I purchased (4) Gift Certificates from Quarteroff before Christmas to give as gifts. The description was very detailed. "$175 valued Full Car Detail including engine washing for $69." Further detail was carpet shampoo, leather seats conditioned and cleaned, hand wax, attention to every detail. i had used quarteroff and groupon before and never had a problem.
I called this week for a friend to set her appt. I asked how long this "full detail" would take so we could make arrangements. The guy said that it would take 1 1/2 hrs. I laughed and questioned how in the world could they do everything advertised in that short amount of time. i told him that in the past other car services i had used took a minimum of half a day and most wanted the car for a full day. He said that they were able to do it faster because more people worked on the car at one time and that they had been doing this a long time and were experienced. i was skeptical but was reassured over the phone that we would be taken care of. (my gut is almost always correct but i had already purchased the gift certificates so i had to try.)
I also asked how much tip was expected so that my friend could be prepared. He said it varied but that $20 for a full detail would be fair.
My friend took her car over for the appt. Within an hour they were finished. Because i had called them the day before and discussed what they were to do according to the gift certificate, she didn't bother to go over the car before she left. Unlike me, she didn't look over the car before tipping either and handed them $20.
She met her mother and I for dinner. We all drove up at the same time and she came directly from the car wash. When we looked over the car, we immediately noticed places on the car that had not been washed/waxed completely. The paint on the outside of the wheel wells (side of car) had dirt. Streaks on the windows inside and out. Carpet was not even wet, forget the leather conditioner. The inside of the door frames were dirty. The plastic parts of the car that arent carpeted on the floor were dirty. No attention to detail on dashboard, handles, console, etc. If they did none of the usual do you think the engine was cleaned? of course not!
It was probably a blessing that they didnt attempt to clean the engine or they may have done damage since they can't even clean the parts of a car a four year old could clean.
I called my credit card company and the full amount of the total purchase is in dispute. They assured me that it was a formality and under the circumstances i would get all my money back.
Luxury Wash lost an opportunity to impress four of us who would have used them again and sent them more customers. i would assume the original point of offering a full detail at a discount was to get new customers that would have never gone had they not received a bargain. Luxury Wash not only will never get my business nor that of friends and family but i would have never given them bad publicity had they not invited me to try them out!
Car washes closer to my house do a much better job for their basic wash! If this was their full detail most expensive service, can't imagine what regular would look like!
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