Should this company pay for its mistakes

[Tucson buffer]

I was just curious if anybody out there has used AIO and SG on their motorcycle.



I have a new bike and was thinking of giving it a try.



Thanks.

[Brad B]

Absolutely!

[mx5]

If the motorcycle has chrome, that sounds scary. SG on chrome may blind innocent drivers.



-waxing is passe, polymering is in

[imported_Bullitt]

O.K, If I should post this in another section, just move it. I really want the other pros opinion of the situation, and if anything, it can be a learning tool for consumers or enthusiast thinking of using a high volume shop over a professional who takes pride in their work. I`m not going to name any names here, but I think my client deserves some justice to be done. I`m not going to flame the company that is involved in this, just state the facts and see what everyone thinks should happen here.
One of my clients, whom I did a full correction for in August(I returned her car to her August 14 with perfect paint) works in an high rise office building in The Woodlands and a Detailing company has a detailing kiosk in the parking garage along with 4 other kiosk around the city(They also offer mobile detailing) and claim to be the best(That`s what it say`s on their site). Long story short, the client took the car to them and instructed the manager to just vacuum it out and wash the wheels, then said she would take care of the rest(I gave her instructions about proper wash methods and car care when I delivered the car back to her in August. I told her to use two buckets, she uses three, blows the car off, pats it dry, and then when she knows she has every spec of dirt and debris off the car, she`s been using AW after the washes. She works 5 miles from work and her car is garage kept and has only seen rain recently when she was stuck in it, so it hasn`t been washed that many times since August. This is a very upstanding lady so I take her word for it.) So she drops the car off to them, and even gets a copy of the ticket stating just a vacuum and wheels. Well, you guessed it, they washed the car and marred it all up in my honest opinion. They missed just about every spot on the car and looks like they washed it with dirt. I actually spoke with the manager and he said they use two buckets, but they had 12 cars there and I know they couldn`t have changed water every time. They don`t think they owe this customer, and think they did nothing wrong. They also told me there`s no way you can marr or swirl a car with one wash. The owner of the company will be coming to my shop soon to try and resolve the issue, but they`ve already made it clear their going to do everything possible not to pay for me to fix it. I`ll let the pictures speak for themselves, and you guys tell me what you think they should offer. With their methods, they put about a years worth of washing into the vehicle in one wash, if not more, so I think they owe her what I have to fix, but I want other opinions. Here are the pics. Keep in mind that this is a freshly washed car.

This one I noticed when I picked the car up. Just an example of missed spots that they didn`t wash but you can see the towel/shammy marks over the dirt so I know it had to transfer.


More missed spots

Ok, heres what plagues the whole car and leads me to believe that the marring and superficial scratches could have happened with their wash. You can clearly see the dried on dirt from their towel trails going in all different directions. This shows that they were drying a contaminated car, no? Actually looks more like ShamWow marks or a chamois.

Ok, this is getting old, more missed spots that a towel would pick up, if you want to see the rest of the missed spots I`ll place the album link at the bottom.





Ok, do you guys think these marks could be made from basically sanding all that dirt in with a chamois or towel?


They ran a mitt right over the tip and kept on going to the paint in my opinion


Here`s a perfect example of the damage I think they are liable for?


This is a shot of the hood, I`ve cleaned up alot of other detailers buffer trails, but towel trails?

Here was what they were actually asked to detail.

[Tuck91]

Beside the fact that they sound like hacks, that is one of the worst car wash jobs I have ever seen. Looks like they can swirl a dirty car up without even cleaning most of it. Theres no way that quality of work would be let out my door.

I would have respected the lady`s wishes by simply vaccumming out the interior and cleaning the wheels with something simple such as soap and water and a wheel brush, and they would have looked fine.

I think that company should definitly pay for its mistakes.

[Puckman]

Do you have any pics of the car after you did it last? I`m thinking that if you do it might show them the level of the paint when you had it anyway. The towel drying streaks are screaming low ball, minimum quality labor.

I think they should definately pay you to correct the paint. At least to get another detailer in the community to say they did the right thing after they screwed up.

Looks like a nice BMW 335 otherwise!

[imported_Bullitt]

Yes I have some after shots in the direct sunlight. I`ll post them when I make it back to my computer. Thing is that I looked up there webpage, and they also do what they call buffing(I think most of us refer to it as polishing. Could you imagine if they went to the car with a high speed polisher(or any polisher) and just polished that into the paintwork? Owner of the company called me today to come look at the car and he`ll be here in the morning.

[Puckman]

My thought was to have them handy for the owner to see after you show him what his kids did to her paint. Should be pretty demonstrative for him to see the comparison. I would also want the car owner to be pretty insistent as well. The hack "detailer" had a direct compensatory relationship with her and she should be hopping mad but tactful.

In any event good luck in the morning.

[imported_Bullitt]

Here it is on the way back to drop off the car. I saw the sun was finally coming out and pulled over to get a few shots. Didn`t get any real shots under the lights because I was getting married the next day in South Texas and time was limited, all I got was one 50/50 shot after two steps.





Some orange peel, but that`s not what I was paid to do on this one. Or maybe it was the cheap camera I had to use because mine was at home.


Lost my sun, but this is the overall


This was the only one I could find that had any halogens on them, I got sand in my computer on my Honeymoon and what I didn`t upload was lost. IDK. It`s just after two steps when I was testing which method I wanted to use.



Puckman: I have them ready along with how about 40 other 325`s should look. I want him to know this is what a Bimmer should look like when finished.

[imported_Flash Gordon]

I wouldn`t even get involved in this battle :Swordfight:


What are you suppose to do about it at this point besides correct the problem @ your regular rate :money:


Getting involved is just going to frustrate you and be an epic waste of time. She will not be getting a refund, much less them paying you to fix the problem Da Rules!


At most, they will probally only offer her a free car wash

[imported_Bullitt]

Flash

Trust me, I don`t want to be involved. With being booked months in advance I can`t have anthing slowing me up, I`m working 20 hour days and my head is already spinning which is why I don`t post unless I think it warrants another professional opinion. I now take a week off each month just to keep myself open because I always get that call for the 30+ hour detail and I want to be open for those occasions. She just has the owner coming to my shop and I wanted some other opinions than my own biased one. You guys have came through with some good opinions, and I thank you for them. I`m trying to get a new shop ready to open and trust me, the last thing I need is drama with someone that`s really not even my competition.

[imported_Flash Gordon]

[QUOTE=Bullitt;31255]Flash

Trust me, I don`t want to be involved. With being booked months in advance I can`t have anthing slowing me up, I`m working 20 hour days and my head is already spinning which is why I don`t post unless I think it warrants another professional opinion. I now take a week off each month just to keep myself open because I always get that call for the 30+ hour detail and I want to be open for those occasions. She just has the owner coming to my shop and I wanted some other opinions than my own biased one. You guys have came through with some good opinions, and I thank you for them. I`m trying to get a new shop ready to open and trust me, the last thing I need is drama with someone that`s really not even my competition.[/QUOT


Well, maybe you can teach the guy how to properly wash a car :wizard:

My neighbor has seen me use the 2bm for years now and knows why I do it that way. Nonetheless, I still see him washing his black BMW using 1 Bucket and 1 Mit ut:

Glad to here your busy. The finish on that bimmer look outstanding before the hack got ahold of it

[SwirlBFree]

Honestly, from the amount of scratching I saw in your photos, it`s looks like one of their lot guys did a dry wash on her car. I first became familiar with the method when I went to pick up my new Accord from a paint and body shop for a bumper cover repair. Despite my insistence to forgo the free courtesy wash, a lot guy swirled and scratched the h@ll of out my paint.

I complained to the service manager about the very obvious damage and he called the lot guy over to explain exactly what he did to my paint. The guy explained he dry-washed my car to remove dust (and probably paint residue). When I asked him to explain dry-washing, he answered that he rubbed my car down with a damp towel and dried it with a chamois (I witnessed that part when I arrived. Very vigorous chamois rubbing). The kicker? The service manager told his lot guy "Never wash a dark car like that. That`s only OK on white and silver cars" (!)

It`s a lazy way to wash a car, and it could be that was done to your client`s car if it were accidentally sprayed while another car was being washed next to it.

BTW, I turned down the service manager`s offer to "spot-buff" my car. I took it instead to a professional detailer for a full correction and filed a claim with my insurance company. The P&B shop paid my deductible and my insurance billed them for the rest.

The upside is that experience got me into detailing.

[imported_Bullitt]

Honestly, from the amount of scratching I saw in your photos, it`s looks like one of their lot guys did a dry wash on her car. I first became familiar with the method when I went to pick up my new Accord from a paint and body shop for a bumper cover repair. Despite my insistence to forgo the free courtesy wash, a lot guy swirled and scratched the h@ll of out my paint.

I complained to the service manager about the very obvious damage and he called the lot guy over to explain exactly what he did to my paint. The guy explained he dry-washed my car to remove dust (and probably paint residue). When I asked him to explain dry-washing, he answered that he rubbed my car down with a damp towel and dried it with a chamois (I witnessed that part when I arrived. Very vigorous chamois rubbing). The kicker? The service manager told his lot guy "Never wash a dark car like that. That`s only OK on white and silver cars" (!)

It`s a lazy way to wash a car, and it could be that was done to your client`s car if it were accidentally sprayed while another car was being washed next to it.

BTW, I turned down the service manager`s offer to "spot-buff" my car. I took it instead to a professional detailer for a full correction and filed a claim with my insurance company. The P&B shop paid my deductible and my insurance billed them for the rest.

The upside is that experience got me into detailing.

That`s exactly what it looks like, but the only thing that leads me to believe they actually tried to wash it is the dried up water running out of all the seams and the grill. The company owner will be over at my shop today and I`ve decided just to show him all the pictures and point out to him what his employees did to the car and get his feedback. I`m sure I`ll be able to tell real quick whether he is truly concerned or if he thinks that he has no liability in this. I know that he doesn`t have to do anything and that trying to fight it isn`t worth the time or price. I only posted a few pictures because if I posted them all that would just turn people away from reading, so if you want the whole album go to http://picasaweb.google.com/houstond...eat=directlink

I`m going to stay out of it and let the client decide what she wants to do. I`ll just show the company owner the damage and report back to her what he says. She wants her car back the way it was regardless of what the outcome is today and whether she claims it or takes it any further is up to her; I`m just going to try to document and help her all I can, because word of mouth does go along way and when someone ask her about reconditioning a vehicle she can tell them that I do it right and I also go out of my way for my clients. Also, as my company grows I`m not trying to hire employees, I`m trying to hire a "team "of people dedicated to taking pride in what they do as I do. Whether I have 2 people working for me or 100, I want them all to be car people and feel there coming to work for more than just a paycheck.

Thanks for all the input guys, and to go on the record; I`m not trying to be involved in going after this company, but at the same time I don`t want my client to think I`m apathetic about the situation.

[imported_rwright]

So how was the meeting with the owner of the hack company?