Wow

I cringe at the sight of these..



My favorite yet "As a bonus I wax the entire paint surface"



Well buddy? You think I just want you to wax my driver side quarter panel?



I bought the whole car, to put wax on the whole car.



Someone needs some serious lessons in REAL detailing, Business Management, Marketing, And take the stupid pills out of their lunchbox.
 
I'd be willing to bet its about a 50/50 mix of things going on here... you have one half genuine hack jobs who really only charge $50 and you get a horrible job... then the other half I think is guys who list a low price and then when you call they start to ramp the price up to a reasonable level, I don't think thats anymore acceptable, but thats what I seem to find in my area.
 
Most of these ads are bait and switch. Bait you with the price and then stick it to you once they get your car. Kinda like when I had my carpet cleaning business. People would advertise $7.95 a room or $99 whole house special. "$7.95 includes rinsing your carpet with water, if you would like an emulsifier to break down the dirt, that will be $19.95 per room." " Oh and if you want a deoderizor that will be $27.99 per room." You get the idea. You start with a $75 dollar detail and the bill ends up $225 and you say, "gee what happened?"
 
its better to stay away from craigslist entirely, advertise locally as car shows and start a network through friends and family that branches out..



i thought about craigslist, but looked for 5 minutes at who the competition would be, needless to say, 10 minutes later, i bought a domain name and started building a website and getting ready to order business cards... the better customer base comes from quality work, not people who search craigslist for detailers... lol (no offense to anyone who DOES use craigslist, but craigslist is for deal shoppers, not people who want quality and have the money to play)
 
Turbocress said:
its better to stay away from craigslist entirely, advertise locally as car shows and start a network through friends and family that branches out..



i thought about craigslist, but looked for 5 minutes at who the competition would be, needless to say, 10 minutes later, i bought a domain name and started building a website and getting ready to order business cards... the better customer base comes from quality work, not people who search craigslist for detailers... lol (no offense to anyone who DOES use craigslist, but craigslist is for deal shoppers, not people who want quality and have the money to play)
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i completely agree with you on that one. however the undercutting of prices has gotten to a point of driving business away from me so the customers can go to the guy down the street who does it for 75% cheaper. it really boils my blood but what can you do?. there is a guy who sits in front of a coin op car wash down the street from one of my clients. he charges 40$ for a complete wash/wax/detail. vs my 130$ quality service. if there was only a way to make these hacks go away.:think:
 
B&B Mobile Detailing Huge SAVINGS Great Quality



Just found this one. It's not complete paint correction but it's $40 non the less. I just don't get how with all this work; add in insurance, products, gas, tax time, etc(Provided they have all this) he could possibly make money. This could sometimes equate to less than $2/hr. Anyways, there at least a laugh to look at. I saw another one on CL that was buy one detail and get one detail free.
 
bullitt21 said:
B&B Mobile Detailing Huge SAVINGS Great Quality



Just found this one. It's not complete paint correction but it's $40 non the less. I just don't get how with all this work; add in insurance, products, gas, tax time, etc(Provided they have all this) he could possibly make money. This could sometimes equate to less than $2/hr. Anyways, there at least a laugh to look at. I saw another one on CL that was buy one detail and get one detail free.
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thats the same guy you see waxing a black car & wiping with a terry towel in the blistering hot sun creating all the swirls that the owner will eventually pay a much more experienced detailer to correct
 
bullitt21 said:
B&B Mobile Detailing Huge SAVINGS Great Quality



Just found this one. It's not complete paint correction but it's $40 non the less. I just don't get how with all this work; add in insurance, products, gas, tax time, etc(Provided they have all this) he could possibly make money. This could sometimes equate to less than $2/hr. Anyways, there at least a laugh to look at. I saw another one on CL that was buy one detail and get one detail free.
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haha. you think thats low? was coming home from the woodlands today. and right off of i45 & woodridge. at the home depot all the illegals hang out at to get work at . there was a truck parked there with a tarp hanging on it that was advertising 4$ full details. man these guys are getting worse and worse. hate to see who actually brings cars there and what the finished product is.
 
ex-SS-ve said:
haha. you think thats low? was coming home from the woodlands today. and right off of i45 & woodridge. at the home depot all the illegals hang out at to get work at . there was a truck parked there with a tarp hanging on it that was advertising 4$ full details. man these guys are getting worse and worse. hate to see who actually brings cars there and what the finished product is.
Click to expand...



$4? that is absolutely insane. what a joke. but i guess a full detail for them is a quick wash
 
I feel ya. If you just browse through CL here in Houston you just want break the screen. The bad part of the whole situation is that the ads always claim that there " the best in Houston" or "We are Perfection" . Now the ad I saw that says"We are Perfection" was actually $89 for the full deal, don't know how you can achieve perfection at $89 but I guess they have magic skills. I'll also see ads that have the exact same wording as my website. That's the one that I have a problem with. If someone wants to price themselves out of the business that's fine, but don't copy and paste my website on your CL ad. People can run there business as they see fit, but the problem is that so many people use the Internet these days, and my main concern is all the misinformation I see on CL, which just confuses the customer even more. One ad awhile back said "I your not applying a sealant with a high speed buffer your not doing any good whatsoever". He went on to state that you have to heat up the paint to a certain degree to get it to bond.
 
There is a Mustang whose color is red. Its paint is gorgeous. It's driven by four different people! They're a bunch of gear heads. It's their job to keep the car in good repair. It's not your Mustang. You're silly to think it is!



Just as some of us could improve our detailing repertoire, others can improve their grammar skills- Especially those who run websites :wavey!
 
LoL. This is one crazy thread. There are a few of those $50 full details guys around here. Sad that people think that is the type of treatment there nice Mercedes Benz's should get or their BMW's that or the infamous $7 tunnel wash.
 
I really need to go snap a few pics of what they call detail shops around here. I think most would enjoy it. Even the so called "High end" guys.. I thought my shop back up in flint was sub par in alot of ways (and it was) but these guys make my old place look like cesar's palace.
 
Jakerooni said:
I really need to go snap a few pics of what they call detail shops around here. I think most would enjoy it .
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Same here.



I saw a mobile detailer with a van, tank in the back; the whole bit parked a block or two from my house. Curiously I drove by to see how he was working/what products he was working with. I saw a 10 gallon tank labeled in Sharpie marker "SOAP" and a whole mess of dirty spray bottles in the back. I look to see what he is doing and see him marring the life out of a late 1970's Cadillac Fleetwood.



He was using some kind of tattered looking white cloth, one bucket and was going down the whole car in long sweeping strokes without rinsing his media. Unfortunately, this is my competetition; he gets a lot of business and I've seen his vans in the ritzier parts of town. We shall see who gets the last laugh though, I guarentee my results are worlds better.
 
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