OK guys.. Hopefully someone can help me out here..

We have these 4140 plates for a customer. On the print they call out for
..007 - .009 thick chrome on one face finished. So we try to get the
plater to put .004-.005 over so we can grind them flat. We tried having
them only putting .001-.002 over, but that never worked out well.
The plater we use is having a really hard time getting a consistent
buildup all over the plates.. And recently we are seeing a crap load of
bubbles, and some of the plates are actually flaking on the edges. So,
here is two questions to the more knowledgeable than I.

1) Is there any other type of coating that is comparable or better than
chrome, that we could suggest to our customer, that would save the time
and anguish of us grinding, finding out the chrome is bad, and sending
the plates back to get more added?

2) If it's the chrome plater that is actually at fault, does anyone know
of a good plater that is in Florida, preferably near central, but not
required.. We can UPS the plates. I'll even send them out of state if
need be.. Anything is better than the situation that we are in now.