Car detailed, ppf applied, and 1000's of scratches

[tdekany]

OP, when you said in an earlier post that this was partially your fault, only in a very remote sense is this true. You are being way too hard on yourself. You took your car to someone who provided a service, and advertised as a professional. If he did a bad job it's his fault, not yours. This is the nature of purchasing services. You can't know how it will turn out until it's actually done. We all take the same chance every time we go to a new restaurant, new barber, etc. if there aren't obvious warning signs, horrible Yelp reviews, etc, it's always a gamble.

Telling you it's your fault because you didn't go to Detailer X, (or go to that poster himself), serves no purpose.

I can't tell you how many detailers there are in portland, (way too many) but there are only 2 that would ever touch my cars. This industry is full of hacks, and unlike in this case, most people seems to find AG or Autopia AFTER their bad experiences. In this case the OP has registered in May 2012 - he should have seen plenty of examples on this site - all he needed to do is ask first. While the detail would have cost him many times the $150.00, but it would have been done right.

So whether we like it or not, you can't blame the detailer. I am sure he is praised daily, but that IS what you get for $150.00

I am pretty positive that that professional has never ever "paint corrected".

I just finished up a brand new Macan Turbo in Jet Black with 120 miles on it. Owner wanted Opti Coat + on the car. As always, the paint was hammered and of course the customer didn't know how bad it was. I realize this is the norm, most don't inspect the paint prior to delivery, they all assume that the paint is in near perfect condition. While the minimum to do OC+ is a 1 step after all the prep, I always do 2 steps because I love the extra gloss an additional step will provide (on brand new cars). So he agreed to my price, but once the car was washed etc.. it was obvious that a 2 step wouldn't do much and I just can't have a car leave like that. So at no charge, I asked him if I could keep the car longer and worked on the car Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues and today. It is good enough now, so I feel ok letting the car leave. It was covered in RIDS.

We are on Autogeek, you guys have Mike Phillips at your fingertips, one of the best ever, if not the best, there is no reason to waste your hard earned $$$ on an unqualified "detailer" when all you have to do is ask for a recommendation. Just saying. Sites like this exists because of detailers like him. We win!

 

[Calendyr]

Well to me if you pay 150$ for a detail, you can't expect paint perfection. Wasn't there and don't know what the detailer did but for that price he very likely did an all-in-one polish and it is to be expected that deeper scratches will remain.

If you want paint to be in perfect condition, a level 2 or level 3 correction will be needed. If this is a daily driver it's a complete waste of money, scratches will come back the first time you wash the car.

I think the only fault your detailer has in this case is not managing your expectations. He should have told you that his process would remove the majority but not all of the scratches.

 

[tdekany]

Well to me if you pay 150$ for a detail, you can't expect paint perfection. Wasn't there and don't know what the detailer did but for that price he very likely did an all-in-one polish and it is to be expected that deeper scratches will remain.

If you want paint to be in perfect condition, a level 2 or level 3 correction will be needed. If this is a daily driver it's a complete waste of money, scratches will come back the first time you wash the car.

I think the only fault your detailer has in this case is not managing your expectations. He should have told you that his process would remove the majority but not all of the scratches.

Did the op requested full paint correction initially? Highly unlikely.

 

[tdekany]

Took my brand new Mazda3 to the detailer to get micro scratches and swirls removed from the paint

Op, did you not inspect the paint?