my detail - problems

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Bambino68

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Good morning all,

I took the plunge and had my 2006 Mercedes E500 detailed by a shop in chicago for $400.00 for the professional showroom new detail. The day I picked it up, it was overcast and the car looked amazing, but now after driving through a rainstorm and it sitting overnight,
I pulled it out into direct sunlight and all I see are buff swirl marks...Now Im no expect but I would have assumed that a "Professional showroom new detail" would not have had swirl marks all over the car.
I have contacted the shop and am going to see them today, hoping I can get this resolved or I need to have the swirl marks taken out by another shop.

Do I have any legal recourse for this?

They are registered with the Automotive detail society.

I just feel like I was taken for a ride.

Thanks in advance.

David
 
Wow. You paid $400 and they left swirl marks? Screw calling them. Go down there and Kick their a$$. I don't consider myself an amazing detailer but I make sure that no swirls are ever left on my customers cars. Also I charge half that price.
 
Being that you paid $400 for it I would definitely bring the car back and complain. They will most likely deny it and offer to fix it.How long did it take them to "detail" your car?
 
I would demand my money back and do it my self or take it to a real detailer.
 
This sounds like another infamous case of the "pro detailer" who use a rotary buffer only, a compound and polish and probably a sealant all mixed on the wool pad to save time. Have pictures you can upload? Might be a real detailer on these forums who is near you who can fix it the right way.
 
The detail shop probably used a glaze all over the car to cover up the swirls
 
Another story of a 'pro' who hacked up someones fine car! Ahhh, this stuff truly upsets me Dave. Sorry about your misfortune in finding this guy.

I would demand my money back and I wouldn't let them fix it. Why, because for $400 the car better be dang near perfect! This detailer mostly likely does this quick hack job all the time, as others have said, with a wool pad and then just slaps some glaze or wax on and calls it done - leaving all those swirls. This time he's be caught!

I would recommend you snap some photos of the paint, if you can. We all would like to see what your dealing with and it good to have them if you take the course of legal action.

Anyways, I live in the North of Chicago in the Fox Lake area. Let me know if you need any help! I'd be glad to help.
 
Give the car a good mineral spirits or alcohol wipedown to remove all of the fillers before taking it back. That'll blow their mind when they see the mess that they really left on the car. Unfortunately it's quite normal in 99% of the detail shops of the world to use a glaze with lots of fillers.

When a customer brings me a car painted with ceramiclear or other high solids clear coat for a true paint correction, I tell them that the paint compounding/polishing begins at around $500 and that's just a beginning estimate for paint work only, with no interior work. Any high end LSP such as Opti-Coat is xxx amount above the correction work.

Some may call me crazy for charging this much. I say you're crazy if your not.

If you're doing absolute correction work on super hard clear that has been neglected even a little, you'll be at it for a minimum of 30 hours. $500 divided by 30 hours = $16.7 an hour. If you're a professional detail shop owner/operator and you give Uncle Sam his cut and then pay all the other associated bills involved in running a shop, that leaves you about $5 to $7 per hour after all the expenses are paid.

How many of you shop owners can really afford to make this small amount per hour on a regular basis?

Absolute correction work is serving a totally different (custom) market than what the "A.D.S." detail shops are serving. You need to pay for what you are getting. Those who do absolute correction work are the 1 percenters, so you need to figure that 99% of the detail shops of the world can't provide the same service.

Detailers and their customers can both learn the hard way.
 
:iagree: Couldn't agree more Dave, well put.

The OP said he paid "$400.00 for the professional showroom new detail". Don't know what that included, maybe Bambino68 can chim back when he gets a chance... after letting us know how the return trip to the 'detailer' went.
 
UPDATE...

I went back to the shop today, and was told that the paint sealer they used may not have taken to my paint because there was not enough paint on the car.
This car has never been hit so why would there not be enough paint?

They said I could drop it off and they would rebuff it and re apply sealant and wax this time.

Here's photos of the car, if anyone can lend me some advice if I can fix this myself or if I should have them try it again?

I am just really let down as this was the "PREMIER" shop...

Thanks in advance.

David
 
What the hell does the sealant have to do with the swirls? Listen man they are screwing you over and they clearly have no clue what they are talking about.
Your clearcoat may be getting pretty low. But then why would they use a rotary on your paint if they knew the paint was wearing low?
Best advice. Don't ever go there again and report a bad review about them. What year is your Benz? If its before 2005-06 then they could of did a full correction with just a orbital. If its newer then that then you have very hard clearcoat and it really shouldn't be thinning out too much.

All I got to say is wow. I always stick by my work here at my shop and would never give someone some bs about sealant wearing off. Wtf.
 
They are average detailers doing average work. Honestly, the guy on the buffer is likely getting payed $9 per hour to follow the shop's S.O.P.s.

Realistically you can't expect anything more the second time around, except to loose more of your precious ceramiclear paint's film build.

The BS excuse they gave you just proves this. You are now at the right place to learn how to fix this problem yourself, without sacrificing more clear than is necessary to achieve stellar results. The old adage "If you want it done right, do it yourself" comes into play here.

Lots of research, a few phone calls to a few forum members willing to help you out, a DA polisher, a few foam polishing pads and a quart of Meguiars M-205 and about 10 hours of your own labor can have your pride and joy gleaming like a show stopper.

They already did most of the cutting work for you. The next step would be to clean up the buffer trails that they left behind with their rotary and wool pad.

If you take it back to them, they'll ruin your car's paint and you'll experience premature clear coat failure down the road a ways. That is if they didn't remove too much of the upper layer of the ceramiclear already.

I'd be willing to give you pointers over the phone if you'll just click my website link to find my phone number.

In the mean time, search the term ceramiclear and learn about the paint that your car is sprayed with. This is step 1.
 
Here's the list of what my complete detail was to entail:
 
weekendwarrior said:
This sounds like another infamous case of the "pro detailer" who use a rotary buffer only, a compound and polish and probably a sealant all mixed on the wool pad to save time. Have pictures you can upload? Might be a real detailer on these forums who is near you who can fix it the right way.
Click to expand...

You can splash some ONR on there too an skip the wash.
 
I would ask for a refund. These self proclaimed "professionals" are hack detailers and even if they offered to fix your car, I doubt they have the skills or experience to pull off an even half way decent correction job. Those pictures don't lie. A so called "premier" shop that lets a car leave like that....just wow.
 
Bambino68 said:
Here's the list of what my complete detail was to entail:
Click to expand...
Not to be bust your stones, but if you'd have done some in depth research into auto detailing, you'd have seen through the wording (paint "enhancement" and "glaze") in his menu. Let it be a lesson learned. His intention to glaze your car is in black and white right there in his menu. You wouldn't likely have a leg to stand on in any legal proceedings.

Refer to post #12.
 
That ain't right! Give them one chance to fix it, if they don't they need to refund your money.

Might I ask the name of the shop? Just out of curiosity..
 
If they screwed up so bad the first time , what makes you think the second time would be any better ? There are plenty of REAL pros that post on this and various other forums that can take care of your problem.
i would contact one of them to repair this damage . Document the damage and the results after repairs are made. Then I would go after the shop that created this mess. His invoice said remove minor scratches , not install buffer trails.
 
Ouch.

The quality of their work speaks for itself. Looks like they just went at it with a rotary/wool pad and failed to finish it down properly. Either way, pretty terrible quality of work if we're being honest. Unfortunately, this isn't very uncommon in the detailing industry.

Anyways, feel free to pm me David, maybe we can fix this together and show you the right way detailing is done. I know we spoke before you made your decision to take it to a shop to have completed. Let me know if you're interested, there are plenty of guys in the western suburbs of Chicago that'd be willing to help out I'm sure. I would call the company and demand a full refund, that is not a showroom detail by any stretch of the imagination.
 
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