I hate this area.....

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xtremekustomz

New member
Lets see...where to start. I talked to a woman today about cleaning up her Mercedes Kompressor and I was told I was charging too much. It was in a city that I drive to every day for school, which is 30 miles from my house but since I am already there I'm not going to charge extra for driving. The outside was pretty dirty, had alot of spots and bugs on the front. The interior was fair except for alot of stains on the front floor mats that she wanted taken out. I was going to wash, dress the tires, fender wells, apply AW to windows and the rest of the paint (basically free because she didn't think it needed to be waxed for some reason), wipe down door jambs, vac inside, , wipe down all the plastic, and clean the floor mats. I gave her a price of $40 and that was too much. I just don't understand. It is cheaper than I would have normally done but I was wanting to get some work out in the town so I gave her a better price. I guess they are use to the guys that walk around with a bucket and some dawn and wash a vehicle for $25. I refuse to work for free. I guess if they don't like my prices they can have someone scratch it to hell and back. Oh, and in the sunlight, there were swirls all over the place and I told her I could get all the swirls and scratches out and she told me "There are no scratches in it" She said she might call me tomorrow. You spend $40,000+ on a car and won't pay a small $40 to have it cleaned up right. You know....it aggrevates me because I should have said alot more...and makes me not even want to do it if she does call tomorrow.
 
Wow, that sucks. Whats your location? I did a quick wash yesterday for $40. Prob took me 30 mins to do. I live in a posh town :D But not that frugle people dont exist here...
 
Man I wouldn't have driven anywhere for $40, let alone $25. I charge $120 for what you have descrbed and that's for a small sedan/coupe/roadster/hatchback. If they ask me why I charge what I charge I explain how much time I spend on the car and exactly what I do. If they still think I charge too much I politely suggest they look for someone else.



Those are the type of customers that will not bring you extra business, will not be interested in any add-ons, but WILL expect a flawless job being that their car will be in crappy condition to start with.



That's why I only offer wash/vac/wax packages to current customers.
 
xtremekustomz said:
Lets see...where to start. I talked to a woman today about cleaning up her Mercedes Kompressor and I was told I was charging too much. It was in a city that I drive to every day for school, which is 30 miles from my house but since I am already there I'm not going to charge extra for driving. The outside was pretty dirty, had alot of spots and bugs on the front. The interior was fair except for alot of stains on the front floor mats that she wanted taken out. I was going to wash, dress the tires, fender wells, apply AW to windows and the rest of the paint (basically free because she didn't think it needed to be waxed for some reason), wipe down door jambs, vac inside, , wipe down all the plastic, and clean the floor mats. I gave her a price of $40 and that was too much. I just don't understand. It is cheaper than I would have normally done but I was wanting to get some work out in the town so I gave her a better price. I guess they are use to the guys that walk around with a bucket and some dawn and wash a vehicle for $25. I refuse to work for free. I guess if they don't like my prices they can have someone scratch it to hell and back. Oh, and in the sunlight, there were swirls all over the place and I told her I could get all the swirls and scratches out and she told me "There are no scratches in it" She said she might call me tomorrow. You spend $40,000+ on a car and won't pay a small $40 to have it cleaned up right. You know....it aggrevates me because I should have said alot more...and makes me not even want to do it if she does call tomorrow.
Click to expand...





Some people can't be pleased by anything, I have run into these types in lots of life's categories. You either grin and bear it or react in some manner (not hostel, never hostel).

For example, this is an approach I have used in other situations of business: I am sorry madam if you think my services are to high, actually it is cheaper than the going rate for what "you" want done and my great reputation, if money is a little tight for you right now we could trade services if you like, you clean my house and I'll detail your car. This could be any kind of service that you can't do, or don't like to do, or where you can get the better bargain.

I once did a complete tune up for a lady (her car), in exchange she totally cleaned my house (awesome job).

Tune up was new plugs, air cleaner, oil change & filter, tire pressure & trans oil check,etc,. I probably spent about $40.00 give or take and spent maybe an hour 30 minutes at most.

She spent between 6 to 8 hours on my house!!!!

So, you see what I am getting at, try to turn a bad situation into something that's good. Doesn't work all the time, but more so than not. Everyone go's away happy.

Changeling







Try this and see what happens, you might be surprised.
 
She isn't your target market. Our market is people who want their cars cleaned properly and understand the effort it takes. It just isn't worth dealing with cheapskates.
 
you just need to learn some people just don't care



Even if you did the best detail in the world it's not gonna increase car's value anyway...



It doesn't have to do with the owner being cheap or not.

The car is gonna get dirty or scratch up anyway so why pay 400dollars for a detail.
 
Yeah, 40.00 is way cheap for that... I used to do washes like that for 40 bucks, but in order to get into my wash program, you needed to buy a clay + one-step + shampoo detail or better, so that I wasn't spending extra time every week with grabby paint, streaky windows or dirty mats.
 
I know it was a cheap price. Like I said, I was going to do this one so I could get a little advertisment in the area. As for the price of driving...like I said, I am down there every day except for Saturday for class so right now I can't charge for that. Now if it were on a Saturday...they would definately be paying extra. The problem is that there are guys around here that will wash a car for $25. All that includes is a wash though. I guess the problem is this with me......if I go out and do something..I want it done to the best of my ability. If the car hasn't been waxed in a while or ever, I want to wax it. I want to dress the tires, fender wells, clean door jambs and all. It isn't a detail if you don't do those things IMO. I use to do remodeling of houses and ceramic tile and things like that...and I wanted it perfect. The problem is people wouldn't pay for perfect so you had to do what you could do with the time that you had. I really hate to clean up a vehilce and not do it right. I take pride in my work. To be honest with you....I don't like doing a vehicle that I have never done before without waxing it. Mainly because if I get return business it is easier and faster for me to clean up because things aren't stuck to it as bad.



To explain the ignorance of this woman...I told her that I would just put a spray wax on it to help protect the paint a little until she wanted a full detail done. She said to me "That isn't going to hurt the car is it?"
 
Don't sweat it.



I had a referral contact me the other day. She said she's going ot be selling her black Saab and I told her the upfront price of everything taken cared of. She was shocked by my pricing of only $175 which is on my average side. She starts low balling me that this place was offering it done for $145.



I said I'm sorry I couldn't meet your pricing needs, but the value of my work is where the cost comes into play. Of course I didn't go into too much depth with it since I haven't seen the vehicle itself. She tried to offer me $150 for it and i said I'm sorry I won't lower my price just to meet your standards and if I did I don't want you to feel ripped off either cause I offer you a higher price and than lowered it. That's not how I work so simple as that and I even encouraged her to go with the other party if she's interested.



She was going to sell it anyways so her mindset didn't really matter in a way.



I'm not sweating my lost, someone that values their car will go with what I do.
 
I would have asked her what she does when the car needs service. Does she take it to the Benz dealer for quality service, or some half drunk guy that works for $15 an hour out of the projects, because that is the level of service she is distinguishing between.
 
LOL well.....I should tell you this as well. They are from India and you will never guess what their business is! It's not a cheap jewelery store or customer service line.....any guesses? Well....I'l just go ahead and tell you. They run a gas station in the town that they live in. Go figure huh. It isn't that big of deal anyway. Hopefully some things will pan out at the college that I go to. I was given permission to put business cards in some mailboxes so I put out about 75. I guess we will see how it goes :)
 
I had a gentleman (that's putting it nicely) drop off a Benz for me this week for a full detail (advertised price is $189.95). I wasn't in the shop when he dropped it off, but I was told that I should call him before I start any work because he wanted to bargain the price. It was a black and swirl E320 that the owner states "it's going to be on screen. I'm a movie producer.

"I saw your price is $190. I'll give you $150."

He went on to explain that he had hundreds of people coming in town for this shoot and he will be referring all of them to me so he wanted a lower price. He also wanted it PERFECT because "it's going to be on screen". I told him that with the condition of the vehicle, it would take 8 to 9 hours to get it PERFECT.

"Fine. I'll give you $200."

With my rates, 8 hours on that vehicle would have been in the $400 range and there was no way in Idaho that I would do it for that price. I charged him regular price and spent an extra hour on it just to make him happy. Which he wasn't. The front was littered with rock chips that he claimed weren't there before.



He picked up his vehicle in a hurry and didn't even wait for me to complete the work order (or even add taxes) and wrote a check for $200 even. The business check was from a marketing company. If I see him back, I'll kindly refer him to another shop.



Sorry for the vent. I get way too many people like this some weeks.
 
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