Ugh, 9 freakin' hours of claying

Picus said:
I'm hardly in a position to give you advice about payment, since you've been doing this so long; but I would not have left without being paid unless it was a previous client. It isn't that I am particularly hardcore or whatever; I'm actually really lenient; but to pull that kind of surprise on you shows a type of character I am not comfortable with. I'd have had him drive to an ATM.
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I have yet to have a customer "refuse" to pay, but my service agreement (which everyone signs when dropping vehicles off) clearly states that they (the owner) authorizes us to withhold and detain their vehicle until payment is remitted for the services performed. I agree tho, unless the owner of the vehicle is someone I personally know and trust, I would also not a let vehicle leave my shop unpaid.



Scottwax said:
When you are mobile and know where people live, they aren't very likely to stiff you. In 18 years (which includes the two years I was detailing part time), I've had a total of 5 bad checks and only 1 I was unable to collect on and she had been evicted from her house so I guess I was down on the list of people she was going to pay.



He called me today to say he'd go ahead and pay me whenever I could get by. The owner of the firm called him today and said he had just heard about it and needed to do some "research", so since he wasn't going to get a check as quickly as he expected, he'd take care of me now and go after the painting company. The owner was telling him overspray claims have usually been running them $125 or so. The BMW owner explained to him how close the track being painted was to the teacher parking lot and how heavily covered his car was. In addition, not only was I telling him how soft his clear coat was, so was BMW who also cautioned against getting aggressive with the claying. I told the BMW owner he could have the painting company owner call me if he wanted.
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Understandably, it's different if you're a mobile detailer vs a fixed shop. You can't exactly detain a customer's vehicle until they've paid, because, well, most times the vehicle is already on the owner's property. I can sort of understand where the owner was coming from, but I also understand your position, you did work and you expect to be paid promptly. How the owner gets reimbursed isn't really a concern of yours, nor should it be.
 
loveyourcar said:
Easy one. No car leaves without payment. End of problem.
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And if your car is at your client's residence and the car isn't "leaving" anywhere ?
 
You can also use acetone to remove over spray. Dab a little on a MF and rub gently usually the best way I have found when spray paint has had ample time to dry. Of course, do a very small test spot first before getting crazy with this stuff.
 
LX1 said:
You can also use acetone to remove over spray. Dab a little on a MF and rub gently usually the best way I have found when spray paint has had ample time to dry. Of course, do a very small test spot first before getting crazy with this stuff.
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The owner tried to find out what kind of paint they used so I would have a starting point. Without knowing what I was working with and it being on a car with such soft paint, I decided to go the least aggressive route. The local BMW dealer wouldn't even touch the car, gave the owner my number.
 
Scott I feel your pain. I take care of an asphalt companies owner's cars. Everytime they have overspray issues with cars they send them all to me. The last one was two weeks ago and their crew hit 13 cars. I have to give him a deal (250 per car) but the nice thing is that I only have to get the overspray off. Sometimes the cars are so crappy the only nice part of the car is where I had to get the overspray off. I completely understand trying the least ag. clay since the last thing you wanted was to have polish the whole damn car. It's amazing where the overspray can end up.
 
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