When a detail goes wrong...what to do?

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angleiron

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I have been using a guy that details cars for a living. He has detailed my car in the past, and in the past had done excellent work. I called him this time as I was going to have my car clear wrapped in certain areas to keep the rock chips from damaging the paint, so I wanted to get the finish cleaned up before the wrap took place.

To make a very long story short the job he did was horrific. I have swirl marks into the paint, what could be considered burn marks from buffing. He didn't bother to clean the car entirely (lower rockers, lower front fascia, lower rear fascia, etc.) and areas like that were ignored. He waxed over water spots, and the list goes on.

At the time he was doing the job he was on the phone arguing 1/3 of the time...swearing and very angry (personal issues). I did not find all of the issues until after he left as I put my car on ramps for the clear wrap installer to make his life easier. When I contacted him about all of this he makes no offer to correct any of this and basically is telling me to f' off.

I now need to take my car (Viper) to get the whole car buffed out for finish correction. I paid $400 for the detail, and now I have to spend much more to fix what he damaged. This is a garage queen car...12 years old with 10K miles. So how would you handle this?

Thanks
 
Short of taking him to small claims for damages the best thing you can do his hit him in his pocket. Does he have a google spot, bad reviews will kill him. Anywhere he advertises i would leave this story. Bing, Google, Craigslist, Angieslist, Facebook, look for him every where and wage cyber warfare.
 
Where are you located, people are sometimes willing to help out on this site. And I see this is your first post..

Welcome to AG!
 
RobertJ34 said:
Where are you located, people are sometimes willing to help out on this site. And I see this is your first post..

Welcome to AG!
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This - an experience like that shouldn't happen to anyone. :mad: If you're in Georgia let me know...
 
If you're in TN let me know. I'd detail a viper for cheap just to wqrq on the car (my favorites.)
 
I'm going to go against the grain here. I also have a Viper with the same mileage so first off, hi fellow Viper owner. Before attacking him with "cyber warfare" or any other negative response have you tried just giving him a call and politely telling him what happened? What if he was terribly embarrassed and made you a top priority to come back out asap and correct the situation. I am in NO WAY excusing what he did but trying to ruin his reputation as one poster put it is a pretty damn big overreaction at this point IMO. You said he was on the phone yelling and obviously distraught throughout the detail, I would imagine that would effect his ability to concentrate at the very least. Yes, he should have caught it but if he was in a bad place he probably doesn't even know. I had a garage door install go really bad, and I was upset as well, but with recommendations from some "calmer" people on a forum I called and spoke with them and they remedied the situation to perfection. Should I have had to? No. But hey that is life. You said this guy has done wonderful work in the past, maybe give him a chance to correct the situation before trying to "burn him at the stake" as suggested? If you are not comfortable with that, I can understand that too, so maybe ask for him to pay for another shop to repair it. Whatever you do best of luck! And by the way, why are you letting anyone else touch that beautiful car lol :) Here is a few photos I snapped after detailing mine the other day:







 
cfiiman said:
I'm going to go against the grain here. I also have a Viper with the same mileage so first off, hi fellow Viper owner. Before attacking him with "cyber warfare" or any other negative response have you tried just giving him a call and politely telling him what happened? What if he was terribly embarrassed and made you a top priority to come back out asap and correct the situation. I am in NO WAY excusing what he did but trying to ruin his reputation as one poster put it is a pretty damn big overreaction at this point IMO. You said he was on the phone yelling and obviously distraught throughout the detail, I would imagine that would effect his ability to concentrate at the very least. Yes, he should have caught it but if he was in a bad place he probably doesn't even know. I had a garage door install go really bad, and I was upset as well, but with recommendations from some "calmer" people on a forum I called and spoke with them and they remedied the situation to perfection. Should I have had to? No. But hey that is life. You said this guy has done wonderful work in the past, maybe give him a chance to correct the situation before trying to "burn him at the stake" as suggested? If you are not comfortable with that, I can understand that too, so maybe ask for him to pay for another shop to repair it. Whatever you do best of luck! And by the way, why are you letting anyone else touch that beautiful car lol :)
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He said he contacted him and he didn't offer to do anything for him.

Again like everyone else stated let us know where you are and someone should help you out. Some pictures would be very helpful as well.
 
EVOlved said:
He said he contacted him and he didn't offer to do anything for him.

Again like everyone else stated let us know where you are and someone should help you out.
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How the hell did I miss that!!!???? Just re-read and saw where he told you to "f-off", please disregard my whole post :dunno:
 
This type of behavior boils my blood... I had something similar happen to me at a dealership. They distroyed my flawless finish with what looked like steel wool including my headlights, all the chrome, windows, and recently blacked out tail lights and they would not fix their mistake... Instead they insulted me claiming that i did it and then told my gf that the apple doesnt fall far from the tree because her 12 year old car had scratches on it... It was my motivation to start a detailing company to help others out that have similar things happen to them. If you are close to Northern NV let me know.
 
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