I'm definitely against hacks in the industry but you have to understand that many of the places charging $55 do a great job... 4 people getting paid $8/hr finish the job in 30-60 minutes instead of it taking you/1 person a few hours. Workers get paid, shop gets a profit and your vehicle is clean. Yes they might not use the products of highest quality, but they use products that do their job and no one will notice the extra 10% bacteria killed by a certain deodorizer, etc. especially before the next detailing session... it all comes down to marketing in my opinion when you're dealing with these situations.
It's very easy to explain to a client how the shop ruined his paint by buffing with crappy products/tools and charging only $100, but it's that much harder to do so when it comes to simply proving that Stoner IG is better than Windex and that those few crevices the "hacks" missed and you didn't are worth the extra $$.
I'm speaking from experience with a shop charging $45 to do a full interior on my friend's M3... people who know me know VERY well I do 99% of the work on my car (mechanical, detailing, whatever) which is also an M3, because I just don't trust anyone to do anything on it, so same goes with my friend... but after taking my Camry to these guys and seeing how they work, I had no problems recommending them to my friend after winter did it's work with the M3... they shampooed the carpets, cleaned the vents, dash, all trim, rubber, etc. and only didn't apply dressings because I asked not to..
In short, don't try to compete with the lower prices, whether they're coming from hacks or not, because you'll be grouped into that category... instead, just try to win the customer over by explaining your quality of work, products, etc. and go from there.
