color, or refunding the money for the paint. Never mind about disclaimers. They made a big mistake, and you are not to blame.

If that doesn't work, go up the corporate chain. I am a big believer in a cordial, well-written letter to the corporate officers of a company when something like this happens, saying, "I am sorry to trouble you but I am at my wit's end - I spent $X dollars of my tight budget, this and that happened, and now every room in my beloved home is wrong because of the store's mistake. All the people in the Garden Web community assure me that this isn't my fault and shouldn't be my problem. Can you please direct me to someone who can help me solve this problem?"

You're clear, you're polite, you're a nice reasonable person, you're sad but not angry, and you have gently shown that a lot of people are hearing about this, and will likely hear about how well or badly they handle it.

You'd be surprised at how often you get wonderful results that way.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sherwin Williams corporate officers

aggierose, it occurred to me later that you said they used the sample pot for the remaining strip. This would not be the same type of paint so would look different. The guy at SW told me that people mix sample pots to paint a room as if they are paint but they are horrible bases and do not hold up well.

Is it the same sheen? BM samples are eggshell. I can't remember SW's but think they might be flat. Could be matte. A sheen difference will also look different.

The other thing is that with the very small sample size, pigment measurements are very difficult to get accurate at that quantity so they can be off. They seem to think this is a logical explanation to the customer and is alright but how you sample paints that way is beyond me!

My experience may be too old since it occurred about 3-8 months ago, but just in case I'll share it since it left me feeling like SW dropped the ball on customer service.

We had our ceilings painted SW (can't recall the white name at the moment) when we moved into our new home about 8 months ago. It took me awhile to pick a DR chandelier so it was about 3 months ago that we had that hung and had to move the ceiling box to have it line up over the table. We had plenty of touch-up paint, and the contractor sent out the same painters to do the touch-up. However it didn't match.
At first everyone thought the can got mislabeled, so they bought another can of the same formula, and it didn't match. They also tried just doing a color match with no luck. Finally the SW store told the painters that SW changed their base between when we first bought and when the second was done. I said how could SW do this without changing all the formulas to make sure this would not affect the outcomes?? Fortunately for us, the builder assumed all responsibility without even us asking and repainted all the ceiling in that area, but I felt like either the local SW store or SW in general was not being very customer friendly if the account we were given was correct. If they really did change their base, perhaps this affected your paint color as well.