I need to vent!

[Dr_Pain]

Well, this weekend was filled with major ups followed by a major reality check. Here is how the weekend unfolded!

I am normally booked 3-4 weeks ahead, and for the past 3 weeks I've been like a kid looking forward to Christmas (counting down the days) in great anticipation for full correction on a black supercharged Range Rover. There is nothing that gets me giddy like working on a $100k+ car, but even more so when that car is in my Top 5 (of cars I could realistically own).

I started working late Friday and was on schedule to finish early enough on Saturday to take care of one of my regular. In the early afternoon I made the call and scheduled to do a maintenance wash.

To give you a little background, this Escalade was previously "molested" by a mobile car washer (can't call him a detailer), and the owner was so fed up with the scratches and swirls that they were ready to sell the Escalade. In a desperate attempt they contacted me and after 12 hrs of compounding and polishing I had that Escalade looking better than the day it came off the dealership lot. Since then, the owner has been adamant that no one else would take care of her vehicle except for me ..... until 2 weekend ago when she had a "freebie" tossed her way. She did contact me to let me know that her Escalade had been washed but reassured me that I was still the only detailer for her Escalade. As a true professional I purposefully did not ask who took care of it and dropped the subject reassuring her that it was all good.

Well, Saturday I got a chance to see what had been done and low and behold, I took a single look at the Escalade and guess what I saw? SCRATCHES AND SWIRLS..... the same kind of scratches she had before. It baffled my mind that she had that many scratches from one single wash and funny enough, the pattern was oddly familiar. I did take a picture and texted her. She did not reply to my text that day but did approach me at church Sunday (all hush hush and away from her husband) and asked me to keep it on the down low because her husband would be pissed if he knew.

I had to ask!!! "So who washed your SUV?" The reply baffled me, and it showed on my face. Yep, the same hack that had previously "molested" her Escalade is the same one that worked on it. She tried reassuring me that she had approached him to let him know that she had spent a lot of money on getting her paint perfect and that he needed to use the right kind of stuff to protect her investment. Well, the SUV was FULL of scratches and swirls and the Escalade had no wax left protecting the paint.

I am SOOOOOOOO DISGUSTED! I told my son (who works with me) " It is just like seeing your own child getting punched in the face!", and just to make a joke of it I asked him: "If someone screws you that bad, and takes your money.... is that called prostitution??"

Well, there is nothing I can do other than preventing the damage from getting worse, and offering her an opportunity to pay me again to beautify her Escalade, once again.

As they say, "You can't fix stupid!". I would love to hunt this guy down, but I will have to chalk it up as "lesson learned" for her
The Escalade went from this:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/560536_484280128301033_938738865_n.jpg

To THIS!!!!

http://www.autogeekonline.net/gallery/data/500/medium/IMG_15192.jpg

Thanks for viewing and listening. I hope that some friendly support for fellow AG members will help put a smile back on my face.

[AutowerxDetailing]

That sucks to hear man!!! It would be like getting your artwork sprayed with graffiti... At least it sounds like the owners will never trust anyone but you from now on to take care of their vehicular investments.

And, on the plus side, it sounds like you have a genius in your area going around making sure you will have a steady stream of correction business available, LOL!

[jgibson2980]

Man that sucks. I try to educate people all the time about proper wash techniques and the dangers of going threw an auto wash . What was the reasin fir her to use him agin. The freebie if so that was a mistake . I'm sure they paid a pretty penny fir the correction on his previous work .

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[Pureshine]

I know your pain this has happen to me before :( I tried to teach my customers how to wash their car after I do paint correction.

[T3 AutoDetails]

Sorry to hear man, Always sucks to watch your hard work get ruined by someone with crap for a technique which allows the above to happen to beautiful vehicle. On the plus side maybe you will get too correct it again for a pretty penny and assure the client this time (hopefully) that you are the only one who maintains her vehicle no matter how sweer a deal may sound.

[dorkiedoode]

Wow that suck. On the bright side that's another couple hundreds of her money that's she's going to spend.

[jgibson2980]

Does her husband know that this has been done to the car and if so I hope he knows it wasent you . Wonder what this guys techniques are .

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[Bigbull2984]

Claude you cant teach them all, but it is baffling how some people dont learn, after multiple attempts.

[Theo_Auto_Fines]

At the end of the day when someone uses the word cheap and free, people rarely hesitate. In this case it sounds to me that it was just out of convenience. You have to remember that it does not matter how frustrated you get, it was not your decision to make.

[jgg85234]

Hope it wasn't the husband who was "helping" with the freebie.

After all, she didn't want him to hear the conversation. ;)

Jim

[Dr_Pain]

Thank you for all the kind comments.

After getting over the initial shock, and not knowing that it was the same guy that had "molested" the SUV again, I played devil's advocate with my son. I told him specifically that I would be Ok if it was the kids trying to surprise mom or husband trying to be nice etc.. but I would have a heart attack if it was the same guy. Fortunately for me, the latter did not come true.

The freebie happened to be while she was at her mom's. The mobile guy came by to take care of her sister's car, her mom's car and her mom offered to pay for hers to be taken care of. UGGH!!

Being that they are very good acquaintance and they do attend my church, I did go overboard with the "education". I showed them the micros and discussed at length technique and products (trust me, a lot more than my average educational speech). I did even go so far as to offer to buy everything they would need to do it themselves and offered to trained the kids (they have kids the same age as mine).

I agree that the "hack" will keep me in business but my name is associated with this Escalade and a lot of other cars in town and it scares me that people may think I was responsible. :nomore:

[zmanjohn]

Claude,
That really sucks, but man with a guy in your area doing that kind of work in your area you should be so busy just fixing what he is messing up.
That is crazy, that people do things like that.
You know I though there are just some people out there who really don't give a crap.

[MirandaAutoSpa]

I would feel so betrayed! I tell my customers that its better for your vehicle to be a little dirty then to have it washed improperly, but that never really sinks in until they see for themselves the damage that can be inflicted. Sorry you had to go through that. All that hard work simply swirled away by some car washer.

[WRXINXS]

Do you think he would have had to use brushes to cause that much damage in one wash?

[GenesisCoupe]

Wow, so something that should have taken you a few hours to do now will take a day or two and you are behind on all your other work. It's like doing a car for 3 days straight and the final day taking it to a gas station car wash...crazy people these days.