Bad detailing job

C

Cassman

New member
I was speaking to a colleague at work last week and he received a phone call which apparently told him his car was ready to be picked up. Since it is a 2007 Lexus IS450, I asked him what was wrong with it. He told me he had it detailed for a social event over the weekend because it had some swirls, etc. BTW, he uses auto carwashes. Anyway, I asked him how much the place charged and he replied that they charged him $195. Knowing him I am sure he tipped them as well.



So, I came into work today and saw his car parked on the top floor of the parking garage in the sunlight. As I drove by, I glanced over at his car to see how it looked. OMG! Holograms all over the rear quarter panel (all I could see from that angle). I then parked and walked back up to his car and checked it out all over. Not only was the whole thing covered with trail marks and holograms, the underlying swirls were still awful. And I mean awful. Basically, some idiot took a rotary to the BLACK car and did a horrible job. If you looked at that CARMAX detail thread a while back, it was about 75% as bad as that.



I went to his office and told him he should take it back and have them fix the mess. I should have volunteered to help, but he is my managing partner and I would have to work on it until it was perfect and I am just too busy to put 8 hours in to his car right now. I just cannot believe that "detailers" with no skills actually charge $200 and provide no results while making the cars worse. Uggh.
 
I hate hearing these......always confirms what I think about "detail shops":angry



Lexus has a soft clear also, so that probably didn't take them long to do.



They probably went over it with a rotary, wool pad and cleaner wax. Seems to be the classic weapons of choice among hacks.
 
If he can't get them to fix it correctly, I'll probably offer to do it for him. Especially after hearing that the clear is on the softer side. I only have a PC, so if it is an especially hard clear, given what it looks like, I would have to pass.
 
UPDATE:



I asked him whether he looked at his car after I mentioned the problem to him. His response: "I didn't notice anything. Neither did my wife." I guess that kind of perspective is why these hack shops can charge $200 for their swirl and hologram package. Absolutely ridiculous. :hairpull :wall
 
tell him that you'll try to do the hood or something tomorrow and see if he wants you to fix it
 
I detailed a C320 that had been done 4-5 months earlier at Park Place Mercedes. They charged her $175 and she said that when she was putting her kid's car seat back in, she noticed they didn't even clean the back of the front seats! They didn't swirl the car up, but they definitely didn't do any paint correction at all. Probably just slapped some wax on it. Amazing what they get away with because people really don't know what a good detail looks like.
 
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