Pros: Does your detail include cleaning the engine compartment?

Nope...That's additional and separate cost.

I have that service listed. Will do under hood work if customer wants it.

Tom
 
I have it listed as an extra service. Won't use water - Only degreaser and trim dressing. I do include it when I doing cars for my family.
 
A little background. We just got home from doing a job for a local foreign auto repair shop. Full interior and exterior detail on a 2011 Toyota Tundra. I was contacted yesterday by a woman on behalf of the owner. I made her an appointment. Today we show up, she's not there, the owner is not there, the other woman working in the shop doesn't really know anything about it. She finally digs up the keys and says "well I guess you guys know what needs to be done." We worked on this thing for four hours. The interior came out fantastic. The exterior was mostly good but hammered in some spots. Rust already starting in the rock chips of the hood, bug splatter etched the front bumper all the way across. Stuff like that that you'd expect on a not well maintained 7 year old truck. We did the best we could to make it nice. I noticed the headlights were terrible and we offered to do those at the same time. The owner said "go for it." They came out great, looking new. The entire vehicle actually looked pretty good. We get paid, again the owner is not there, the woman has to round up the cash to pay us. She tells us "it looks great, you guys really do good work." The owner was basically in and out the entire time we were there, even came out and talked to us a few times. Two hours later, the woman calls and says "This is so and so from So and So foreign Auto. The boss ISN'T HAPPY AT ALL with the detail." I was like "wow, I'm really sorry to hear that. I've never had a single customer complain about the quality of our work. Do you mind if I ask you what he was unhappy about?" She says "You didn't clean the hood." I said "We did clean, clay and wax the hood. The spots you see are rock chips that have started rusting." She says "well, he lifted up the hood and it was super dirty under there and there was rat poop all over the place." I said "Oh, you mean the engine compartment. No we didn't clean the engine compartment because that's not included in our detail. I mean we will do it if the customer wants us to, but frankly, hardly anybody ever wants it done." She says "OH, REALLY?" like she didn't believe me. I said "Ma'am, our full list of services and prices is on our website. If you go to our website, you will plainly see engine compartment cleaning offered as an add on to every type job, at an added cost. I'm really sorry about this though. It was never brought up once that anybody wanted the engine compartment cleaned."

The woman was extremely rude to me with her tone and if they ever grace me with another phone call to do work for them again, I'll be politely declining.
 
Damn if you do and damn if you don't...

Sorry about that. You've done all you can do. Even made it clear on your website.

And we are all behind you on this one!

I'll just brush this one off and decline the next time they ask you.

Tom
 
Thanks Tom. It just really bothers me that somebody is not happy, first time it's ever happened and I'm not handling it well.

As an aside, here's the headlights on that vehicle.

9vxbf7W.jpg
 
sudsmobile said:
Thanks Tom. It just really bothers me that somebody is not happy, first time it's ever happened and I'm not handling it well.

As an aside, here's the headlights on that vehicle.

9vxbf7W.jpg
Click to expand...

You can't please all the people all the time...fact. Something you can do is go over exactly what you are doing with someone before you start. She was probably that way because the boss probably came down on her because she paid you without checking the work, or was just an JA to her about the situation.
 
Good point. The issue arose because the scope of the work was never clearly defined to the customer, although it is defined in print on our site.
 
Engine and headlights are a la carte type services for me. I rarely get engines but do upsell quite a few headlights.
 
Hummm...A JA alright. Boss didn't have the nerve to tell you. A guy that uses another person to vent is not the type of people you'll want to deal with.

A red flag would pop up for me if someone was avoiding discussing directly with me about a task. I would tread carefully in those types of situations.

Untrustworthy...

Tom
 
Nope. As others here, I don't include it and honestly I don't even list engine detailing as an option. I've had people ask but it's just not an area that I want to mess around with. I'm working out of my home and while I'm handy with a wrench, to me it's about liability. Same with Wheels-Off Details. I just don't as it's not worth it should something go wrong or become an issue. I do a lot of cars that are 5-20 years old and the last thing I need is to leave the door open that I perhaps could have done something to cause a malfunction. I have plenty of business and I can afford to say no to nasty engine bays and interiors.
 
Well that definitely isn't your fault, and it sounds like you handled it well.
 
Paul A. said:
Engine and headlights are a la carte type services for me. I rarely get engines but do upsell quite a few headlights.
Click to expand...

Engine and headlights are both ala carte items and we charged him for the headlights. In fact, I don't even offer either of those services without some kind of wash minimum. I'm not going to show up and get the car wet and dirty without cleaning the car too.
 
In the least surprising turn of events ever, he had the original lady that scheduled the appointment call and complain again this morning. I talked to her for about 10 minutes. She basically apologized 3 times for calling and said that she was "just doing what she was told." It didn't sound like this was the first time he told her to do something like this. She seemed almost embarrassed about calling. I told her I'm sorry your boss is upset, maybe he should call me directly. I suddenly remembered why I'll never do dealer work. I'd imagine it will go exactly like this. What, you guys can't turn back the hands of time for $250?
 
Of course, we went and did a 1 step job today and the guy was so ecstatic with our work, he scheduled monthly maintenance for two vehicles. Of course, that was a full price job too, not the $40 discounted job I did as a favor to this unappreciative jerk.
 
I totally agree with DaveT435
At some point someone will complain because unfortunately there will always be someone there to complain. But as a great learning experience, I’m sure you won’t be doing any more work for other customers without thoroughly going over expectations.
Hell, I have a VIF that every single one of my customers gets. Even friends and family. Keeps everyone on the same page.
 
fly07sti said:
I totally agree with DaveT435
At some point someone will complain because unfortunately there will always be someone there to complain. But as a great learning experience, I’m sure you won’t be doing any more work for other customers without thoroughly going over expectations.
Hell, I have a VIF that every single one of my customers gets. Even friends and family. Keeps everyone on the same page.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, my son seems to think it was some kind of bargaining ploy rather than an actual list of complaints. Because like I said, they didn't want anything, like for me to come take care of the issues. They just wanted to complain. That usually means they want something else, their money back, a freebie next time, etc. The list of "complaints" this morning had been extended to "white spots on the truck" (buffed the wax myself, no white spots noted anywhere), door jambs not done (I wiped them down with QD myself, I know they were done), engine compartment, plastic not dressed (I dressed the bed rails with VRP myself and I used A LOT because the plastic was probably never treated in it's life). They wanted me to turn back the hands of time to 2011 on a vehicle that had never been maintained.
 
Just chalk this up to running into complete Jerk.

Funny thing to think about is this: That place will quickly burn all of it's bridges, and nobody will even so much as give them a return phone call. :)
 
We do clean the engine cavity on full details. The area is purged to remove loose items such as leaves,acorns,pine needles,etc....The underside of hood, cowl, top of fender jambs and engine shroud are cleaned and dried. However we do not degrease components.


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