Undercover Boss (2010) s06e04 Episode Script
Maaco
(Male announcer) Since premiering to nearly 40 million viewers in 2010, more than 70 bosses Oh, my God! (Announcer) have posed as subjects on a fake show to get honest feedback from their employees.
All right.
(Announcer) It's been shocking.
[Cow mooing.]
A lot of people smoke pot.
(Narrator) It's been challenging.
It's not the homeowner's fault that I get paid peanuts.
(Announcer) But it's inspired them to change their employee's lives forever.
I've decided to invest around $3 million - because of you.
- Thank you.
For real? Like, this is real? - Without a doubt.
- [Sobs.]
I am going to give you your own store.
- Yay! - [Laughs.]
Probably the best thing somebody ever did for me.
I have a check for $250,000.
Oh, my God.
(Announcer) Tonight, the latest boss to take on this challenge is Jose Costa, president of Maaco, a painting and auto body giant famous for its memorable slogan.
Uh, oh.
Better get Maaco.
Watch the cone, wait a minute.
Watch the cone! Ho, ho, ho! (Announcer) By joining his employees on the front lines I'm looking for Acey.
- Hey! Acey Patterson.
- Acey.
(Announcer) This foreign boss meets the people who are keeping his company on the road to success.
Oh, wow.
You missed tape up under the tailpipe.
I missed that.
- Alberto! - Yes, sir.
Come on, Alberto! Today, not tomorrow! You're always thinking about speed.
Time is money, time is money.
(Announcer) What will happen when he discovers that one employee is putting a dent in his company's reputation? My goal is to get this car in and out as quick as possible.
Not every dent has to be 100%.
You need to do that to make money.
You know, cut corners.
(Announcer) Find out next on Undercover Boss.
(Announcer) Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and with 470 shops across the United States and Canada, Maaco is the number one automotive care franchise in the world.
[Trumpet fanfare.]
Behind the wheel of this $450 million-a-year company and its 7,500 employees is one man.
I'm Jose Costa and I'm the president of Maaco.
Maaco is America's bodyshop.
It was founded in 1972 by an Italian immigrant, Tony Martino, and his vision was to spread affordable car care to America.
And it grew really fast.
Within a decade we had over 200 shops owned and operated by small business owners.
Today we have 470 shops in 48 states in the U.
S.
In the past 42 years we've fixed almost 18 million cars.
Maaco was famous in the '70s, '80s, and '90s for its tagline, "Uh, oh.
Better get Maaco!" Uh, oh.
Better get Maaco! (Jose) I was born and raised in Venezuela.
I'm the eldest son of a Spanish immigrant and an Italian immigrant.
My father has always been my role model.
He is an entrepreneur who started a very small business and turned it into a multi-million-dollar company.
He wanted me to be successful as well, so he sent me to the United States for graduate school.
After graduate school I decided to stay.
But it was hard finding a company that could sponsor my visa.
Fortunately, I was able to find a company that would give me a shot.
I spent a couple years with KFC before joining Burger King.
With our team we were able to grow sales from $1.
5 billion to $2 billion.
It's amazing what the American dream of the opportunity in the U.
S.
is for an immigrant.
And ten months ago Maaco called me and I joined Maaco.
Hey, Paul.
Hey, Jose.
How are you today? Actually you might be surprised.
I'm not a car guy.
How long does it take you to fix that? This should be completed by Monday.
(Jose) I've never painted a car, I've never sanded a car.
Look at that.
Smooth.
Nice and smooth.
Some of the franchisees are saying, "Who the hell is this guy? He doesn't know anything about cars.
" They've told me in my face.
Like, "You don't know what you're doing.
You should go back to selling burgers.
" All right, I wanted to show you the new prototype.
So every new Maaco is gonna look just like this.
It's almost like you're gonna be walking into an Apple store screens and iPads throughout.
It's gonna change the way we do business.
I don't have a lot of tolerance for lazy people, and I push my team very hard.
We need to double our sales and double the size of our store count.
And I want everything to be done yesterday.
[Chuckles.]
Hello! Is that papa? Is papa home? Hello! Hi! (Jose) I have a beautiful wife.
Her name is Cindy.
What's that? Carrots.
Are those carrots? (Jose) We have a son, Loren, two years old, and we have a daughter on the way.
My wife is seven months pregnant.
Are you nervous? I am nervous.
(Jose) We both have Southern accents, just different Southern accents.
[Laughs.]
You're gonna be working side by side with them.
And if I see something that I don't like I don't know what's gonna happen.
[Laughs.]
One of my key features is my big forehead, so maybe bringing the hairline down.
I've only been here ten months, and I'm tasked with transforming our business.
And we've made a lot of progress, but I'm very concerned that our franchisees are not following our guidelines.
- A little bit shorter on the sides.
- Okay.
(Jose) I invested my own savings in the success of our brand.
So I have a lot to lose or a lot to win.
Throughout my undercover journey, I'm going to be disguised as a food truck owner from Argentina.
You should leave it like that.
[Laughs.]
(Jose) My employees will think they're on a reality show where ten international contestants are competing to win a dream home in America.
[Thrilling music.]
Today, I'm in Orlando, Florida, and I'll be working as a body tech.
The body tech is the first position in our production process.
I wanna come to this shop because it's one of the best ones in our company.
It's ranked number nine.
They do $2.
5 million, and I wanna learn from the best.
I'm looking for Jim.
(Jose) Today it's gonna be a real test.
I have never been a body tech.
I've actually never done any type of work similar to this.
I'm really nervous I'm going to screw up.
- Hey, are you Jim? - Yes! - Hey, how are you, man? - Alberto.
Hey, Alberto.
You're gonna be my victim today, huh? Sounds good! What I do around here is I'm an auto body tech.
What I do is I repair the dents.
How about I give you your uniform here? Sounds good! (Jim) When I first saw Alberto, I was shocked.
I was expecting a younger person.
But, uh, everybody gets a chance.
We can go over this car.
I've grabbed the paperwork, and I'll go around and circle it.
Now, it's got some repair time on this fender.
You get a half an hour to fix that.
Then you have left rear door dings.
(Jose) So this will take you more than a day? No, it better not.
I work on commission.
I do not get paid hourly.
You don't have a salary? That's correct.
Time is money, time is money.
If you wanna make more, you have to work more.
Let me show you how to fix a ding.
Okay.
We put our mask on.
This is a dual action sander.
You have to scuff up the surface so that the bondo will stick to it.
[Sander whirring.]
You got this one here.
So after we sand the area where the dent is, we're gonna apply some bondo.
We're gonna sand the bondo down until it's flat, and then it'll go over to the sanding area and there'll be other people sanding the whole car down.
Okay.
Now, what I'd like you to do now is take the sander, and let's try and do these two well, three.
(Jose) Oh, my God, I've never sanded a car in my life.
[Sander whirring.]
I'm a little worried.
Like I said, time is money.
You know what I mean? Just sand where the dent is there.
You wanna keep this flat also.
And again, you're always thinking about speed.
Try not to be so jittery.
(Jim) Alberto was handling the tools like he never had touched 'em before.
You see what happened? Feel that.
You feel the big hump here where you just [Growling.]
- Yeah.
- Try blocking it.
You know, a little awkward.
Keep your sander flat.
We're very close to to screwing this up.
(Jim) My three-year-old kid would probably be a better sander than Alberto.
I-I from what I remember, it was just a little ding here.
So you got a you know, you got a lot - Too much? - Yeah.
The more you put on the more time you're gonna need to sand it off.
Again, it's about quickness.
It's about, uh using the minimal amount.
My goal is to get this car in and out of my area as quick as possible.
You learn one what you can get away with when it's painted, you know? Not every dent has to be 100%.
You need to do that to make money you know, cut corners.
The quality the quality is good.
Is it done the way somebody would learn in school? No.
(Jose) He shouldn't be cutting corners.
That's unacceptable.
That's not how we do business.
We have strict guidelines that need to be followed.
He needs to fix every car the right way.
These people are hopefully know that when they come here it is, you know, a cheap paint job.
That's what people think of Maaco? Yeah.
That pissed me off, and I had to bite my tongue.
We are high-quality for a fair price.
We're not working at Cadillac, we're working at Maaco.
Maaco is subpar.
(Jim) You know what, not every dent has to be 100%.
You need to do that to make money you know, cut corners.
These people hopefully know that when they come here it is, you know, a cheap paint job.
(Jose) I understand that he needs to move fast to make more commissions Another responsibility is keeping your area clean.
(Jose) but that doesn't mean he needs to cut corners.
That's not the Maaco way.
So what brought you to this country? Uh, the situation in my country is not very good right now, so This is a better opportunity for you? We're competing to see if I can move here.
Now do you have family to bring over here, or I have two kids and my wife.
I haven't seen them, like, in six weeks, but That's rough, that's rough.
It is, it is.
I miss them, yeah.
I know what it's like not seeing your family.
I spent some time in jail for two years, and I guess did not go down the road I had wanted to, and got messed up in the alcohol and stuff, and I had gotten my third D.
U.
I.
up in Pennsylvania.
They wanted to send me to jail for five years.
Wow.
Um I had already done two, I didn't wanna do five.
- Yeah.
- So I checked into a rehab.
Spent 18 months down here in a rehab.
It was not so much being in there we're secluded but not being able to see your family.
And I missed a lotta time with my two older kids.
My three-year-old it's it's my last chance.
I need to spend time with this kid.
So this half of my life is is for the kids.
I need to, you know, be present in their life so that they don't end up where I did.
(Jose) I don't think Jim is a bad guy, but at the same time I'm gonna have to make a very tough call with him because he's cutting corners, and we cannot cut corners at Maaco.
I-I wish you the best.
Thank you so much.
(Jose) Today I'm in Orlando, Florida, and I'll be working as a painter.
This franchisee does something very unique.
They don't just paint cars.
This owner makes over $1 million painting all the trash cans for Disney World.
So I wanna see their production line.
Excuse me, I'm looking for Christian.
Thank you.
(Jose) Yesterday I was at this shop working with Jim, and I heard from him that he's cutting corners.
And that really pissed me off.
So I had to come back today to find out if the same thing is happening in other areas of this shop.
Are you Christian? - Yeah, how are you? - Alberto.
Alberto, my name is Christian.
Welcome to Maaco.
- Nice to meet you.
- Uh-huh.
Okay.
Okay.
How long have you been doing this? [Air spraying.]
You got it? But you don't leave it to anyone, you do it yourself - to make sure of this.
- Yeah, yeah.
So you don't cut corners? - No.
- You do it Yeah, I do Okay.
(Jose) I'm relieved that, so far, today's much more positive than yesterday.
Painting.
- Okay.
- All right? Okay.
You got it? I got it! No, but it's same technique as the primer? [Laughs.]
Okay.
Get to work.
Oh, wow.
You need to start from scratch because I messed up? Yeah, yeah.
[Uplifting music.]
(Jose) I like it.
I miss my family a lot.
Me too, man.
I know how that feels.
And you've been here for how many Six.
Five, six weeks.
Why did you leave Puerto Rico? You wanna own your body shop? So it is true.
The American dream is true.
Yeah.
You you can you can make it.
Okay.
That crushed me.
Oh.
And, um, when the baby's born - Christabella.
- Christabella.
Are your parents coming? You know, it's it's expensive.
You know but (Jose) The fact that Christian struggles to put food on the table but he still wakes up every morning and comes here with a great attitude, that's the type of employee I want in every single Maaco.
And three years later you have a car, your your wife is pregnant.
You can do it too.
(Jose) Christian and I, we're both immigrants pursuing the American dream.
He has a plan in his mind of where he wants to go.
And I wanna help him get there.
Are you done with your lunch? Yeah.
Let's go back to work.
Let's go back to work.
[Hard rock.]
(Announcer) Coming up, the boss gets a crash course in hard work.
Alberto! Alberto! Yes, sir.
Come on, Alberto! Today, not tomorrow! (Announcer) And later, Jose must decide what to do with a problem employee.
You're putting your pocket before - That's not true.
- the quality of the work.
The corners I'm cutting are corners that can be cut.
I don't need you to cut corners.
[Upbeat music.]
Today I'm in Trenton, New Jersey, and I'm gonna be working with the franchise owner.
This franchisee is in the top 20% of the system.
I'm here to see Matt.
Come on back.
(Jose) I'm very excited to be here because I wanna learn what he's doing so we can expand his best practices to other Maacos across the chain.
Hello, hello! Hello.
I assume you're a contestant.
- Yes, sir.
- How you doing? Nice to meet you.
My name is Matt Palmer.
How you doing? - Nice to meet you.
- I'm the owner here.
(Matt) So come on out and we'll give you a quick lay of the land.
So what we're gonna do today is I'm gonna introduce you to Ronald Bran.
We call him "Rambo.
" Uh, we're gonna move some cars, we're gonna get the lot organized because, as customers come in, we wanna make a path for them.
So when they pull in to park there's space for them to come in.
There's Rambo.
My name's Rambo, I'm a utility person.
What we're gonna do first is I wanna get customer parking emptied out.
Organize that, and then wherever you were on your chores as far as trash or feeding the dog, let's get him acclimated to what goes on here.
[Barks.]
Are you ready to do some running around? Sounds good.
(Rambo) My job here at Maaco is keep the lot organized.
Bring up a finished car when a customer is in the office paying for it, so they don't have to pull it out and hit another car.
So what you wanna do back into them holes up there.
Those two? Perfect.
[Indie rock.]
(Rambo) Cut it hard! Hard! Drive up that way and back in.
Watch the cone.
Wait a minute.
Watch the cone! Ho, ho, ho! Straighten it out.
Come on back.
Straight back.
Little bit more.
That's good.
The Dodge Dakota, same thing.
Wait, wait, wait! You're going over that way too far.
Come on! Alberto drives like an old lady.
Come on! (Jose) It's very stressful.
Keep coming! He doesn't move quite fast enough.
Come back straight.
Keep coming.
Come on! (Rambo) I've been here 13 years.
It comes secondhand to me.
I could probably almost drive through the parking lot blind.
No! Straight! (Jose) I don't know how he does this by himself.
Keep coming.
Good! How do you do this by yourself? Lots of practice.
Wait until you're moving one and then they're calling you to move another one all at the same time, and they're calling you on the intercom for this and that.
[Intercom beeping.]
[Whimsical music.]
Each car has their own serial number.
One day, Alberto would last here about one day, and that'd be it.
[Upbeat music.]
Alberto! - Alberto! - Yes, sir! Come on, Alberto! Today, not tomorrow! (Jose) Most stressful piece is just running back and forth.
[Car alarm blaring.]
[Barking.]
(Woman on intercom) Alberto! Alberto! (Rambo) Alberto moves around here sort of like a bear slow and big and clumsy.
I move around here like a gazelle.
Come on! Keep coming! Straight back.
No! Straight! Sorry? I'd fire Alberto.
Not fast enough.
So you run a lot? [Laughter.]
About 25 miles a day.
It's so bad that I got in an accident about eight years ago.
I busted my rib, 45% of the cartilage in my left knee.
What happened? Guy didn't see a red light and he ran into the driver's side of my truck, doing about 65 miles an hour.
Ah.
I ended up 40 feet on the other side of the intersection, but my wife was laid off and the unemployment wasn't coming in yet, so I had to go to work the next day.
You can't live on air.
And is the injury fine now? They fixed the knee, the rib healed, but the back they won't touch it.
I have to live with it.
Okay, now, I know there's overspray on this van.
We don't want the customer to see it.
What what's overspray? Overspray is it wasn't taped completely, so the paint got behind the paper and the tape when it went into the spray booth.
Okay.
And now it's stuck to the taillight lights.
[Squeaking.]
And if it's raining or snowing, you need to do this out here? I work outside year-round.
You freeze in the wintertime.
In the summertime it gets hot.
[Jose laughs.]
Have you told them you need more help here? Then I'll get even less money.
[Laughs.]
- It's not in the budget.
- Oh.
If it was in the budget, we'd have a place for me to work inside when I have to do work on cars.
We wouldn't have a roof that leaks.
- It leaks right here? - [Scraping.]
(Rambo) It leaks everywhere.
So fixing the roof and getting a place for you to work inside would make - Oh, it'd make it so much easier.
- things easier.
(Jose) It's admirable that he gets out with that back pain and the weather here in this area of the country.
I mean, it's very hard.
I don't know how he does it.
What made you wanna move to the United States? Because I have two small kids and it's very unsafe right now in Argentina.
- Oh.
- So I don't want them to grow up there.
I don't blame you with that, but things aren't always good here neither.
It all depends on what else you have going on in your life.
My parents divorced when I was eight years old.
So my mother worked nights as a nurse and I worked as much as I could.
I was working eight part-time jobs and going to high school at the same time - Wow.
- to support the five of us.
Then I enlisted in the National Guard and put 16 years in the National Guard.
I made it to "sergeant" before I got out.
Wow.
(Jose) Here's a man who served his country, and now he's dedicating himself to Maaco.
I'm so proud to have someone like Rambo working for our company.
I'm giving Lorenzo off to you, sir.
Perfect.
So how did you make out with Rambo today? Tired.
- He can run you around, can't he? - It's a lot of work.
And today was actually a slow day.
You know, you experienced a light day.
Rambo said that we need to fix the roof.
[Laughs.]
It's difficult, you know [Stammering.]
to replace equipment costs money, to put a roof on a building costs a lot of money.
So my goal is, once I'm done paying for the property, the money that we pay now to mortgage I will take that money right back in the business new spray booth, new roof, new parking lot.
One of the things now that Maaco's into is they're growing the chain.
So adding stores when other stores are struggling to succeed, I find that to be frustrating.
Because, you know, they'll go out and spend money that I give them, and that other owners give them.
They'll use some of that to go out and market to you, to Joe Smith, to make them wanna buy a Maaco.
- You see my point? - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
They're using my money to sell more stores instead of using our money to put back in to make our stores stronger.
(Jose) My challenge is to show Matt that we can still grow.
And we wanna work with him to improve our brand.
If every franchise owner in the system owns two Maacos, we would accomplish our goal of doubling the size while maintaining the family culture.
[Hard rock.]
Today I'm undercover in Lawnside, New Jersey, and I'll be working as a detailer.
The detailer is the last person to touch the car before we give it back to the consumer.
And every detailer should have the same standards in every single Maaco.
And I'm hoping to see that consistency today.
Good morning! I'm looking for Acey.
- Hey! Acey Patterson.
- Acey.
I'm the detailer here at Maaco.
When a car comes out from paint it comes over to me, and my job is to wow the customers.
So are you ready to go to work? - I am ready, let's do it.
- All right, let's go! Right here is basically is everything that we do on paper.
Always go back to the board.
That board, that's your lifeline.
Okay.
Because at the end of the day, guess what? The boss, he understands that board, he knows that board, and he lives for that board.
And that's in every Maaco, you have those? Yes, every Maaco has those.
So the first thing you wanna do is take off the tape.
And just pull the tape back like this.
And always remember, if you don't pull it back like this - you could pull off some of the paint.
- Okay.
And the boss ain't gonna be happy if you pulling off paint.
(Jose) Okay.
There you go, always pull away from the Yep, you getting it right.
All right.
So where you from? Argentina.
Argentina! By the time you leave here today, you gonna be the best detailer out there.
[Laughing.]
- Hey, how are you? - How are you? This is very hard.
Acey'll tell you I'm very, very strict with time.
I need this done within an hour.
- We'll have it ready for you.
- All right.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
You have one hour per car? (Mark) No, you got less than an hour.
I'm just giving you an hour because you're new, so - [Laughs.]
- All right? - Thank you.
- You got, like, 30 minutes per car.
- Okay.
- That's the boss.
We really need this car done, so I'ma help you out here.
Once you get all the tape off, you're gonna vacuum out the interior of the car.
Then you wanna clean the inside glass.
And remember, time is everything.
Acey moves really fast.
You're gonna flat black the tires.
(Jose) He's a very good instructor.
You just come over like this here.
A bad detailer can make a good painter look bad.
(Jose) Great personality.
I think very, very highly of him.
Okay, you think you can go ahead and do one car by yourself? - I'll try.
- You wanna try one by yourself? Yes.
So what I'm gonna do is give you 30 minutes to see if you can actually get things done the way you're supposed to.
- Ready.
- All right.
Set, go.
- [Can hissing.]
- Ah-ah, no.
That's always one of the last things.
You always wanna go into the interior first.
If you ever get lost or whatever - Come back here? - just come.
You can always come back here.
- All right? - Okay.
All right, so just start all over again.
You left tape on here.
I-I missed that.
You missed tape up under the tailpipe also.
So now I can clean the interior glass? Nope.
(Acey) I wouldn't say Alberto has a good memory.
He messed up on everything.
Remember what I say.
Always do the top first.
(Jose) I'm working as fast as I can.
- You gotta step this up, okay? - Okay.
But the manager in this shop is really tough.
We are about an hour and So that means we're 45 minutes over.
- It's just not good business.
- Okay.
(Jose) I originally didn't think detailing was that hard, but it is a hard job.
- Acey! - Yes, sir! Come here for a second.
Why why do you think it's taking him so long? (Acey) Because he ain't remembering.
Wanna run back through your board with him? Yeah, I did.
Why don't you pull him off the car, right - Mm-hmm.
- and take him over to the board and walk him through step by step.
I just wanna go over everything with you again.
Because when it comes to my boss, Mark, everything has to be done perfect, everything has to be done in a timely fashion, and Okay.
So once again, remember, take off all the tape from the car.
Alberto is definitely slowing me down a little bit.
'Cause usually by now I got four, five, six cars done.
But, hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.
Take the tape off that you missed there.
(Acey) If you need it, you know, just remember, just go back to the steps.
Don't forget about the mirror right here too.
If you do every car the same way, you'll get it, and that's what Alberto has to work on, just repetition and just doing everything the same way each car.
You think you're ready to go ask Mark? See if Mark will come and inspect it for you - Yeah.
- see how it looks? - You sure? - The final exam.
Let's ask him.
- All right, let's go.
- Let's go.
[Humming.]
Gotta put this emblem on.
- Mm-hmm.
- You gotta finish the windows.
'Cause the if you look around, dirt up in still all in here.
And that's a window is the first visual thing - a customer looks at.
- Okay.
Mark, the manager, seems to be a taskmaster.
Just glue over here.
Okay.
(Jose) And even though he wants the job done quickly, he still wants it to be done the right way.
Go through all that and then come back and grab me.
- Okay.
- Thank you.
(Jose) That just reinforces to me that Jim was doing something wrong.
Because by the time we finished this car, it was done fast, affordable, and without sacrificing quality.
[Uplifting music.]
So how did you like it today? Much harder than what I expected.
- Oh, really? - Yeah.
- Why do you say that? - I didn't know I was gonna sweat.
[Laughing.]
Oh, you didn't know you was gonna sweat? [Laughing.]
What makes the U.
S.
different from Argentina? The American dream.
- The American dream, right? - Yeah.
A lotta people think that, you know, it's just all peaches and cream.
It's not, man.
I mean, it's rough.
Trust me.
It's rough now, or it has been rough? Just growing up, always was a good kid.
You know, with my mom, she got married and everything.
When she got married, I kinda like, uh I didn't I didn't get along with my stepdad with her husband too tough, you know what I mean? So that's where all the wrong turns - The problems.
- Yeah.
That's where And how old were you? I left my mom's house when I was 14.
Um Where did you go? The streets.
Oh, the street.
Yeah.
And the streets took over me.
I got caught with drugs, ended up going to prison.
You know? I did two years in prison.
- Two years.
- Two years in prison.
And, uh, after that, I got out, I was on a work release program, and I started for Maaco from right then, and I've been here at Maaco ever since.
You know, after I got out of prison, that's when I met my wife.
Do you have any kids? One boy, three girls.
We was together maybe like, uh four months, she got pregnant.
And that that really what changed my life.
That's what really opened my eyes.
- Your first baby.
- My first child.
When I seen her come out, that just, like, you know what? Okay, I got a responsibility now, you know? She can't fend for herself.
[Stammers.]
I just went to work.
And I've been working ever since, man.
And it doesn't matter what it is.
I don't care if they tell me to go in there and clean that nasty bathroom, I'ma go and clean it.
I'm gonna have a paycheck, something to pay my bills, to take care of my kids, you know what I mean? (Jose) Acey makes me very proud to be part of the Maaco family.
Let's go ahead and get everything finished cleaned up, and get done with the day.
(Jose) After spending this week undercover, I realized how important our employees are and the huge contribution that they make to our system, and I hope I can find some way to help all of them achieve their own American dream.
It has been a very hard-working day.
That's the American dream! We work hard, and hard work pays off.
(Announcer) Coming up What will happen when Alberto reveals his true identity? I'm the president of Maaco.
Oh, my God! (Announcer) And the boss must finally deal with Jim.
You're putting your pocket before - That's not true.
- the quality of the work.
I don't need you to cut corners.
(Jose) I'm in a car showroom in South Texas.
All of the people that I have worked with think they're coming here to the set of a reality show to hear the final results.
[Whimsical music.]
How you doing? - Good, how are you? - Good.
So how did Alberto do? He tried, but he he's not good as a painter.
You wouldn't hire him.
No, sir.
Do you recognize me? [Laughing.]
I was Alberto.
Oh, it was you! But I'm really not Alberto.
Huh? My name is Jose Costa and I'm the president of Maaco.
Oh, my God! And you are on Undercover Boss.
[Laughs.]
You guys got me real good.
[Laughing.]
Oh, man.
Jim, throughout my journey, I've struggled a lot with you, 'cause you're a good man, but you're cutting corners.
Not every dent has to be 100%.
You know, cut corners.
Right there, when you said, "I'm cutting corners," I was gonna pull my disguise and fire you.
To me it sounds like you're putting your pocket and your dollars and how much you're making - That's not true.
- before the quality of the work.
That's not true.
The corners I'm cutting are corners that can be cut.
I don't need you to cut corners.
A brand doesn't survive 42 years by cutting corners.
Again, the corners that are cut are cut every day.
And I've worked in three different Maacos.
That's the way it's done.
That's the way I was taught how to do it.
If that's what you're being told, I need to look into that.
That's not who Maaco is.
Jim, you're a good body man.
You talked about second chances and opportunities, so I'm going to give you 30 days to improve and show me that you can meet our standards.
Do you think you can change, Jim? - Yes.
- Okay.
I'll follow up with you in 30 days, and I hope I see a change.
Thank you.
I'm gonna take the next 30 days and, uh, improve on my work, make sure that I'm following all the estimates.
And, uh, hopefully, they'll see a difference in me.
Matt.
Some of the things you told me were very tough to hear.
They're using my money to sell more stores instead of using our money to put back in to make our stores stronger.
I want you to feel that you can call me anytime.
Okay.
I wanna show you that I care more about you and about our existing owners than anything else.
Okay.
I appreciate that.
There's a couple things I wanna do for you and your shop.
I know you have a leaky roof, so I wanna invest $35,000 in helping remodel your store.
Wow.
I wanna change all of your signage, I wanna paint the building, and I wanna give you our new sales office with the iPads, with the paint wall, with all the - bells and whistles that we have.
- Wow.
I certainly appreciate that very much.
I'm absolutely shocked that I didn't know it was you.
I still - can't believe I didn't know it was you.
- [Laughing.]
It's taken me back.
I literally am blown away that this is what this turned out to be.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
Thanks.
(Matt) I walk in my shop every day and I think, "I'd love to make this place into the Taj Mahal and make it nice," and one obstacle after the other makes it more and more difficult to do that.
And with his help, it's gonna make it terrific.
Rambo, you opened up my eyes to many things.
You mentioned having to work outside.
(Jose) And if it's raining or snowing, you need to do this out here? You freeze in the wintertime, in the summertime it gets hot.
[Laughs.]
Something I wanna do for you is build you a workstation outside with a heater, a roof above you, so you don't have to work outside in the cold.
Oh, I appreciate that very much, sir.
Three days before you were there, it was 2 degrees with a wind-chill factor of 13.
Thank you very much.
I can't thank you enough.
Rambo, all of your life, you have been serving someone else.
You have been serving our country, - you have been serving your family - [Sniffles.]
and you have been probably one of the best Maaco employees in our system.
Thank you.
And I wanna recognize you and say thank you with $20,000 Oh, my God.
[Sniffles.]
to help make life a little bit easier.
Is this some kinda joke? - No, it's not.
- Oh.
Thank you.
(Rambo) This is utterly amazing.
It's the last thing I was expecting.
- Can I give you a hug? - Yes, sir! [Laughing.]
Thank you.
(Rambo) This is gonna change my life completely.
I guess the best way to explain it right now is I had an 18-wheeler parked on my shoulders and somebody removed it.
Acey.
You were the highlight of my week.
By the time you leave here today, you gon' be the best detailer out there.
[Laughing.]
Oh, my God, this is amazing.
[Laughter.]
- You talked a lot about your kids.
- Right.
It sounds like they're probably - the most important people in your life.
- Right.
- So something I wanna do for you - Mm-hmm.
- is I wanna send you on a vacation - Oh, man! with your wife and your four kids.
Oh, man.
You choose where to go.
- Sounds good? - Sounds great.
Sounds great.
- All right.
- [Laughs.]
There's there's a couple more things - I wanna do for you, Acey.
- Okay.
I wanna set up a college fund for your kids.
Wow! $5,000 each.
Wow.
That feels real good, man.
[Laughing.]
- I can see the light in your eyes.
- Right.
I can see the drive, I can see the passion you have.
Mm-hmm.
And I wanna give you $25,000.
Oh, my God.
Get outta here, man.
[Laughing.]
Wow.
I can really I Oh, my gosh.
You just don't know.
I mean I really appreciate you, Acey, and there's one more thing I wanna do for you.
- Wow, okay.
- [Laughter.]
I wanna give you $10,000 Oh, my God.
to put against the down payment of your own home.
Me and my wife were just talking about this.
Oh, man! Are you serious? - I am serious.
- [Laughter.]
- Thank you, man.
- Thank you.
All right.
(Acey) Just to be recognized for my hard work, it shows that people really care.
At one point in my life, I thought nobody cared, you know? So it just goes right back to what I say, "hard work.
" And and it's all paying off right now.
And it feels so good, man.
Christian.
I did many jobs, and you're one of our best trainers out there.
You told me those trash cans were your babies.
[Sighs.]
You know it.
I love my job.
And you said that someday, you wanna own your own Maaco, right? I mean, that's a dream of every I think every body man, every painter, every person who works in this business.
I think you would make a great franchisee, and for that reason, I want to personally train you in some business skills that you need so someday soon, you can own your own Maaco.
Oh, my God! [Laughs.]
That sounds perfect! I'm not scared to do it.
I can prove to you and everybody else that I can do it.
Well, I know you are one of the best painters in our system, and I want to invite you to Charlotte so you can help us develop a Spanish-speaking training program for all of our painters system-wide.
Oh, my God! You're gonna make a lot of people happy.
- [Laughing.]
- Trust me.
Oh, my God.
That's gonna be awesome.
You mentioned you're you're pregnant.
My wife, she's pregnant.
She we gonna have a little baby girl.
- Christabella! - Christabella! And I'm can't wait to see her! You shared with me how hard it is to have your family far away, so I wanna pay for all the expenses to fly your parents from Puerto Rico so they can be there for the birth of your daughter.
Oh, my God.
My wife, she's gonna flip.
Oh, my God.
You told me how hard it is to make ends meet and to put food on the table.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm doing it with these hands right now.
I wanna help you pay your rent for one year.
Oh, my God.
[Crying.]
My God.
[Sighs.]
There's one more thing I wanna do for you.
I wanna help you with $20,000.
I don't know how to say thank you to you and this company.
I don't know how.
I don't know how.
[Deep breath.]
Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I'm gonna owe you for the rest of my life.
I can't describe this emotion right now, but [Sniffles.]
[Crying.]
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
Take care.
I'm a brand-new man right now! This man and Maaco changed my life forever.
Whoo! This is my American dream.
[Uplifting music.]
All right.
(Announcer) It's been shocking.
[Cow mooing.]
A lot of people smoke pot.
(Narrator) It's been challenging.
It's not the homeowner's fault that I get paid peanuts.
(Announcer) But it's inspired them to change their employee's lives forever.
I've decided to invest around $3 million - because of you.
- Thank you.
For real? Like, this is real? - Without a doubt.
- [Sobs.]
I am going to give you your own store.
- Yay! - [Laughs.]
Probably the best thing somebody ever did for me.
I have a check for $250,000.
Oh, my God.
(Announcer) Tonight, the latest boss to take on this challenge is Jose Costa, president of Maaco, a painting and auto body giant famous for its memorable slogan.
Uh, oh.
Better get Maaco.
Watch the cone, wait a minute.
Watch the cone! Ho, ho, ho! (Announcer) By joining his employees on the front lines I'm looking for Acey.
- Hey! Acey Patterson.
- Acey.
(Announcer) This foreign boss meets the people who are keeping his company on the road to success.
Oh, wow.
You missed tape up under the tailpipe.
I missed that.
- Alberto! - Yes, sir.
Come on, Alberto! Today, not tomorrow! You're always thinking about speed.
Time is money, time is money.
(Announcer) What will happen when he discovers that one employee is putting a dent in his company's reputation? My goal is to get this car in and out as quick as possible.
Not every dent has to be 100%.
You need to do that to make money.
You know, cut corners.
(Announcer) Find out next on Undercover Boss.
(Announcer) Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and with 470 shops across the United States and Canada, Maaco is the number one automotive care franchise in the world.
[Trumpet fanfare.]
Behind the wheel of this $450 million-a-year company and its 7,500 employees is one man.
I'm Jose Costa and I'm the president of Maaco.
Maaco is America's bodyshop.
It was founded in 1972 by an Italian immigrant, Tony Martino, and his vision was to spread affordable car care to America.
And it grew really fast.
Within a decade we had over 200 shops owned and operated by small business owners.
Today we have 470 shops in 48 states in the U.
S.
In the past 42 years we've fixed almost 18 million cars.
Maaco was famous in the '70s, '80s, and '90s for its tagline, "Uh, oh.
Better get Maaco!" Uh, oh.
Better get Maaco! (Jose) I was born and raised in Venezuela.
I'm the eldest son of a Spanish immigrant and an Italian immigrant.
My father has always been my role model.
He is an entrepreneur who started a very small business and turned it into a multi-million-dollar company.
He wanted me to be successful as well, so he sent me to the United States for graduate school.
After graduate school I decided to stay.
But it was hard finding a company that could sponsor my visa.
Fortunately, I was able to find a company that would give me a shot.
I spent a couple years with KFC before joining Burger King.
With our team we were able to grow sales from $1.
5 billion to $2 billion.
It's amazing what the American dream of the opportunity in the U.
S.
is for an immigrant.
And ten months ago Maaco called me and I joined Maaco.
Hey, Paul.
Hey, Jose.
How are you today? Actually you might be surprised.
I'm not a car guy.
How long does it take you to fix that? This should be completed by Monday.
(Jose) I've never painted a car, I've never sanded a car.
Look at that.
Smooth.
Nice and smooth.
Some of the franchisees are saying, "Who the hell is this guy? He doesn't know anything about cars.
" They've told me in my face.
Like, "You don't know what you're doing.
You should go back to selling burgers.
" All right, I wanted to show you the new prototype.
So every new Maaco is gonna look just like this.
It's almost like you're gonna be walking into an Apple store screens and iPads throughout.
It's gonna change the way we do business.
I don't have a lot of tolerance for lazy people, and I push my team very hard.
We need to double our sales and double the size of our store count.
And I want everything to be done yesterday.
[Chuckles.]
Hello! Is that papa? Is papa home? Hello! Hi! (Jose) I have a beautiful wife.
Her name is Cindy.
What's that? Carrots.
Are those carrots? (Jose) We have a son, Loren, two years old, and we have a daughter on the way.
My wife is seven months pregnant.
Are you nervous? I am nervous.
(Jose) We both have Southern accents, just different Southern accents.
[Laughs.]
You're gonna be working side by side with them.
And if I see something that I don't like I don't know what's gonna happen.
[Laughs.]
One of my key features is my big forehead, so maybe bringing the hairline down.
I've only been here ten months, and I'm tasked with transforming our business.
And we've made a lot of progress, but I'm very concerned that our franchisees are not following our guidelines.
- A little bit shorter on the sides.
- Okay.
(Jose) I invested my own savings in the success of our brand.
So I have a lot to lose or a lot to win.
Throughout my undercover journey, I'm going to be disguised as a food truck owner from Argentina.
You should leave it like that.
[Laughs.]
(Jose) My employees will think they're on a reality show where ten international contestants are competing to win a dream home in America.
[Thrilling music.]
Today, I'm in Orlando, Florida, and I'll be working as a body tech.
The body tech is the first position in our production process.
I wanna come to this shop because it's one of the best ones in our company.
It's ranked number nine.
They do $2.
5 million, and I wanna learn from the best.
I'm looking for Jim.
(Jose) Today it's gonna be a real test.
I have never been a body tech.
I've actually never done any type of work similar to this.
I'm really nervous I'm going to screw up.
- Hey, are you Jim? - Yes! - Hey, how are you, man? - Alberto.
Hey, Alberto.
You're gonna be my victim today, huh? Sounds good! What I do around here is I'm an auto body tech.
What I do is I repair the dents.
How about I give you your uniform here? Sounds good! (Jim) When I first saw Alberto, I was shocked.
I was expecting a younger person.
But, uh, everybody gets a chance.
We can go over this car.
I've grabbed the paperwork, and I'll go around and circle it.
Now, it's got some repair time on this fender.
You get a half an hour to fix that.
Then you have left rear door dings.
(Jose) So this will take you more than a day? No, it better not.
I work on commission.
I do not get paid hourly.
You don't have a salary? That's correct.
Time is money, time is money.
If you wanna make more, you have to work more.
Let me show you how to fix a ding.
Okay.
We put our mask on.
This is a dual action sander.
You have to scuff up the surface so that the bondo will stick to it.
[Sander whirring.]
You got this one here.
So after we sand the area where the dent is, we're gonna apply some bondo.
We're gonna sand the bondo down until it's flat, and then it'll go over to the sanding area and there'll be other people sanding the whole car down.
Okay.
Now, what I'd like you to do now is take the sander, and let's try and do these two well, three.
(Jose) Oh, my God, I've never sanded a car in my life.
[Sander whirring.]
I'm a little worried.
Like I said, time is money.
You know what I mean? Just sand where the dent is there.
You wanna keep this flat also.
And again, you're always thinking about speed.
Try not to be so jittery.
(Jim) Alberto was handling the tools like he never had touched 'em before.
You see what happened? Feel that.
You feel the big hump here where you just [Growling.]
- Yeah.
- Try blocking it.
You know, a little awkward.
Keep your sander flat.
We're very close to to screwing this up.
(Jim) My three-year-old kid would probably be a better sander than Alberto.
I-I from what I remember, it was just a little ding here.
So you got a you know, you got a lot - Too much? - Yeah.
The more you put on the more time you're gonna need to sand it off.
Again, it's about quickness.
It's about, uh using the minimal amount.
My goal is to get this car in and out of my area as quick as possible.
You learn one what you can get away with when it's painted, you know? Not every dent has to be 100%.
You need to do that to make money you know, cut corners.
The quality the quality is good.
Is it done the way somebody would learn in school? No.
(Jose) He shouldn't be cutting corners.
That's unacceptable.
That's not how we do business.
We have strict guidelines that need to be followed.
He needs to fix every car the right way.
These people are hopefully know that when they come here it is, you know, a cheap paint job.
That's what people think of Maaco? Yeah.
That pissed me off, and I had to bite my tongue.
We are high-quality for a fair price.
We're not working at Cadillac, we're working at Maaco.
Maaco is subpar.
(Jim) You know what, not every dent has to be 100%.
You need to do that to make money you know, cut corners.
These people hopefully know that when they come here it is, you know, a cheap paint job.
(Jose) I understand that he needs to move fast to make more commissions Another responsibility is keeping your area clean.
(Jose) but that doesn't mean he needs to cut corners.
That's not the Maaco way.
So what brought you to this country? Uh, the situation in my country is not very good right now, so This is a better opportunity for you? We're competing to see if I can move here.
Now do you have family to bring over here, or I have two kids and my wife.
I haven't seen them, like, in six weeks, but That's rough, that's rough.
It is, it is.
I miss them, yeah.
I know what it's like not seeing your family.
I spent some time in jail for two years, and I guess did not go down the road I had wanted to, and got messed up in the alcohol and stuff, and I had gotten my third D.
U.
I.
up in Pennsylvania.
They wanted to send me to jail for five years.
Wow.
Um I had already done two, I didn't wanna do five.
- Yeah.
- So I checked into a rehab.
Spent 18 months down here in a rehab.
It was not so much being in there we're secluded but not being able to see your family.
And I missed a lotta time with my two older kids.
My three-year-old it's it's my last chance.
I need to spend time with this kid.
So this half of my life is is for the kids.
I need to, you know, be present in their life so that they don't end up where I did.
(Jose) I don't think Jim is a bad guy, but at the same time I'm gonna have to make a very tough call with him because he's cutting corners, and we cannot cut corners at Maaco.
I-I wish you the best.
Thank you so much.
(Jose) Today I'm in Orlando, Florida, and I'll be working as a painter.
This franchisee does something very unique.
They don't just paint cars.
This owner makes over $1 million painting all the trash cans for Disney World.
So I wanna see their production line.
Excuse me, I'm looking for Christian.
Thank you.
(Jose) Yesterday I was at this shop working with Jim, and I heard from him that he's cutting corners.
And that really pissed me off.
So I had to come back today to find out if the same thing is happening in other areas of this shop.
Are you Christian? - Yeah, how are you? - Alberto.
Alberto, my name is Christian.
Welcome to Maaco.
- Nice to meet you.
- Uh-huh.
Okay.
Okay.
How long have you been doing this? [Air spraying.]
You got it? But you don't leave it to anyone, you do it yourself - to make sure of this.
- Yeah, yeah.
So you don't cut corners? - No.
- You do it Yeah, I do Okay.
(Jose) I'm relieved that, so far, today's much more positive than yesterday.
Painting.
- Okay.
- All right? Okay.
You got it? I got it! No, but it's same technique as the primer? [Laughs.]
Okay.
Get to work.
Oh, wow.
You need to start from scratch because I messed up? Yeah, yeah.
[Uplifting music.]
(Jose) I like it.
I miss my family a lot.
Me too, man.
I know how that feels.
And you've been here for how many Six.
Five, six weeks.
Why did you leave Puerto Rico? You wanna own your body shop? So it is true.
The American dream is true.
Yeah.
You you can you can make it.
Okay.
That crushed me.
Oh.
And, um, when the baby's born - Christabella.
- Christabella.
Are your parents coming? You know, it's it's expensive.
You know but (Jose) The fact that Christian struggles to put food on the table but he still wakes up every morning and comes here with a great attitude, that's the type of employee I want in every single Maaco.
And three years later you have a car, your your wife is pregnant.
You can do it too.
(Jose) Christian and I, we're both immigrants pursuing the American dream.
He has a plan in his mind of where he wants to go.
And I wanna help him get there.
Are you done with your lunch? Yeah.
Let's go back to work.
Let's go back to work.
[Hard rock.]
(Announcer) Coming up, the boss gets a crash course in hard work.
Alberto! Alberto! Yes, sir.
Come on, Alberto! Today, not tomorrow! (Announcer) And later, Jose must decide what to do with a problem employee.
You're putting your pocket before - That's not true.
- the quality of the work.
The corners I'm cutting are corners that can be cut.
I don't need you to cut corners.
[Upbeat music.]
Today I'm in Trenton, New Jersey, and I'm gonna be working with the franchise owner.
This franchisee is in the top 20% of the system.
I'm here to see Matt.
Come on back.
(Jose) I'm very excited to be here because I wanna learn what he's doing so we can expand his best practices to other Maacos across the chain.
Hello, hello! Hello.
I assume you're a contestant.
- Yes, sir.
- How you doing? Nice to meet you.
My name is Matt Palmer.
How you doing? - Nice to meet you.
- I'm the owner here.
(Matt) So come on out and we'll give you a quick lay of the land.
So what we're gonna do today is I'm gonna introduce you to Ronald Bran.
We call him "Rambo.
" Uh, we're gonna move some cars, we're gonna get the lot organized because, as customers come in, we wanna make a path for them.
So when they pull in to park there's space for them to come in.
There's Rambo.
My name's Rambo, I'm a utility person.
What we're gonna do first is I wanna get customer parking emptied out.
Organize that, and then wherever you were on your chores as far as trash or feeding the dog, let's get him acclimated to what goes on here.
[Barks.]
Are you ready to do some running around? Sounds good.
(Rambo) My job here at Maaco is keep the lot organized.
Bring up a finished car when a customer is in the office paying for it, so they don't have to pull it out and hit another car.
So what you wanna do back into them holes up there.
Those two? Perfect.
[Indie rock.]
(Rambo) Cut it hard! Hard! Drive up that way and back in.
Watch the cone.
Wait a minute.
Watch the cone! Ho, ho, ho! Straighten it out.
Come on back.
Straight back.
Little bit more.
That's good.
The Dodge Dakota, same thing.
Wait, wait, wait! You're going over that way too far.
Come on! Alberto drives like an old lady.
Come on! (Jose) It's very stressful.
Keep coming! He doesn't move quite fast enough.
Come back straight.
Keep coming.
Come on! (Rambo) I've been here 13 years.
It comes secondhand to me.
I could probably almost drive through the parking lot blind.
No! Straight! (Jose) I don't know how he does this by himself.
Keep coming.
Good! How do you do this by yourself? Lots of practice.
Wait until you're moving one and then they're calling you to move another one all at the same time, and they're calling you on the intercom for this and that.
[Intercom beeping.]
[Whimsical music.]
Each car has their own serial number.
One day, Alberto would last here about one day, and that'd be it.
[Upbeat music.]
Alberto! - Alberto! - Yes, sir! Come on, Alberto! Today, not tomorrow! (Jose) Most stressful piece is just running back and forth.
[Car alarm blaring.]
[Barking.]
(Woman on intercom) Alberto! Alberto! (Rambo) Alberto moves around here sort of like a bear slow and big and clumsy.
I move around here like a gazelle.
Come on! Keep coming! Straight back.
No! Straight! Sorry? I'd fire Alberto.
Not fast enough.
So you run a lot? [Laughter.]
About 25 miles a day.
It's so bad that I got in an accident about eight years ago.
I busted my rib, 45% of the cartilage in my left knee.
What happened? Guy didn't see a red light and he ran into the driver's side of my truck, doing about 65 miles an hour.
Ah.
I ended up 40 feet on the other side of the intersection, but my wife was laid off and the unemployment wasn't coming in yet, so I had to go to work the next day.
You can't live on air.
And is the injury fine now? They fixed the knee, the rib healed, but the back they won't touch it.
I have to live with it.
Okay, now, I know there's overspray on this van.
We don't want the customer to see it.
What what's overspray? Overspray is it wasn't taped completely, so the paint got behind the paper and the tape when it went into the spray booth.
Okay.
And now it's stuck to the taillight lights.
[Squeaking.]
And if it's raining or snowing, you need to do this out here? I work outside year-round.
You freeze in the wintertime.
In the summertime it gets hot.
[Jose laughs.]
Have you told them you need more help here? Then I'll get even less money.
[Laughs.]
- It's not in the budget.
- Oh.
If it was in the budget, we'd have a place for me to work inside when I have to do work on cars.
We wouldn't have a roof that leaks.
- It leaks right here? - [Scraping.]
(Rambo) It leaks everywhere.
So fixing the roof and getting a place for you to work inside would make - Oh, it'd make it so much easier.
- things easier.
(Jose) It's admirable that he gets out with that back pain and the weather here in this area of the country.
I mean, it's very hard.
I don't know how he does it.
What made you wanna move to the United States? Because I have two small kids and it's very unsafe right now in Argentina.
- Oh.
- So I don't want them to grow up there.
I don't blame you with that, but things aren't always good here neither.
It all depends on what else you have going on in your life.
My parents divorced when I was eight years old.
So my mother worked nights as a nurse and I worked as much as I could.
I was working eight part-time jobs and going to high school at the same time - Wow.
- to support the five of us.
Then I enlisted in the National Guard and put 16 years in the National Guard.
I made it to "sergeant" before I got out.
Wow.
(Jose) Here's a man who served his country, and now he's dedicating himself to Maaco.
I'm so proud to have someone like Rambo working for our company.
I'm giving Lorenzo off to you, sir.
Perfect.
So how did you make out with Rambo today? Tired.
- He can run you around, can't he? - It's a lot of work.
And today was actually a slow day.
You know, you experienced a light day.
Rambo said that we need to fix the roof.
[Laughs.]
It's difficult, you know [Stammering.]
to replace equipment costs money, to put a roof on a building costs a lot of money.
So my goal is, once I'm done paying for the property, the money that we pay now to mortgage I will take that money right back in the business new spray booth, new roof, new parking lot.
One of the things now that Maaco's into is they're growing the chain.
So adding stores when other stores are struggling to succeed, I find that to be frustrating.
Because, you know, they'll go out and spend money that I give them, and that other owners give them.
They'll use some of that to go out and market to you, to Joe Smith, to make them wanna buy a Maaco.
- You see my point? - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
They're using my money to sell more stores instead of using our money to put back in to make our stores stronger.
(Jose) My challenge is to show Matt that we can still grow.
And we wanna work with him to improve our brand.
If every franchise owner in the system owns two Maacos, we would accomplish our goal of doubling the size while maintaining the family culture.
[Hard rock.]
Today I'm undercover in Lawnside, New Jersey, and I'll be working as a detailer.
The detailer is the last person to touch the car before we give it back to the consumer.
And every detailer should have the same standards in every single Maaco.
And I'm hoping to see that consistency today.
Good morning! I'm looking for Acey.
- Hey! Acey Patterson.
- Acey.
I'm the detailer here at Maaco.
When a car comes out from paint it comes over to me, and my job is to wow the customers.
So are you ready to go to work? - I am ready, let's do it.
- All right, let's go! Right here is basically is everything that we do on paper.
Always go back to the board.
That board, that's your lifeline.
Okay.
Because at the end of the day, guess what? The boss, he understands that board, he knows that board, and he lives for that board.
And that's in every Maaco, you have those? Yes, every Maaco has those.
So the first thing you wanna do is take off the tape.
And just pull the tape back like this.
And always remember, if you don't pull it back like this - you could pull off some of the paint.
- Okay.
And the boss ain't gonna be happy if you pulling off paint.
(Jose) Okay.
There you go, always pull away from the Yep, you getting it right.
All right.
So where you from? Argentina.
Argentina! By the time you leave here today, you gonna be the best detailer out there.
[Laughing.]
- Hey, how are you? - How are you? This is very hard.
Acey'll tell you I'm very, very strict with time.
I need this done within an hour.
- We'll have it ready for you.
- All right.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
You have one hour per car? (Mark) No, you got less than an hour.
I'm just giving you an hour because you're new, so - [Laughs.]
- All right? - Thank you.
- You got, like, 30 minutes per car.
- Okay.
- That's the boss.
We really need this car done, so I'ma help you out here.
Once you get all the tape off, you're gonna vacuum out the interior of the car.
Then you wanna clean the inside glass.
And remember, time is everything.
Acey moves really fast.
You're gonna flat black the tires.
(Jose) He's a very good instructor.
You just come over like this here.
A bad detailer can make a good painter look bad.
(Jose) Great personality.
I think very, very highly of him.
Okay, you think you can go ahead and do one car by yourself? - I'll try.
- You wanna try one by yourself? Yes.
So what I'm gonna do is give you 30 minutes to see if you can actually get things done the way you're supposed to.
- Ready.
- All right.
Set, go.
- [Can hissing.]
- Ah-ah, no.
That's always one of the last things.
You always wanna go into the interior first.
If you ever get lost or whatever - Come back here? - just come.
You can always come back here.
- All right? - Okay.
All right, so just start all over again.
You left tape on here.
I-I missed that.
You missed tape up under the tailpipe also.
So now I can clean the interior glass? Nope.
(Acey) I wouldn't say Alberto has a good memory.
He messed up on everything.
Remember what I say.
Always do the top first.
(Jose) I'm working as fast as I can.
- You gotta step this up, okay? - Okay.
But the manager in this shop is really tough.
We are about an hour and So that means we're 45 minutes over.
- It's just not good business.
- Okay.
(Jose) I originally didn't think detailing was that hard, but it is a hard job.
- Acey! - Yes, sir! Come here for a second.
Why why do you think it's taking him so long? (Acey) Because he ain't remembering.
Wanna run back through your board with him? Yeah, I did.
Why don't you pull him off the car, right - Mm-hmm.
- and take him over to the board and walk him through step by step.
I just wanna go over everything with you again.
Because when it comes to my boss, Mark, everything has to be done perfect, everything has to be done in a timely fashion, and Okay.
So once again, remember, take off all the tape from the car.
Alberto is definitely slowing me down a little bit.
'Cause usually by now I got four, five, six cars done.
But, hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.
Take the tape off that you missed there.
(Acey) If you need it, you know, just remember, just go back to the steps.
Don't forget about the mirror right here too.
If you do every car the same way, you'll get it, and that's what Alberto has to work on, just repetition and just doing everything the same way each car.
You think you're ready to go ask Mark? See if Mark will come and inspect it for you - Yeah.
- see how it looks? - You sure? - The final exam.
Let's ask him.
- All right, let's go.
- Let's go.
[Humming.]
Gotta put this emblem on.
- Mm-hmm.
- You gotta finish the windows.
'Cause the if you look around, dirt up in still all in here.
And that's a window is the first visual thing - a customer looks at.
- Okay.
Mark, the manager, seems to be a taskmaster.
Just glue over here.
Okay.
(Jose) And even though he wants the job done quickly, he still wants it to be done the right way.
Go through all that and then come back and grab me.
- Okay.
- Thank you.
(Jose) That just reinforces to me that Jim was doing something wrong.
Because by the time we finished this car, it was done fast, affordable, and without sacrificing quality.
[Uplifting music.]
So how did you like it today? Much harder than what I expected.
- Oh, really? - Yeah.
- Why do you say that? - I didn't know I was gonna sweat.
[Laughing.]
Oh, you didn't know you was gonna sweat? [Laughing.]
What makes the U.
S.
different from Argentina? The American dream.
- The American dream, right? - Yeah.
A lotta people think that, you know, it's just all peaches and cream.
It's not, man.
I mean, it's rough.
Trust me.
It's rough now, or it has been rough? Just growing up, always was a good kid.
You know, with my mom, she got married and everything.
When she got married, I kinda like, uh I didn't I didn't get along with my stepdad with her husband too tough, you know what I mean? So that's where all the wrong turns - The problems.
- Yeah.
That's where And how old were you? I left my mom's house when I was 14.
Um Where did you go? The streets.
Oh, the street.
Yeah.
And the streets took over me.
I got caught with drugs, ended up going to prison.
You know? I did two years in prison.
- Two years.
- Two years in prison.
And, uh, after that, I got out, I was on a work release program, and I started for Maaco from right then, and I've been here at Maaco ever since.
You know, after I got out of prison, that's when I met my wife.
Do you have any kids? One boy, three girls.
We was together maybe like, uh four months, she got pregnant.
And that that really what changed my life.
That's what really opened my eyes.
- Your first baby.
- My first child.
When I seen her come out, that just, like, you know what? Okay, I got a responsibility now, you know? She can't fend for herself.
[Stammers.]
I just went to work.
And I've been working ever since, man.
And it doesn't matter what it is.
I don't care if they tell me to go in there and clean that nasty bathroom, I'ma go and clean it.
I'm gonna have a paycheck, something to pay my bills, to take care of my kids, you know what I mean? (Jose) Acey makes me very proud to be part of the Maaco family.
Let's go ahead and get everything finished cleaned up, and get done with the day.
(Jose) After spending this week undercover, I realized how important our employees are and the huge contribution that they make to our system, and I hope I can find some way to help all of them achieve their own American dream.
It has been a very hard-working day.
That's the American dream! We work hard, and hard work pays off.
(Announcer) Coming up What will happen when Alberto reveals his true identity? I'm the president of Maaco.
Oh, my God! (Announcer) And the boss must finally deal with Jim.
You're putting your pocket before - That's not true.
- the quality of the work.
I don't need you to cut corners.
(Jose) I'm in a car showroom in South Texas.
All of the people that I have worked with think they're coming here to the set of a reality show to hear the final results.
[Whimsical music.]
How you doing? - Good, how are you? - Good.
So how did Alberto do? He tried, but he he's not good as a painter.
You wouldn't hire him.
No, sir.
Do you recognize me? [Laughing.]
I was Alberto.
Oh, it was you! But I'm really not Alberto.
Huh? My name is Jose Costa and I'm the president of Maaco.
Oh, my God! And you are on Undercover Boss.
[Laughs.]
You guys got me real good.
[Laughing.]
Oh, man.
Jim, throughout my journey, I've struggled a lot with you, 'cause you're a good man, but you're cutting corners.
Not every dent has to be 100%.
You know, cut corners.
Right there, when you said, "I'm cutting corners," I was gonna pull my disguise and fire you.
To me it sounds like you're putting your pocket and your dollars and how much you're making - That's not true.
- before the quality of the work.
That's not true.
The corners I'm cutting are corners that can be cut.
I don't need you to cut corners.
A brand doesn't survive 42 years by cutting corners.
Again, the corners that are cut are cut every day.
And I've worked in three different Maacos.
That's the way it's done.
That's the way I was taught how to do it.
If that's what you're being told, I need to look into that.
That's not who Maaco is.
Jim, you're a good body man.
You talked about second chances and opportunities, so I'm going to give you 30 days to improve and show me that you can meet our standards.
Do you think you can change, Jim? - Yes.
- Okay.
I'll follow up with you in 30 days, and I hope I see a change.
Thank you.
I'm gonna take the next 30 days and, uh, improve on my work, make sure that I'm following all the estimates.
And, uh, hopefully, they'll see a difference in me.
Matt.
Some of the things you told me were very tough to hear.
They're using my money to sell more stores instead of using our money to put back in to make our stores stronger.
I want you to feel that you can call me anytime.
Okay.
I wanna show you that I care more about you and about our existing owners than anything else.
Okay.
I appreciate that.
There's a couple things I wanna do for you and your shop.
I know you have a leaky roof, so I wanna invest $35,000 in helping remodel your store.
Wow.
I wanna change all of your signage, I wanna paint the building, and I wanna give you our new sales office with the iPads, with the paint wall, with all the - bells and whistles that we have.
- Wow.
I certainly appreciate that very much.
I'm absolutely shocked that I didn't know it was you.
I still - can't believe I didn't know it was you.
- [Laughing.]
It's taken me back.
I literally am blown away that this is what this turned out to be.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
Thanks.
(Matt) I walk in my shop every day and I think, "I'd love to make this place into the Taj Mahal and make it nice," and one obstacle after the other makes it more and more difficult to do that.
And with his help, it's gonna make it terrific.
Rambo, you opened up my eyes to many things.
You mentioned having to work outside.
(Jose) And if it's raining or snowing, you need to do this out here? You freeze in the wintertime, in the summertime it gets hot.
[Laughs.]
Something I wanna do for you is build you a workstation outside with a heater, a roof above you, so you don't have to work outside in the cold.
Oh, I appreciate that very much, sir.
Three days before you were there, it was 2 degrees with a wind-chill factor of 13.
Thank you very much.
I can't thank you enough.
Rambo, all of your life, you have been serving someone else.
You have been serving our country, - you have been serving your family - [Sniffles.]
and you have been probably one of the best Maaco employees in our system.
Thank you.
And I wanna recognize you and say thank you with $20,000 Oh, my God.
[Sniffles.]
to help make life a little bit easier.
Is this some kinda joke? - No, it's not.
- Oh.
Thank you.
(Rambo) This is utterly amazing.
It's the last thing I was expecting.
- Can I give you a hug? - Yes, sir! [Laughing.]
Thank you.
(Rambo) This is gonna change my life completely.
I guess the best way to explain it right now is I had an 18-wheeler parked on my shoulders and somebody removed it.
Acey.
You were the highlight of my week.
By the time you leave here today, you gon' be the best detailer out there.
[Laughing.]
Oh, my God, this is amazing.
[Laughter.]
- You talked a lot about your kids.
- Right.
It sounds like they're probably - the most important people in your life.
- Right.
- So something I wanna do for you - Mm-hmm.
- is I wanna send you on a vacation - Oh, man! with your wife and your four kids.
Oh, man.
You choose where to go.
- Sounds good? - Sounds great.
Sounds great.
- All right.
- [Laughs.]
There's there's a couple more things - I wanna do for you, Acey.
- Okay.
I wanna set up a college fund for your kids.
Wow! $5,000 each.
Wow.
That feels real good, man.
[Laughing.]
- I can see the light in your eyes.
- Right.
I can see the drive, I can see the passion you have.
Mm-hmm.
And I wanna give you $25,000.
Oh, my God.
Get outta here, man.
[Laughing.]
Wow.
I can really I Oh, my gosh.
You just don't know.
I mean I really appreciate you, Acey, and there's one more thing I wanna do for you.
- Wow, okay.
- [Laughter.]
I wanna give you $10,000 Oh, my God.
to put against the down payment of your own home.
Me and my wife were just talking about this.
Oh, man! Are you serious? - I am serious.
- [Laughter.]
- Thank you, man.
- Thank you.
All right.
(Acey) Just to be recognized for my hard work, it shows that people really care.
At one point in my life, I thought nobody cared, you know? So it just goes right back to what I say, "hard work.
" And and it's all paying off right now.
And it feels so good, man.
Christian.
I did many jobs, and you're one of our best trainers out there.
You told me those trash cans were your babies.
[Sighs.]
You know it.
I love my job.
And you said that someday, you wanna own your own Maaco, right? I mean, that's a dream of every I think every body man, every painter, every person who works in this business.
I think you would make a great franchisee, and for that reason, I want to personally train you in some business skills that you need so someday soon, you can own your own Maaco.
Oh, my God! [Laughs.]
That sounds perfect! I'm not scared to do it.
I can prove to you and everybody else that I can do it.
Well, I know you are one of the best painters in our system, and I want to invite you to Charlotte so you can help us develop a Spanish-speaking training program for all of our painters system-wide.
Oh, my God! You're gonna make a lot of people happy.
- [Laughing.]
- Trust me.
Oh, my God.
That's gonna be awesome.
You mentioned you're you're pregnant.
My wife, she's pregnant.
She we gonna have a little baby girl.
- Christabella! - Christabella! And I'm can't wait to see her! You shared with me how hard it is to have your family far away, so I wanna pay for all the expenses to fly your parents from Puerto Rico so they can be there for the birth of your daughter.
Oh, my God.
My wife, she's gonna flip.
Oh, my God.
You told me how hard it is to make ends meet and to put food on the table.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm doing it with these hands right now.
I wanna help you pay your rent for one year.
Oh, my God.
[Crying.]
My God.
[Sighs.]
There's one more thing I wanna do for you.
I wanna help you with $20,000.
I don't know how to say thank you to you and this company.
I don't know how.
I don't know how.
[Deep breath.]
Thank you.
- Thank you.
- Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I'm gonna owe you for the rest of my life.
I can't describe this emotion right now, but [Sniffles.]
[Crying.]
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
Take care.
I'm a brand-new man right now! This man and Maaco changed my life forever.
Whoo! This is my American dream.
[Uplifting music.]