Bad experience at hand car wash place

[Flash]

I always hand wash my cars myself and my Sprinter BUT the hose pipe ban is still in place in our area and it is not pratical to wash the Sprinter with buckets…

The Sprinter needed a good wash and was absolutely filthy so I had taken it down to a hand car wash to have washed/dried and is owned/run by Polish people this morning. We agreed that they would do it for £12 with the so called Manager. The staff were all Polish and the guys at the back that actually washed the van were very nice hard working people and did a good job.

However, when I had taken the van to the forecourt to be dried the Manager comes up to me and tried to clean the interior of the vehicle for an extra charge which I clearly stopped him from doing so. He then said that he wants £15 now to dry the vehicle or they will just not bother or may be dry the front cab area. I stuck to my guns and was polite and kept my calm and said £12 only as agreed. Next thing I am surrounded by eight Polish men that only dry the vehicles (lazy/spoilt people at this particular business – not like the nice hard working guys at the back that had washed the vehicle) and they were trying to intimidate and bully me into paying £15. There were couple of woman who work at the car wash who joined in the scene and she was whinging that there is no way they are going to dry the vehicle. In the end I diffused the situation by being firm but polite and at the same time bluffed my way to the idiot Manager by telling him that I knew the Owner of the business very well (I happen to know his first name and have seen the slob and he to is a nasty piece of work and is very aggressive and ahd he been there I'm sure a fight would have broken out) and I said that I was going to talk to him about this! One of the guys had the cheek to tell me to use my windscreen wipers to dry the screen when I had first asked him to do it but I made him dry it with a cloth afterwards. They did not do a good job at all of drying the body panels but I finished that off with a chamois myself when I got home.

I certainly will not be going back to that same place ever again and next time will just hand wash it myself.

Be aware of places like these!!!

 

[pammy]

Cripes - that sounded like a very nasty experience indeed. As you say - places like these should be avoided - but you don't always know what they're really like when you go in.

 

[High-Lo]

Sorry to hear of your bad experience Flash. Which establishment is this? You can PM me if you like. I do use some hand car wash places around London and I have some local ones in Kent which do a good job with coffee lounge and viewing area, etc.

 

[reflexboy]

I trust nobody to wash/wax my car.

 

[GrahamC230K]

You seem to attract trouble.

 

[Flash]

You seem to attract trouble.

I went to simply have my Sprinter washed and it was agreed from the start that they would wash/dry it for £12.

Demanding £15 before attempting to dry it is wrong.

I was not aggressive or even raise my voice and diffused the situation. After they thought I knew their “boss” one of the main instigators tried to shake my hand…

 

[GrahamC230K]

All's well that ends well. You should return you'll probably get star treatment.

 

[Alps]

flash where was this place, i`ll make sure its avoided! i used to go to a real nice one in east london before, friendly owner, workers worked hard etc... but it closed down abt a year ago and moved somewhere else.

 

[Wish]

I stay well clear of places like that.
They use a kind of truck wash that makes all the chrome go mat, and strips any wax you had on the paint, they never do a decent job.

 

[Flash]

High Lo, Alps – the car wash place is outside London and is in Berkshire (I have now moved out of London).

I’ll PM you the exact location etc. in case someone wants to track/hunt me down in “web rage” from the Forum.

Graham: No way will I ever be going back to that place again – they were like vultures circling around me and did not dry the vehicle apart from the windows, bonnets and that was not even done properly!

If these places do use “truck wash” stuff as suggested by Wish then the vehicle is due to go back to the body shop again to rectify some warranty work that I am not happy with and I will have a word with them if they will polish/wax the entire vehicle. The bonnet MB moffit badge needs replacing under warranty anyway and the wheels are showing signs of corrosion which I will also submit a claim for and wheel nuts on the near side.

 

[dava]

Hi Flash, you know the problems I had with my car and the dealers I bought it off and like some one said above I ONLY HAND WASH my car MY SELF!!!! Put it in to that place for warranty work e mail the man to say DO NOT WASH MY CAR, they use a brush machine and to ensure it I put a copy of the e mail in the car. Well it came back lovely and scratchy

 

[jaymanek]

Ive had this problem at the one on the south side of tower bridge...but this was after they finished.. i told them where they could shove it and drove off...

never had any problems at others.. i usually use the one on commercial road, A13... fantastic clean for less than a fiver..

 

[Flash]

Hi Flash, you know the problems I had with my car and the dealers I bought it off and like some one said above I ONLY HAND WASH my car MY SELF!!!! Put it in to that place for warranty work e mail the man to say DO NOT WASH MY CAR, they use a brush machine and to ensure it I put a copy of the e mail in the car. Well it came back lovely and scratchy

Sorry to hear that mate...

I hope that you have escalated this and will get them to rectify it?

 

[Rory]

...telling him that I knew the Owner of the business very well (I happen to know his first name and have seen the slob and he to is a nasty piece of work and is very aggressive and ahd he been there I'm sure a fight would have broken out)...

If you knew that then what were you thinking of going there!!!

Sounds like they have about 20 employees - I've heard about these kind of places - half a dozen people spend 30 mins valeting cars for £10. You can imagine how much the workers get paid. They're probably fronts for organised crime.

 

[Doodle]

Flash,

Any chance you could pm me the location in question? Just interested to see if it's the one I think it is...

 

[bitonw]

I had the same thing with those people at the Polish wash place at the end of my road where I live. They first told me that car wash was £4 what I payed for the IS200 but when I came with my Rav 4 it was £6... Nobody or no sign told me this and they only told me this after the job done... Well job, car was still dirty at some places.

I couldn't wash it my self since I had a very bad back and was in pain every step I made. I normaly hand wash my cars my self every weekend.

 

[whizzkid11]

It would be nice know the name/location of places to avoid - and I am sure that the moderators would agree to us sharing that information amongst us.

I live in Watford and have only ever used two places here - one of them at ASDA - I have been using for about 14yrs now - brilliant job each time (£8 wash/ chammy dry/tyre black) and takes about 45mins -1 hour... if I need a quick wash - then another place in Wiggenhall Road, £6 for a wash/dry or £12 for wash/dry/hoover/wipe down.

Excellent service each time.

 

[BIG Sean]

I trust nobody to wash/wax my car.

....... me too [includes me]

 

[Rose Chap]

I use the services of a local eastern european run car wash place in Winnersh (near Sainsbury's supermarket). They do a pretty good job, charge £7, and do it very fast.

They don't do as good a job as I would if I washed the car, but I think of it in similar terms of having someone clean your house. Its never as good as the job you would do, but the reason you're not doing it yourself is that you don't have time, so therefore having it 90% clean is better than 0% clean!

 

[dagd]

....... me too [includes me]

I would not let any of those guys near my car, it only takes around 10 mins to wash and dry as long as I do it once a week.