Always a new cheapskate!

**rockymountaindetail** · 07-04-2009, 11:32 AM

Had a call from a guy. Selling his boat, a 26ft cabin cruiser and wanted it detailed for easy sale. He said it was oxidized. I got his address and got the OK to do a test spot so he could see what he was paying for. the boat was really trashed....white parts were heavily oxidized as was the blue stripe. The before pics really don`t show how bad it was.I gave him my best stuff ( 3 steps) and got very nice results. It was not easy to get this thing looking good again!! The blue stripe came out great and I polished about 12" all the way down under the boat so he could see it. When he came home he looked at it and called me. I quoted him $18 a foot for the whole thing top to bottom. He thought about it and asked if I could come back and just polish the blue stripe!! Needless to say I turned down the job.

BEFORE

AFTER

**imported_Luster** · 07-04-2009, 01:01 PM

I`ve done a few boats... they do clean up nice. The portion you did looks great!

The guy made a mistake, obviously. He easily could have recovered his $468 by having the boat look brand new!!!

Didn`t he try to negotiate the price? :banghead: Maybe offer you $400? You come back with $435 and you got a deal!:biggrin:

**rockymountaindetail** · 07-04-2009, 01:48 PM

I tried to explain to him he would recoup the cost in the sale price... probably a couple times over. He did not try to negotiate aside from asking me to do just the stripe(as if that would have fooled anyone!). He said his new boat he was purchasing needed a cleanup as well and I did offer him a substantial discount on the second boat if he decided to go forward on the first. Honestly I would have come down a little on price, but it was really trashed and being a cabin cruiser it had lots of sq. footage on top as well, would have been a 10-12 hr day I`m sure.

It may be me but boat owners seem to be totally anal about maintaining, or totally oblivious to even washing it.

**imported_Luster** · 07-04-2009, 11:14 PM

Yeah, I usually charge $40-$45 per hour... 12 hour detail on a boat would be $480, so your price was right on. Hey... trashed takes TIME!!!!:cursing:

**Claude** · 07-05-2009, 01:45 PM

Woah, that looks great rocky..
Sometimes gotta walk away.
Happened to me last weekend, a guy pulls up with an Escalade and wanted me to wash it for him and he was ready to pay me with a $20.00 bill. I pointed him to the car wash he passed up. Schmucks!

Next Case!!

Claude

**imported_Luster** · 07-05-2009, 07:03 PM

Originally Posted by Claude

Woah, that looks great rocky..
Sometimes gotta walk away.
Happened to me last weekend, a guy pulls up with an Escalade and wanted me to wash it for him and he was ready to pay me with a $20.00 bill. I pointed him to the car wash he passed up. Schmucks!

Next Case!!

Claude

It`s kinda like that carwash commercial on TV... where the guy goes through the car wash, but they don`t rinse or dry it!

Yeah, I`ll wash it for 20 bucks... but it won`t be rinsed or dried!!!

**Greg Nichols** · 09-07-2010, 09:34 PM

Your pricing is right on! Stick to your guns, that is a deep hull boat, its the top side that takes all the time, unless he removes the hardware.

You might have been able to do a fudge job, some Megs 3/81 would have hydrated the gel, and brought back some color, but the oxidation would have stayed, and in time the gel coat would have dried out again.

Cheers,
greg

**imported_Flash Gordon** · 09-07-2010, 10:20 PM

When someone ask me how much I charge I hang up the phone :-B

BTW Where in the heck has RMD been :-?

**drdetail** · 09-08-2010, 12:03 AM

sometimes its better to walk away from those customers or they will complain even after you did a great job.

**PAR Detailing** · 09-08-2010, 05:12 AM

Arent those people annoying! I hate to argue over price and I hate it when I have to because a customer is being "that guy".

I hate "that guy" so I try to avoid dealing with them but just as your thread shows they are around and you have to deal with them every now and then.

You did the right thing by walking away, that guy would have been nothing but a pain in the butt the whole detail

Jon

**bmw5541** · 09-08-2010, 07:18 AM

Everyone wants something for nothing.

You did the right thing Rich.

**rockymountaindetail** · 09-08-2010, 07:32 AM

Originally Posted by Flash Gordon

BTW Where in the heck has RMD been :-?

Thanks for asking!

With such a long winter here I work my a** off all summer so there isn`t much time for the internet. Plus Aug-Sept is our bowhunt for Elk so I pretty much close down for that. In fact I just returned from 1 hunting trip and will be leaving in a few hours for 9 more days in the backcountry. I`ll try to catch up with all of you later in Sept when I have some time!

**imported_Flash Gordon** · 09-08-2010, 08:37 AM

Originally Posted by rockymountaindetail

Thanks for asking!

With such a long winter here I work my a** off all summer so there isn`t much time for the internet. Plus Aug-Sept is our bowhunt for Elk so I pretty much close down for that. In fact I just returned from 1 hunting trip and will be leaving in a few hours for 9 more days in the backcountry. I`ll try to catch up with all of you later in Sept when I have some time!

Yes, I understand it gets quite cold in your neck of the woods :Snowman:

Elk hunting sounds awesome. Glad to see you still checking in, and hope to here from you soon :-c

BTW Were you not the one who had chicken stolen off you grille in college? That was one of the funniest, yet saddest stories I have ever heard of in my life Boo Hoo

**rockymountaindetail** · 09-17-2010, 11:56 AM

yes, the stolen chicken was me!

For anyone interested the elk bow hunt was a great success. I harvested a cow elk myself and had my best friend from NJ come out to hunt and I bugled in a very nice bull for him. We had backpacked into the wilderness 4 miles and camped there for a week and then had to pack out 2 elk. I figure we hiked around 80 miles in 6 days with a minimum of 35 pound packs for hunting and 80-100 pounds for packing supplies and elk meat. Oh....in elevations from 9000-11000 feet, not much oxygen there!!! So to say I am tired is an understatement. Time to get back to work!!!

I am on the right