As you can see in the above pictures a man called me that had his Bathtub Painted by another company and I was able to sand it back etch through the surface and apply synthetic porcelain to the old surface.
If you notice the picture the area that peeled versus the painted area you will see it was put on very thin. This is typical when trying to use epoxy paint (which is technology that dates back to before the 1990's). They try to thin it down as much as possible so it will not look dull and painted. However, if you notice the curve of the tub, just above the two letter "E's" on the word peeled it still was not much of a gloss.
I'm not degrading any company or here to say that I have not made the same mistakes. The truth is, when I started in 1991,1992 that was all we had to refinish with was epoxy. Now we have synthetic porcelain. However, there are still many companies that will not use it because it is very difficult to apply and it has separate ingredients that allow for customized refinishing based on the surface being refinished.
The Gentleman I refinished this bathtub for wanted my cheapest package because it was a rental house and obviously the man had just paid for an outdated coating that was not going to hold up.

Synthetic porcelain combined with Fusion Lock molecular bonding agent provides the toughest, ultra high gloss protective coating that not only looks great, but with the Fusion Lock molecular bonding agent is chemically welded to the old surface with a life expectancy of 20 years! Bathtub Refinishing, Dallas