How do you handle these types of people

**GenesisCoupe** · 07-28-2014, 08:19 PM

For $120.00 I charge a general clean up. No fancy cleaning or machine polishing

**trekkeruss** · 07-28-2014, 08:25 PM

Since the OP did not actually see the car, I have to wonder how good it looks. Maybe the owner cheaped out on the custom work too, and the car looks like crap.

**RTexasF** · 07-28-2014, 08:47 PM

First off..........why on earth would you quote without even seeing the car? That is a great way to get your a$$ caught in a sling dude.

Second.....I'm with Mike. I wouldn't have even considered doing a "show car" for $160. That price barely covers a wash, vac, and spray wax on some rides.

Third......you are very lucky that he found you too expensive even though you were giving it away. You would have never satisfied that guy and would regret taking the job for a long long time.

Sounds like you have some hard lessons to learn friend.

**EliteDetailing** · 07-28-2014, 09:13 PM

I can't tell you how many times I get a similar situation. The funny thing is once in a while especially on specialty deodorizing projects the people will call me after the carwash they take it to makes the odor worse. Then I usually charge more than I initially quoted them.

**VP Mark** · 07-28-2014, 09:19 PM

On a show car he would be expecting show car results. I would charge around $175 just for engine, interior (most show cars are pretty clean), wash, clay, and seal. No polishing.

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**HD.Detailing** · 07-28-2014, 09:25 PM

you gave him a hell of a deal... the engine alone could take 160...I have recently converted to an hourly rate.

**Kingston** · 07-28-2014, 10:00 PM

Some of you guys are incredibly expensive. Do you really expect to charge $40 an hour and be able to find enough customers to fill an entire week, after week, after week? In Brownsville texas and Franklin indiana ? (Sorry HD, I'm in Fishers, so I know the market) we all know full paint corrections are not constant work. A lot of times they are few and far between. The car is supposed to be a show car so it shouldn't be in too bad of shape. OP quoted $160, sounds to me like $30 an hour for 5 hours plus $10 for chemicals. Seems very fair. Can have it done by 1:00 and still do another full detail that day. Thats a 10 hour day making close to $300. Do that all year and you made $75,000. Are we expecting to get rich here?

**GenesisCoupe** · 07-28-2014, 10:12 PM

Originally Posted by Kingston

Some of you guys are incredibly expensive. Do you really expect to charge $40 an hour and be able to find enough customers to fill an entire week, after week, after week? In Brownsville texas and Franklin indiana ? (Sorry HD, I'm in Fishers, so I know the market) we all know full paint corrections are not constant work. A lot of times they are few and far between. The car is supposed to be a show car so it shouldn't be in too bad of shape. OP quoted $160, sounds to me like $30 an hour for 5 hours plus $10 for chemicals. Seems very fair. Can have it done by 1:00 and still do another full detail that day. Thats a 10 hour day making close to $300. Do that all year and you made $75,000. Are we expecting to get rich here?

I didn't read your entire post, just the first sentence... I charge $40 an hour and I'm booked 4 weeks out at the moment. I was 6 weeks out not too long ago. So yes, if you are good, they will come. I have many repeat customers so I do obviously give them a good deal, also to any referrals they give me.

**Kingston** · 07-28-2014, 10:19 PM

Location?

**cardaddy** · 07-28-2014, 10:52 PM

Originally Posted by Kingston

Some of you guys are incredibly expensive. Do you really expect to charge $40 an hour and be able to find enough customers to fill an entire week, after week, after week? In Brownsville texas and Franklin indiana ? (Sorry HD, I'm in Fishers, so I know the market) we all know full paint corrections are not constant work. A lot of times they are few and far between. The car is supposed to be a show car so it shouldn't be in too bad of shape. OP quoted $160, sounds to me like $30 an hour for 5 hours plus $10 for chemicals. Seems very fair. Can have it done by 1:00 and still do another full detail that day. Thats a 10 hour day making close to $300. Do that all year and you made $75,000. Are we expecting to get rich here?

I can't see where *that* job on *that* vehicle was (or ever will be) "expensive".

So in your annual income figure you're figuring 50 weeks solid, no off time (other than 2 weeks) and being booked all day, five days a week. Uhhhhh.... me thinks not.

That and if you really do bust your hump for 10 hours a day, 5~6 days a week..... you'll start hating the 'art' of detailing fairly quickly.

As Art has mentioned, production work and REAL detailing work are two totally different things.

Originally Posted by RTexasF

First off..........why on earth would you quote without even seeing the car? That is a great way to get your a$$ caught in a sling dude.

Second.....I'm with Mike. I wouldn't have even considered doing a "show car" for $160. That price barely covers a wash, vac, and spray wax on some rides.

Third......you are very lucky that he found you too expensive even though you were giving it away. You would have never satisfied that guy and would regret taking the job for a long long time.

Sounds like you have some hard lessons to learn friend.

Let's for argument sake say that that vehicle was indeed a "show car", and not a daily driver, and not terribly dirty or swirled. (Although in my experience most are swirled, just not dirty.)

Just WASHING the exterior, light cleaning (and basic spraying of the engine bay) and doing a quick once over in the interior would EASILY run $160. Heck our cheapest wash job runs $60 and will take from 2~3 hours. Don't EVEN touch the interior or the engine bay for that price either.

I have a dealership body shop manager that sends us work, and totally understands the difference between what we do and what he does (production work). Yet he texted me recently and asked me what it'd run to put a coating on a car. That's like saying what color blue is the sky!

I had to remind him that you can't just slap a coating on any old car like you would a production glaze. If it's new, and the paint hasn't been damaged yet (or had a recent paint correction) then it may be fine with a light AIO then coating. But most of the time you'll (we'll) spend 20+ hours prepping a vehicle for a coating. Unless the owner wants to permanently cover scratches, RIDS, & swirls then I'd advise against a coating. In other words.... I need to SEE THE VEHICLE FIRST.

To the OP:
Quoting a vehicle sight unseen is a surefire way to go bankrupt. Doesn't matter if you're doing it as a summer job, or as a lifelong career. Like I said earlier, let's say the vehicle was in perfect shape and just needs a bit of a freshening up. To do justice to a show vehicle you need to spend HOURS perfecting it. Even without paint correction, or even lifting a buffer for that matter.... you can spend 2 days on one. Heck, when we used to show our work trucks (rollback tow trucks) we'd pull it off the road on a Saturday and clean it till the next Thursday/Friday then head to the show. That meant we'd clean & polish it top to bottom, front to back, the metal, the wheels, the frame, inside and outside the tool boxes (including all new equipment that we could replace for the show), the interior, engine bay, even crawl underneath on a kreeper with a pressure washer and hydrofluoric acid. Then if any signage and/or hand pin striping needed addressing it'd make a trip to my sign guy. (And I'd be cleaning it while he worked on it all day.)

Show cars/trucks are a different beast all together. If anything, they are EXACTLY the people that need to be (and should appreciate) paying your highest rate (and then some).