Feel like I was duped here with detailing and ceramic coating

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I just sent him this message, and I'm going to claim fraud on my credit card:

"Tim, I don’t want to talk about it and please don’t call me as I’m not bringing my vehicle back again. But man, these swirl marks and scratches are terrible. $1750 should get me a pristine vehicle, or the work shouldn’t have been done in the first place. I've shown your work to several detailers in a detailing forum and they have all been appalled that I paid that much money for terrible service like this. I’ve never been a difficult customer in my life, but I am beyond disappointed in this result. Below is the video of the vehicle straight home and put in the garage. Again, do not call me as I’m not bringing my vehicle in again. But I do not feel like I came even close to getting my money’s worth here. I went back and forth to your lot 6 different times going out of my way to try to be accommodating to you. You’ve had my vehicle for nearly two weeks and the end result is poor, and one I don’t think you can argue with. This has been a very bad experience for me. I'm not sure if you only work on new cars where you aren't dealing with swirls and haze, or if you just aren't very skilled at what you do. Either way, I would never recommend anyone take their vehicle to you and there is no chance I'd ever step foot in your shop again."
 
Eesh. I personally don't feel like you're going to win the CC battle, they have pictures of them working on the vehicle. I think from the CC company's standpoint, the provided the service, they can prove it, etc. I hope it works out for you. I can't believe they had the vehicle for 2 weeks.
 
His reply: "I'll refund your money. I don't know what to say."

We'll see if he actually gives me a refund. I think he's full of ####.
 
Here is my question though. What exactly did this guy do with my vehicle? He obviously did something with it but why is this result so extremely poor? I don’t understand what happened here. Did he just not know what he was doing?
 
Word of advice....keep a level head. If you have it in writing that he will refund your money than just hang your hat on that. Do not go the CC route - plenty of time for that (some up to 60 days).
 
He just responded:

“NOBODY anywhere will ever make your Yukon look better! I will bet any amount on that! Wanna Bet?
We delivered our best as always. My team worked tirelessly on your GMC, and these boys are the best of the best!! Enough said. I will refund your money. What a Joke!”
 
I'll echo what others have said, it looks like they did a one step. That type of result would border on acceptable if you had paid maybe half what you did (assuming they actually coated it), but for $1700 it should be pristine. Don't feel bad about being a difficult customer.The guy clearly preys on people who don't know anything about detailing.
 
Donnation said:
He just responded:

“NOBODY anywhere will ever make your Yukon look better! I will bet any amount on that! Wanna Bet?
We delivered our best as always. My team worked tirelessly on your GMC, and these boys are the best of the best!! Enough said. I will refund your money. What a Joke!”
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Ask him if the same best of the best of the best guys worked on Trumps car and king of saudi arabia’s truck. Unreal.


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I'd take him up on that challenge in a heart beat.

I took a destroyed Chevy HD 2500 basket case in a one step to perfection in 8 hours. Washed, corrected and sealed, 8 hours by myself. And it shames that job he did. He'd owe me $1700.00

I can't find the show and shine I did a few years ago, but this thing had never been detailed in 7 years and it had major oxidation. He didn't even know it was metallic blue until I got done. $300.00 exterior only.

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I was trying to stay optimistic here.... But, I figured it was gonna turn out this way. When you sent those vids of them working on it, my hopes of a quality job went out the window. lol Who am I to judge?

I hope you get your money back, cause you can kiss whatever clearcoat they removed goodbye, forever.

Scour the "show n-shine" sub forum and check out some of the work of the members here. Sizzle Chest is one who comes to mind. You'll never see work looking like that on here. If they do, they sure wont post it! ;)

Ohh CustomSport^^ is another... there are many on here...
 
The car looks remarkably better than it did the first time but that’s not what we’re judging here.

We’re to judge on the second video alone being a $1700 Detail and paint correction.

To give a little more detail on what you’re seeing in the second vid compared to the first is that the marring has been removed which has cleared up most of the defects.

It’s a little hard to tell from the vid but it looks like larger defects still remain, not a deal breaker but there are quite a few in that pass of the camera which leads me to assume these aren’t too deep or you’ve driven it through a jungle at some point.

What will be angering most here is the hazing/trails/buffer marks, whatever you want to call them, which have been left behind. If you look at the light in your vid, these are the light streaks travelling vertically away from the source. A little like how street lights streak at night with a wet or dirty windscreen.

These are extremely light scratches/swirls, whatever you want to call them, inflicted by the last polishing stage that was completed. Exactly like sanding, you start coarse which inflicts scratching to level the surface and remove others, those scratches are then levelled and removed by a finer grade paper. Rinse and repeat until you’re nigh on using printer paper to sand and you’ll have a perfectly smooth surface.

What’s happening here is that instead of stepping down the polishing right to a finishing or jeweling stage (super fine), he’s stopped and left evidence.

You’d expect for the money you paid on a Detail which seems to focus on the paint correction, to at the least, finish down to a haze/swirl/trail free surface. Even if larger scratches remain.

The point is that the dude didn’t do this which is what anyone in the business knows is the 99/1% that makes you a professional (skill and experience aside).

In summary, dude went the extra mile to fix his #### but still hasn’t done a $1700 detail with super-deluxe-best-guys-on-the-job paint correction.
 
WristyManchego said:
The car looks remarkably better than it did the first time but that’s not what we’re judging here.

We’re to judge on the second video alone being a $1700 Detail and paint correction.

To give a little more detail on what you’re seeing in the second vid compared to the first is that the marring has been removed which has cleared up most of the defects.

It’s a little hard to tell from the vid but it looks like larger defects still remain, not a deal breaker but there are quite a few in that pass of the camera which leads me to assume these aren’t too deep or you’ve driven it through a jungle at some point.

What will be angering most here is the hazing/trails/buffer marks, whatever you want to call them, which have been left behind. If you look at the light in your vid, these are the light streaks travelling vertically away from the source. A little like how street lights streak at night with a wet or dirty windscreen.

These are extremely light scratches/swirls, whatever you want to call them, inflicted by the last polishing stage that was completed. Exactly like sanding, you start coarse which inflicts scratching to level the surface and remove others, those scratches are then levelled and removed by a finer grade paper. Rinse and repeat until you’re nigh on using printer paper to sand and you’ll have a perfectly smooth surface.

What’s happening here is that instead of stepping down the polishing right to a finishing or jeweling stage (super fine), he’s stopped and left evidence.

You’d expect for the money you paid on a Detail which seems to focus on the paint correction, to at the least, finish down to a haze/swirl/trail free surface. Even if larger scratches remain.

The point is that the dude didn’t do this which is what anyone in the business knows is the 99/1% that makes you a professional (skill and experience aside).

In summary, dude went the extra mile to fix his #### but still hasn’t done a $1700 detail with super-deluxe-best-guys-on-the-job paint correction.
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I got this swirl free finish in one step on this Chevy truck and it's a hunting truck, it was hammered. Zero swirls left and no hazing etc. That was with Menzerna FG400 and orange pads, Rupes gen 1 15. If that guy was any good he should be able to do that on his vehicle as it was no where near as hammered as this was.

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When you have gotten the refund from this guy. Go to one of the detailers that has reach out to you here. And they will guide you through the work before and during and after. Since he has polished with something on your car. The detailer you go to need to have a paint thickness gauge (PTG). And get readings on the paint before he starts any polishing work. That is to know if and how much of clearcoat he have polished off. Then I really hope that the readings tells he has not taken off to much of the clearcoat. So the detailer you go with has the ability to correct as much as possible of the scratches. There is almost impossible to say if you can correct the paint to 100% perfection. When you don't know the depth of the deeper defects. And that won't the PTG tell you either. It's when you start to do the test spot and see how aggressive you need to be. And you also take readings after the test spot so you see how much clearcoat got polished off. Just from the videos and pictures you have shared. The swirls would not be any problems with. Even he seems to be corrected some off them. But man what a difference it is on the last video from some correction to none. I think he did not get aggressive enough and be glad for that if so. And if your car has not been heavly compounded before you got it. It would be enough of clearcoat left to make it look awesome. And maybe some deeper scratches left to not get the clearcoat to thin.

Then if you want to share the results with him to just prove a point. Go at it. But I would not do that cause then he will come up with the paint has been filled with something to just look corrected or something else. I would just leave it alone after I have gotten the refund. And let him do what he does or is it not does lol.

I thought first when he took it back. That one off his employee has skipped to do what he was going to do. And that him self got in and looked over the work that would be done the second time. But the technique when air brushed the coating on all over the place. That was a big red flagg. And no pictures on the paint when lighting it up with a swirl light finder after be had corrected it and before the coating was applyied was also something that where strange for this situation. Go into the Show and shine threads here on AGO and look at when they both get lighting on the paint before and after the compounding and when they have done the finishing polish. With most of the polishing done today it's a compounding step and a finishing polish step. And even some remarkable one step polishing too. Look at the pro here Mike Phillips and his pictures from his classes and reviews of polishing products. And you will see how it can be done right.

I really hope that he refund you. And you can move on from this. Then that you don't give up on getting your car detailed. And if you go with one that is a forum member here. He will do the best he can to make the car look as great as possible. And he knows your bad experience and will guide you through his work.

Then read up and ask questions on how to maintain your car properly. So you can have it look awesome for a long time before you need a polishing again that will only need a one step correction to take care of the little swirls you get during that time.

/Tony
 
custmsprty said:
I got this swirl free finish in one step on this Chevy truck and it's a hunting truck, it was hammered. Zero swirls left and no hazing etc. That was with Menzerna FG400 and orange pads, Rupes gen 1 15. If that guy was any good he should be able to do that on his vehicle as it was no where near as hammered as this was.

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I’m sure you did. Well done.

That’s a reflection shot with a filter applied though, nothing I can do with that except say nice photo.
 
Donnation said:
Final result. I think it looks better and it’s hard to tell with just a light on it. Not thrilled with it but maybe that’s the best i should expect? It’s cloudy out so I can’t see it in sunlight. Should be able to tomorrow. I’m going to contact the member here and get his thoughts on bringing it in to take a look at it. To me I thought it would look better, but maybe my expectations were too high.


YouTube
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I'm confused.

Is that his "full correction"?

Or is he selling a coating over a one step polish procedure?

Does he have a stratified menu?
 
Donnation said:
He just responded:

“NOBODY anywhere will ever make your Yukon look better! I will bet any amount on that! Wanna Bet?
We delivered our best as always. My team worked tirelessly on your GMC, and these boys are the best of the best!! Enough said. I will refund your money. What a Joke!”
Click to expand...

One of the least professional responses I've ever seen from a "legitimate" company.

This reads like a kid with a buffer, microfiber pads, polish dujour and a "coating" is behind the operation.
 
Bummer. Sorry to see that. We did this hood. 40 miles north of Louisville. Its in the M110 thread... lol. Sorry for that one...

Sad part too is less paint to work with due to improper grinding 2x now. Best of luck to you.

2018 Yukon Denali pics
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