High Volume Shop Hacks Up Car in Houston. Should they Pay?

[Beemerboy]

Crappy wash and dry job is what you have there, and she will get nothing more than a re-wash at best from the detailer. I would bet they have a disclaimer on there work orders.

That said this car was last detailed in Aug 09 that's 7 months back. In that length of time she has not cleaned the paint at all?

Even with the best of wash practices IMO your going to induce some marring in 7 months. That's not saying that the detailers didn't do some damage but I suspect it wasn't caused by just them alone on that one car wash.

[black bart]

Originally Posted by Beemerboy

Crappy wash and dry job is what you have there, and she will get nothing more than a re-wash at best from the detailer. I would bet they have a disclaimer on there work orders.

That said this car was last detailed in Aug 09 that's 7 months back. In that length of time she has not cleaned the paint at all?

Even with the best of wash practices IMO your going to induce some marring in 7 months. That's not saying that the detailers didn't do some damage but I suspect it wasn't caused by just them alone on that one car wash.

Dave your post makes too much sense.

[OCDinPDX]

Originally Posted by JaredPointer

I think she ought to pay you to have it corrected and learn from her mistake. She needs to take responsibility for paying (and allowing) a hack to touch her car. While I agree that they did a terrible disservice to her, I think people should have to live with the choices they make. Maybe the owner of the "detail" kiosk will see something and decide to help her out, but I think that would be a case of good will instead of entitlement. Keep in mind most folks don't view a vehicle, the paint finish, or a detail like most of the people who frequent a detail board would. While most folks would probably agree that was a bad wash job, that's all they would see it as.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Sometimes the best lessons are the ones hardest learned.

[JohnHenry]

It appears that the kiosk service owner has already made up his/her mind that no relief will be given for the inadequate wash job.

Small Claims Court is her only recourse. But I seriously doubt that your client will be able to educate the court in the finer points of paint correction in the five or so minutes available. I guess that most judges would view any "wash and wax" claim for more than about $50 to be frivolous.

IMO, she needs to move on.

[Beemerboy]

Originally Posted by black bart

Dave your post makes too much sense.

Bart that's the story of my life

All I meant was this one car wash was not the cause of all the marring we are seeing. We all know that any amount of washing or cleaning of the cars surface is going to cause marring no matter how careful we are.

I do think that the detailers that last touched the car where pretty rough on the paint, the pics show that. Its not going to be easy for this person to prove that all the marring was caused by their one time wash and is owed a refund, might get a re-wash but no money back IMO.

[shuddleston]

I find it hard to believe that one hack wash caused that much damage. You could take your car to a car wash and wash it with those foam brushes and not put that many scratches in your paint. Another thing that is odd is why would the owner bother to come to your shop if he isn't intending on making it right. Seems like a waste of time and energy on his part if he isn't planning to make it right. He might surprise you especially if you show him in person the damage - apparently you have his curiousity if he is coming to you to look at the damage.

He owes the customer something but not sure what an appology and a supervised rewash and maybe a portion of the fees to correct the swirling since they weren't supposed to touch the paint anyway.

Good luck and hopefully you have gained more business from that customer in the end.

[Bullitt]

I'm trying this new app on my phone so I hope this all gets on the board. In the end the other company paid for me to correct the superficial marring on the vehicle. I will say this. The owner was a stand up human being who really takes pride in his work, and couldn't have been more professional when he came to look at the vehicle. The only reason I even put up the question "is this company liable" is because the client specifically told them not to touch the paint. If she had wanted them to wash it then she would have been on her own, because she knew they had 12 cars there and two buckets. I know every car is different in terms of clear coat, but this particular Bimmer can scratch by just looking at it. There was a great deal of marring due to the wash. Is all of it due to the wash, probably not, but there is plenty and all in all I was happily surprised that there are decent people out there, because you guys are right, they could have not given her a thing.