THIS REALLY CHAPS MY HIDE - Another Rant Thread

Optimus Grime

Optimus Grime

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TLDR: I hate low ballers and people who want work done for free

I was doing some yard work and noticed my neighbor across the street hand washing his car. I've been in my house for 9 years and this is the second time he's done that so it was a special occasion. Of course he wasn't washing the way any of us would and he was using one of those microfiber mop brushes. I cringed a bit but hey, at least he was hand washing his car. I continued taking care of my exquisitely manicured lawn and had to stop when he got to the drying portion. It was full sun and most of his car was dry and he pulled a pack of Costco microfiber towels out of his SUV. That's when I decided to intervene. I told him to rub his hand across his car and he could see how his hand dragged across the paint and I told him that if he did that with those cheap towels he was going to brutalize that baby soft Tesla paint. I grabbed one of my waffle weave towels, my old bottle of Adam's Graphene Detail Spray and showed him how to use it as a drying aid. It worked beautifully for him.

Then he shifted to his SUV. He has an ice cream/boba tea shop and was getting it wrapped tomorrow in his company's logo. I'm a good neighbor so I told him to bring it over and we could give it a good cleaning since he mentioned that the shop he was going to would only wash the sections that were to be covered with the vinyl logo and they weren't professional detailers. It was on the house. In the midst of this he decided that he wants to finally get his Tesla coated. Great. Take into consideration that I'm a home based detailer and because my operating costs are negligible my coating prices are about as low as you can get for a trained professional who is going to do the job right. I told him the price, and since he was my neighbor I was going to coat his windshield and trim on the house. He lowballed and asked if I could do it for $500. It's a $64,000 vehicle and he is by no means poor and as a business owner he fully understands how profit and loss works. I told him at that price I was throwing money away and then he retorted with $600. I held firm and he eventually realized that I wasn't coming down on my price but that got my blood boiling, as the old folks say. He eventually agreed to my price and everything was all good, or so I thought. We finished his SUV and he said I'll bring you the Tesla Sunday. You can do the coating and wipe down and vacuum the interior. Doing anything on the interior at no point was discussed as I have all but abandoned doing interior work. He continued and said to do the interior this time and he'll do it from here on out when I do maintenance washes on his car. I explained once again that I don't do interiors and even if I did, that would be an additional cost since it was not part of the coating price. After a bit of awkward silence he decided that he was going to do his interior the day before he drops it off. He's a nice guy. Our kids have played together many times but I absolutely hate low ballers and people that think that they can throw in some extras on a job for free. Sadly, this is the majority of the people around me. They will haggle to death on price and at times I just want to walk away from doing this as a side job and just take care of my vehicles.

Rant over. You can now return to your regularly scheduled programming.
 
i'm sure your services are well worth it, but some people don't understand the labor (and hard work) that goes into detailing. not to mention prices of products have gone up too. you know the saying, "you get what you pay for". some will have to find out the hard way...
 
Optimus Grime said:
TLDR: I hate low ballers and people who want work done for free

I was doing some yard work and noticed my neighbor across the street hand washing his car. I've been in my house for 9 years and this is the second time he's done that so it was a special occasion. Of course he wasn't washing the way any of us would and he was using one of those microfiber mop brushes. I cringed a bit but hey, at least he was hand washing his car. I continued taking care of my exquisitely manicured lawn and had to stop when he got to the drying portion. It was full sun and most of his car was dry and he pulled a pack of Costco microfiber towels out of his SUV. That's when I decided to intervene. I told him to rub his hand across his car and he could see how his hand dragged across the paint and I told him that if he did that with those cheap towels he was going to brutalize that baby soft Tesla paint. I grabbed one of my waffle weave towels, my old bottle of Adam's Graphene Detail Spray and showed him how to use it as a drying aid. It worked beautifully for him.

Then he shifted to his SUV. He has an ice cream/boba tea shop and was getting it wrapped tomorrow in his company's logo. I'm a good neighbor so I told him to bring it over and we could give it a good cleaning since he mentioned that the shop he was going to would only wash the sections that were to be covered with the vinyl logo and they weren't professional detailers. It was on the house. In the midst of this he decided that he wants to finally get his Tesla coated. Great. Take into consideration that I'm a home based detailer and because my operating costs are negligible my coating prices are about as low as you can get for a trained professional who is going to do the job right. I told him the price, and since he was my neighbor I was going to coat his windshield and trim on the house. He lowballed and asked if I could do it for $500. It's a $64,000 vehicle and he is by no means poor and as a business owner he fully understands how profit and loss works. I told him at that price I was throwing money away and then he retorted with $600. I held firm and he eventually realized that I wasn't coming down on my price but that got my blood boiling, as the old folks say. He eventually agreed to my price and everything was all good, or so I thought. We finished his SUV and he said I'll bring you the Tesla Sunday. You can do the coating and wipe down and vacuum the interior. Doing anything on the interior at no point was discussed as I have all but abandoned doing interior work. He continued and said to do the interior this time and he'll do it from here on out when I do maintenance washes on his car. I explained once again that I don't do interiors and even if I did, that would be an additional cost since it was not part of the coating price. After a bit of awkward silence he decided that he was going to do his interior the day before he drops it off. He's a nice guy. Our kids have played together many times but I absolutely hate low ballers and people that think that they can throw in some extras on a job for free. Sadly, this is the majority of the people around me. They will haggle to death on price and at times I just want to walk away from doing this as a side job and just take care of my vehicles.

Rant over. You can now return to your regularly scheduled programming.
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I don't know if you actually need the income from that particular job but if it had been me I would have politely walked away about 2 minutes in

Or go ahead and do it and then walk into his shop and start haggling over a glass of whatever it is he sells and see how he likes it
 
chilly said:
I don't know if you actually need the income from that particular job but if it had been me I would have politely walked away about 2 minutes in

Or go ahead and do it and then walk into his shop and start haggling over a glass of whatever it is he sells and see how he likes it
Click to expand...

I entertained both of these options. Sadly, due to the payroll department of Cabarrus County Schools royally screwing my school, I will have to go a month without pay this summer. While I have enough set aside to get me through that month, this job will give me a bit of a cushion going into summer.
 
Optimus Grime said:
I entertained both of these options. Sadly, due to the payroll department of Cabarrus County Schools royally screwing my school, I will have to go a month without pay this summer so. While I have enough set aside to get me through that month, this job will give me a bit of a cushion going into summer.
Click to expand...

I worked for a school district in the bush of Alaska for 8 years and I know exactly where you are coming from

Hope it all works out
 
I lost my oldest friend over how cheap and selfish he is! I have done so much for him for free and literally detailed his exterior, everything shy of a full body buff. The last time I spent 3 hours to wash his van and dress all his plastic and tires for free. Then told him a ridiculous price to coat his van that was just starting to show clear coat failure on his roof. I let him know what it would typically cost him. I explained that it would be much easier to coat the paint and the plastic at the same time since I just prepped it for nothing. After he said his main concern was the small failure on the roof, I explained it was only going to start spreading. Being his car was coming up on 9 years old, I told him I would match the paint and spray the small affected area and also add clear coat. Then I would coat the whole van and all the plastic. Finally out of frustration I told him how ungrateful he always is and how cheap he is. I wanted to really tell him off and kept it short and sweet! He is by no means even middle class. He had just spent $800 at Nordstrom's on a pair of lame @ss boots!
But he hasn't called me since. Going on 2 months when we talk almost daily!!!
 
1abe4c89fa56118670345384e9d54d5a.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Autogeekonline mobile app
 
Optimus Grime said:
TLDR: I hate low ballers and people who want work done for free

I was doing some yard work and noticed my neighbor across the street hand washing his car. I've been in my house for 9 years and this is the second time he's done that so it was a special occasion. Of course he wasn't washing the way any of us would and he was using one of those microfiber mop brushes. I cringed a bit but hey, at least he was hand washing his car. I continued taking care of my exquisitely manicured lawn and had to stop when he got to the drying portion. It was full sun and most of his car was dry and he pulled a pack of Costco microfiber towels out of his SUV. That's when I decided to intervene. I told him to rub his hand across his car and he could see how his hand dragged across the paint and I told him that if he did that with those cheap towels he was going to brutalize that baby soft Tesla paint. I grabbed one of my waffle weave towels, my old bottle of Adam's Graphene Detail Spray and showed him how to use it as a drying aid. It worked beautifully for him.

Then he shifted to his SUV. He has an ice cream/boba tea shop and was getting it wrapped tomorrow in his company's logo. I'm a good neighbor so I told him to bring it over and we could give it a good cleaning since he mentioned that the shop he was going to would only wash the sections that were to be covered with the vinyl logo and they weren't professional detailers. It was on the house. In the midst of this he decided that he wants to finally get his Tesla coated. Great. Take into consideration that I'm a home based detailer and because my operating costs are negligible my coating prices are about as low as you can get for a trained professional who is going to do the job right. I told him the price, and since he was my neighbor I was going to coat his windshield and trim on the house. He lowballed and asked if I could do it for $500. It's a $64,000 vehicle and he is by no means poor and as a business owner he fully understands how profit and loss works. I told him at that price I was throwing money away and then he retorted with $600. I held firm and he eventually realized that I wasn't coming down on my price but that got my blood boiling, as the old folks say. He eventually agreed to my price and everything was all good, or so I thought. We finished his SUV and he said I'll bring you the Tesla Sunday. You can do the coating and wipe down and vacuum the interior. Doing anything on the interior at no point was discussed as I have all but abandoned doing interior work. He continued and said to do the interior this time and he'll do it from here on out when I do maintenance washes on his car. I explained once again that I don't do interiors and even if I did, that would be an additional cost since it was not part of the coating price. After a bit of awkward silence he decided that he was going to do his interior the day before he drops it off. He's a nice guy. Our kids have played together many times but I absolutely hate low ballers and people that think that they can throw in some extras on a job for free. Sadly, this is the majority of the people around me. They will haggle to death on price and at times I just want to walk away from doing this as a side job and just take care of my vehicles.

Rant over. You can now return to your regularly scheduled programming.
Click to expand...

one thing Mike would talk about is adding more gaps paragraphs so it makes your words easier to read. Most are reading on a tablet or phone. Not trying to flame just food for thought.

If people always trying to haggle in your area I would up my prices. Some people won’t engage unless the get a “Deal”. Just like a hundred so as if someone wants to haggle you can give them $100 off with a “that’s the best I’m willing to do with the time and services involved”.

Also what would you normally charge for a Tesla?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
True, for some people it's not about what you're charging them, it's about how much they talked you down. But if you have your prices listed, and you raise them to allow haggle room, you could lose customers because not everyone wants to haggle.

You'll always struggle to get money out of the very wealthy, that's how they stay that way.


Sent from my motorola edge 20 fusion using Tapatalk
 
Coatingsarecrack said:
one thing Mike would talk about is adding more gaps paragraphs so it makes your words easier to read. Most are reading on a tablet or phone. Not trying to flame just food for thought.

If people always trying to haggle in your area I would up my prices. Some people won’t engage unless the get a “Deal”. Just like a hundred so as if someone wants to haggle you can give them $100 off with a “that’s the best I’m willing to do with the time and services involved”.

Also what would you normally charge for a Tesla?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Point taken. I think my wordiness is a carryover from my days preparing 4th graders for the NC writing test. It was all about elaboration and that has stuck with me ever since.

I'm fine with my coating prices. Before I started, I checked with my mentor on pricing and he thinks I'm at a good spot but few people ever venture over to my website to see them. 90% of inquirers find me on google, see that I have a good rating and call me without taking the time to see what I charge. These days I stick to paint corrections and coatings because if I'm going to sacrifice my weekend it's gotta be worth it to me and I foolishly assume that people understand that these services are labor and time intensive and will understand my absolutely reasonable prices. You know what they say about making assumptions.

It's a 5 seater Model Y. I'd normally charge $700 for Mohs which is an extremely fair price in my area.
 
DanaDetailingPros said:
I lost my oldest friend over how cheap and selfish he is! I have done so much for him for free and literally detailed his exterior, everything shy of a full body buff. The last time I spent 3 hours to wash his van and dress all his plastic and tires for free. Then told him a ridiculous price to coat his van that was just starting to show clear coat failure on his roof. I let him know what it would typically cost him. I explained that it would be much easier to coat the paint and the plastic at the same time since I just prepped it for nothing. After he said his main concern was the small failure on the roof, I explained it was only going to start spreading. Being his car was coming up on 9 years old, I told him I would match the paint and spray the small affected area and also add clear coat. Then I would coat the whole van and all the plastic. Finally out of frustration I told him how ungrateful he always is and how cheap he is. I wanted to really tell him off and kept it short and sweet! He is by no means even middle class. He had just spent $800 at Nordstrom's on a pair of lame @ss boots!
But he hasn't called me since. Going on 2 months when we talk almost daily!!!
Click to expand...

I've done work for quite a few friends but I pretty much do it at cost. I don't want it to ever feel like a business transaction and thankfully none of my friends have ever acted in this manner. Sometimes life is quite a contradiction. The people that want the most are willing to pay the least.
 
I look back and realize how grateful I must've been to have my best client. He never haggle with me,always happily paid,and even tipped

He must've been the exception to the rule

If I detailed for pay now I better not expect that I bet clients like the one I had have died off.
 
Coatingsarecrack said:
If people always trying to haggle in your area I would up my prices. Some people won’t engage unless the get a “Deal”. Just like a hundred so as if someone wants to haggle you can give them $100 off with a “that’s the best I’m willing to do with the time and services involved”.
Click to expand...

But isn't that part of the reason Optimus had this problem with his neighbor? That everyone assumes there's "like a hundred" padded into the job, that they can haggle off?
 
Setec Astronomy said:
But isn't that part of the reason Optimus had this problem with his neighbor? That everyone assumes there's "like a hundred" padded into the job, that they can haggle off?
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I think they're just cheap and it's a cultural thing. Several people in the service industry in my area have had the same issues. The guy who maintained my lawn when I first bought my house had many people in this "group" as customers and dropped them all because of how cheap they were, how much they tried to underpay how and how difficult they were to deal with.

I don't think they look at my prices as being "padded". One guy stopped me while I was working on a car and inquired about having his car coated. He had a previous vehicle done for $1500 and I quoted him at $750 which is my standard price for a vehicle of that size. Still too high. If they can't talk you down from your price, they will search until they find someone who will, even if it means sacrificing quality.
 
I worked for a guy running his bicycle shop for about a year and then opened up my own shop when he closed down and moved out of state

We had a price board that was a real time saver because 90% of what we did was routine maintenance and the prices were clearly marked on the board, as well as the hourly shop rate and the minimum 1/2 hour labor charge

The only deviation was flat tires, they had separate prices by size and type

When someone started to try and beat me down on price I didn't even engage, I would simply point to the board and continue with whatever I was doing

The choice to have the work done or not was up to them and some people got all bent out of shape and walked out but I honestly believe in the long run we didn't lose a dime by sticking to the prices we knew were fair but that made us money

The people that got bent out of shape were invariably bringing in a rusted out Huffy or K Mart bike that had sat outside all winter and they wanted it "tuned up" for next to nothing and the shop costs to fix it were usually more than they paid for the bike
 
chilly said:
The people that got bent out of shape were invariably bringing in a rusted out Huffy or K Mart bike that had sat outside all winter and they wanted it "tuned up" for next to nothing and the shop costs to fix it were usually more than they paid for the bike
Click to expand...

This is why I no longer do interiors, except for a very few pleasant customers. The people with the absolute worst cars want them cleaned for insanely low prices.
I was trained by a couple of guys that have been detailing for 15+ years. They survived the crash of 2008 and covid so they’re not only top notch detailers, they understand how to run and grow a business. Most people would lose their minds if they were quoted prices similar to those two, but they understand what to charge to cover all their fees and still make a profit.

I really wish these young detailers would up their prices to the point that they can stay in business for more than a year or two. I don’t need the money and it does rub me the wrong way when people haggle but I can walk away because I’ve got a decent salary from teaching.
 
I've had people want to haggle with me. Actually, I expect it. I remained open to it as long as it was done politely although I very rarely did budge on my price. That might happen if and only if you are someone I know or are a good,repeat customer.

I know it's a bummer when you hope for a lower price when you think the asking price is just a bit too steep. Happened with the guy who trimmed my trees. He wouldn't do one tree in its entirety so I had him do only what we agreed upon which included several smaller trees. I was disappointed but the job got mostly done. I can always look for someone else next time. I do respect the guy for being firm on his price. He gets enough business
 
Bill D said:
I've had people want to haggle with me. Actually, I expect it. I remained open to it as long as it was done politely although I very rarely did budge on my price. That might happen if and only if you are someone I know or are a good,repeat customer.
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I actually do budge on my price but it's never for the hagglers. I had a nice guy who took the time to visit my website, check my prices and submit a request via my contact page. We talked and I came out and looked at his car and because it was such a pleasant encounter I knocked $50 off for the hell of it. I'll often throw in some really nice bonuses when I do a coating for the customers that are cool with my absolutely reasonable prices. They typically walk away with about $100 in supplies to get them started on their maintenance journey and my trademark is a follow up maintenance wash tutorial on the house. My customers that don't haggle always get more than they pay for but the sheer number of lowballers is driving me insane.

Just this past Friday a lady called me because she wants to sell her car and get it cleaned so she can get top dollar. She specifically asked for a clay bar treatment and we all know that can easily run $200 in my area. I'm well below that price but she just kept on saying "but it's a small car" or "that's more than I was looking to pay." These are the people I can't deal with. They want top dollar service at rock bottom prices.
 
Vehicles are appliances to 99% of people. Paying to have a vehicle done is way low on the budget list. The other 1% care and will do what it takes to maintain a great looking vehicle.
 
In my line of business, there are guys who literally work for nothing. I let them do it. I charge people a fair price considering my time and cost. Some think I'm high, others think I'm cheap.
 
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