Dealership detail "technicians"

T

twistedframe

SELF BANNED
Joined
Sep 4, 2008
Messages
139
Reaction score
0
Ok so I work at a new car dealership and just can't take the crap work that our detailers do!!! They think they are so good and even now have to be called "detail technicians" when talking to the customers about our detail services. I just want to give you all a taste of the stuff that goes on here day in and day out!
This is a used car that we sold getting a "protection package" (nothing more than a coat of wax that cost $500). Mind you this picture is right before they are going to deliver it to the customer that just bought it!!!!! Also this was all done with some no name rotary that has the same pad on it as the day it was bought and has never been cleaned. I feel so bad for these customers.
0906081544.jpg
 
Last edited:
This makes me worry about the new car I just got a month ago...
 
friend of mine told me her and her husband was getting ready to buy a new hhr i told them to bring over so i can check the paint out on it. well it was trashed like normal. i went back to dealership with them and talked to sales manager and pointed everything out and told him that all swirls HAS TO BE taken care of before the car was bought. he told me he has some of the best detailers in the area. that is when i told him i been detailing cars for over 15 years. he knew he was screwed. long story short i had to go into their shop and do the paint correction cause they could not. friends ended up getting another $2000 off the price cause of how long it took and the problems they had to deal with. detail manager asked me to give his detailers advice i told them never ever ever put a rotary buffer to a car again until they get trained right. my friend dropped me $200 for saving them the extra. dealerships are like body shops get it in and get it out as fast as possible. quality usually sux
 
Hey, DetailGod!
OT
I use to own a GT500KR! Great Car. I still remember the VIN. Is that you car that you have in your avatar?
 
My last car I bought, I asked the dealership to do nothing to the paint or wheels, no wax, no tire gel, no nothing. I am glad I did! Excellent post!
 
I learned my own lesson about a week ago... Bought a Certified Pre-Owned Mercedes E500. Car is 2 years old and has 10k miles on it.

I saw the car in its lease-return state and it was filthy inside and out (while I never detailed a lease return before handing it in, I at least never left cans/bottles/cups/papers/etc. in the car). The paint was in decent shape (no visible scratches, and although it was dirty I didn't see any visible swirls). Of course I was assured it would be in like new condition at delivery.

I received the car two days later, and it was shiny but the paint was very gritty. I guess their "detail technicians" aren't familiar with clay, as I spent about 3 hours claying the car from top to bottom. I took less grit off my prior car the first time I clayed it (and that car had about 100k on the clock at the time). They cleaned the engine bay, and sprayed some shiny stuff everywhere.

I wiped up as much of the slick-stuff they sprayed in the engine bay as I could, and I put a coat of Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant on. I didn't polish it (which I would normally do since I induced some micromarring) as I need to get some Mezzerna Nano Polish (I have the pre-3.0 Wolfgang TSR and Mezz Final Polish, neither of which I thought would work on the hard ceramic paint). That's a project for some time in the next month or so.

FWIW, I did point out my dissatisfaction to the salesperson, who reported it to the sales manager. I told them I expected better, and that I didn't want their detailers to re-do the job. They took the bluetooth module off, which is a $350+ option to compensate, which was a nice gesture.

I would say that not all car dealer technicians are bad. Another car I picked up about a year ago was 5 years old with 50k on the clock and was detailed perfectly. There wasn't a speckle of grit in the paint, nor a swirl anywhere. All I've done in the past year is wash and wax.
 
Last edited:
My local Cadillac dealer offers free wash with any service, seemed like a nice jesture ala Lexus. Unfortunately walking past the wash area while picking up some touch up paint I saw them washing the trucks with a broom out of a trash can full of soapy water. Needless to say all my service receipts and records now say "DO NOT WASH".
 
i have a free wash from the dealer.. they use a third party car wash that is not a chain, so i am tempted to take it to them, just out of curiosity, and before spring i will need to remove minor swirls anyway...

on that note, this is the same dealer where the salemen made sure i didnt purchase their "paint protection plan" and was pretty good about letting me know what they do to the paint and how they do it. I can say they are the better of the dealers i have seen, but im not convinced that shennanigans dont happen...

after talking with the kid, and him seeing my cars, we discussed car care, AG was mentioned, and he has a list of stuff to buy and try... he is very impressed with my level of care for idiots not touching my stuff, and i think he will make the purchases recommended
 
I actually just copy and pasted some of these stories to my website with credit going to the members who submitted the post as well as autogeek forum.. I have told customers this MANY times.. and believe it will be cool for them to be able to read it on my website.
 
Wow sorry to hear some of these stories. Funny thing just happened though. I come in today and there is a whole new crew of detailers! I just finished talking to the boss and it may seem like they know what they are doing. he was talking about getting some products that are better than this generic crap they have as well as sending all his employees to professional training. Maybe someone from the dealership saw my post! LOL
 
It's unfortunate that this happens to new and used cars. But from what I have gathered there isn't much money in dealership detailing as far as making it worth someone's time to take the extra steps. It's a shame that these are expensive cars that are getting the protection package sold on and then the mess these guys do to the paint. My uncle detailed for a big dealer a few years back and that's how it was. He made about $15-20/car to hit them real quick, and like he said, it wasn't worth his time to do much more then wash it then hit it with glaze on a wool pad.

I'm also pretty sure that dealerships don't have the best supplies for you guys to work with either...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top