Everything Vaeagleav said is accurate in my opinion. There's even more involved than he stated about color match, prep, etc. that does justify what a shop charges. But $8500
That sounds WAY steep to me, and I'm "in the industry". I would think that process would be about half that. I'd almost shop around a little. You don't want some "fly by night" "whole in the wall" body shop doing this work for you though, that's for sure! Someone that's reputable, and can provide you with a LIFETIME warranty.
You said you had an 11 right
Did you tell the shop that, or did you just say "how much to paint claddings on an avalanche?".... "Non-Avy people" tend to think EVERY avalanche has side claddings and I could see a misinterpretation there where the shop thought you had an 02-06 style and there's a HELLUVA lot more "cladding" on those. Then i could see $8500. But on an 07-13 there's only a tailgate piece, two saddle bag lids, two sail panels, and the brake light surround/upper piece..... Shoot, thats only 6 pieces right?? Or am I missing something? $8500 dollars is WAY out of line for six pieces!!!!
And this is coming from a guy that DOES this for a living!!! This feels weird to me because I'm always trying to justify with people why paint jobs are so much money, but even I can't justify that!!!! I usually charge $1500-2500 to paint a full fairing sport bike and there's more pieces on one of those than your asking to have painted!!!(your pieces are textured tho, so you do have to add ALOT of sand n priming time for that, but still......)
I dunno, sounds like someone misinterpreted what model Avalanche you have.....