Slightly OT - New paint job on '03 Cooper S, Single Stage Paint? WTH?

[Jonny042]

Kept this out of the technical area at least....

I took our trusty but rusty '03 MINI in for some repair and by the time all the repair spots were done 2/3 of the car was getting painted anyway so I splurged and had them paint the whole thing. The car is a solid black, no metallic.

One panel looked to me like the finish is a little thin and didn't get a full wet coat and didn't flow out, so I took it back, and commented the clear looked a little thin.... they said there's no clear, it's single stage paint!

I was actually so flabbergasted I left the car with them to polish up the offending panel and when I went to pick the car up I asked them basically WTF (but nicely, I was very calm and polite). The manager said he decided to paint my car with single stage because he thought it was the best product for the car, even though they normally paint base/clear he thought it would be best to use it in this case. He says he stands by the job, any problems bring it back.

He claims:

- it actually cost him more to do because he had to special order the paint
- didn't save them time
- it is more durable than base/clear
- he used the most expensive of the three available PPG single stage paints

So... did I get ripped off?