How about this job for 300$

OCD Detailing

OCD Detailing

New member
Joined
Jul 31, 2014
Messages
167
Reaction score
0
Client took his Infiniti to the corner car wash/"detailer" and from what I am guessing he asked them to make it look like a Zebra. He picked it up and they had it in the shade so he didn't notice until the next day, then he called us. It's actually worse in real life. We used HD Speed with the Rupes 21 and the Boss 21

Infinit_side_view_before.jpg


Infinity_Door_test_spot.jpg


Infiniti_Fender_vs_door.jpg


Infinity_Rear_door_vs_Front_door.jpg


Infinity_After.jpg
 
Wait, he paid $300 to get zebra stripes on his car? Do you charge more than that?
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Wait, he paid $300 to get zebra stripes on his car? Do you charge more than that?
Click to expand...

He called us wanted the 2 step process which would have been 550$ but when we did the test spot with the HD Speed he liked the results so we charged him 350$ and he gave us $450. He would have paid even $550 but we didn't want to charge him that since we didn't do as much work as he thought it needed plus we felt bad he already paid $300 to have them ruin the car. He thought he was going to have to repaint the car so he was pretty excited when he saw the results.
 
Oh, I misunderstood your original post, I thought this was an existing client of yours who went somewhere else for a $300 detail instead of using you.

I guess this is just another example, like the dealer detailing departments, who when they do a detail and it comes out looking like that, say "well, we polished it, that's the way they always look".

I can remember an old thread on some forum where a dealer tried to tell a customer "that's what black cars look like when you detail them". Yeah, when you detail them with a rotary with a wool pad that's been lying face down on the concrete floor.
 
OCD Detailing said:
He called us wanted the 2 step process which would have been 550$ but when we did the test spot with the HD Speed he liked the results so we charged him 350$ and he gave us $450. He would have paid even $550 but we didn't want to charge him that since we didn't do as much work as he thought it needed plus we felt bad he already paid $300 to have them ruin the car. He thought he was going to have to repaint the car so he was pretty excited when he saw the results.
Click to expand...

Nice recovery!!!! Now you have a customer for life and a great storybook for your website.
 
In a way...The Infinity owner was kind of lucky:
I don't believe I could have charged only $300
for the amount of work that goes into creating
such a masterpiece. :eek:

Note:
Good job clearing up this gob-slob! :dblthumb2:


Bob
 
He paid 300 bucks for them to ruin the car like that? Hope he takes them to court to get his money back. It's incredible that a detailer could actually do something like that and then expect to get paid. SMH.
 
Thank you. Yea he used the photos I took to write a neg review on their site. I should have put our company name and phone number on the bottom of the photos before sending them to him lol. I have seen some bad jobs, usually just in random spots but this thing takes the cake. When we pulled up and I saw it, I actually started laughing uncontrollably. Client wasn't there, just my partner and myself. It's still hard for me to look at the photo without laughing. I know it's not funny to do a job like that but just the fact that they did and didn't care. I ask myself this every time I see these jobs, why the heck are people still using rotaries? I know in the right hands they can be great, but for a local quickie wash, it makes no sense to me. You probably aren't going to attract workers that are good with a rotary for the amount they probably pay them. They just don't care. They have a ton of neg reviews on Yelp and never responded to one.

I couldn't imagine giving a car back like this. Half of the time we do black we hate ourselves afterwords but the customer loves it. We see every little imperfection and it drives us nuts. We talk about it for weeks after how upset we are. This car was one that actually made us feel good.
 
runrun411 said:
He paid 300 bucks for them to ruin the car like that? Hope he takes them to court to get his money back. It's incredible that a detailer could actually do something like that and then expect to get paid. SMH.
Click to expand...

He doesn't want to deal with them. I told him to send the photos and see if he can get something back. He just said he wants to put it behind him. Total 750$ detail.
 
runrun411 said:
He paid 300 bucks for them to ruin the car like that? It's incredible that a detailer could actually do something like that and then expect to get paid. SMH.
Click to expand...

I'm telling you, they followed their normal procedure. I'm sure they don't understand why following that procedure comes out better on white and silver. Anyway, they get paid for following their procedure on the car. Evaluating the results of that requires a higher skill level.
 
OCD Detailing said:
I ask myself this every time I see these jobs, why the heck are people still using rotaries? I know in the right hands they can be great, but for a local quickie wash, it makes no sense to me. You probably aren't going to attract workers that are good with a rotary for the amount they probably pay them. They just don't care. They have a ton of neg reviews on Yelp and never responded to one.
Click to expand...

I still remember when the Meg's Microfiber DA system came out, it was targeted right at detailers like this, to get them off of rotaries and onto DA's. Unfortunately there's plenty of "wheelers" out there who have 15 minutes of training and 15 years of repeating that 15 minutes (to paraphrase Todd Helme), and they're happy to teach more disciples.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
I'm telling you, they followed their normal procedure. I'm sure they don't understand why following that procedure comes out better on white and silver. Anyway, they get paid for following their procedure on the car. Evaluating the results of that requires a higher skill level.
Click to expand...

I took a class at Meguiars on using a rotary. Even my first time I didn't butcher the panel like that.

I was curious what he asked them for. I found on his review of them he said he told them "I want it to be like new, the works, cost is not a problem."

Probably not the best thing to say to a place like that but still no reason to hack it up.

Could they have done that applying wax or was it a compound that would do that?

I almost want to take the photo in to their detailer and ask him in a serious way about his opinion of this job. Curious if he would admit it's bad or blame it on the client.

Dealers are just as bad. We get calls all the time to fix their mess. One client has called us 3x to fix it and every time we say "DON'T LET THE DEALER TOUCH IT." and he keeps having them fix little things in the paint and messing it up with trails. I guess on the bright side it's business for us. Probably a good thing for real detailers that this places stick with rotaries. lol
 
OCD Detailing said:
Could they have done that applying wax or was it a compound that would do that?
Click to expand...

I think a dirty wool pad did that. Who cares? As another poster said, put those pictures on your website and say "don't let this happen to YOU!"

As an aside, once Mike Phillips gets on TV doing Competition Ready, a lot of people are going to start to understand that "like new" detailing doesn't look like a zebra, and you're going to have people looking for your services, milk this story for all it's worth.
 
OCD Detailing said:
I almost want to take the photo in to their detailer and ask him in a serious way about his opinion of this job. Curious if he would admit it's bad or blame it on the client.

Dealers are just as bad. We get calls all the time to fix their mess. One client has called us 3x to fix it and every time we say "DON'T LET THE DEALER TOUCH IT." and he keeps having them fix little things in the paint and messing it up with trails. I guess on the bright side it's business for us.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't go talk to those guys, that can't help you any, and you don't want them thinking too much about it and coming here and improving, LOL.

There's really no hope for these places and the dealers. As I said, I expect there to be some elevation of what detailing is in the minds of the general public as a result of the new show, and I think that's going to drive business away from the hacks and towards you (however small that effect is).
 
WOW

Great save. He got lucky there was paint to correct.
 
Wow! That first picture looks like it belongs in Mike's catalog of hologram/buffer trail collection as an extreme...and i mean extreme...example. Beautiful work in bringing that thing back to how it should look.

Some years ago i left one, 3 foot long hologram on a neighbors black Tahoe. Because of proximity i was able to catch it in the sun the next day and was absolutely mortified. Completely unacceptable and that was an isolated and relatively small error. I showed it to my neighbor (he hadn't even noticed it) and obviously fixed it immediately at no charge (of course). That's how WE do things here and diametrically opposite of whoever hacked up that beautiful Infiniti paint.

I'm also with Setec in that i wouldn't get anything out of talking to the hacks that did that. A good head shake as i walk away from the conversation but that's about it.
 
Speechless...nice job fixing it for him. My jaw is on the ground.
 
Nice work, man that sure was bad...
Now to figure out how to get customers to pay $350 for an AIO, I have a hard time getting $200.
 
jms493 said:
Speechless...nice job fixing it for him. My jaw is on the ground.
Click to expand...


Thank's

Funny thing is it was worse than is the photo's. I was having a hard time getting it all in one shot at the correct angle because it went from the fender all the way to the rear taillight.

I could probably spend some time in Lightroom tweaking some adjustments way beyond the norm to truly bring out all the damage.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top