I purchased gas and with the purchase came a free car wash. I was not in a place that I had time to get it washed at that moment, so I waited a few days. A few days later I drove back to get my car wash. I got my car wash and drove to panera for dinner. Parked, ate, came home. Next morning I have five sploches on my car hood where the car was had dropped chemical and apparently removed the surface and some paint. On my lunch hour I drove to the car station to report the incident and file a complaint. The guy behind the register comes out and takes one look and says it's not our fault. Other people go through all the time with no problem. I ask for the manager's name and number. He gives it to me. It takes me three calls to get ahold of him (leaving messages). He doesn't call me back mind you. Oh well. I get on the phone and ask him if he recalls the situation I described on the messages. He says yes, no need to rehash. Without seeing my car, he tells me there is no way it is our fault. I take a deep breathe, say thank you and hang up.
I decide about 20 minutes later, I should give them a second chance to make things right. In the middle of me telling him why I called him back— namely to see if he was the owner's representative and to inquire whether or not they have a formal complaint process, he interupts me and say "Now I can tell you are very smart young lady". I respond "Please don't belittle me". To which he says, "You are not listening to me, you interuptted me". The phone call goes on like this for sometime, with him telling me on two different occasions, "I have given you due process", "I don't need to investigate the situation", "I don't need to see the car to know there is no way our car wash did this. The chemical in our car wash don't take paint off cars" He also rationalized that since no one else's car was damaged, it must be something else. I retorted that there was absolutely no way to be certain of that. He said he was certain because no one else complained about it. Even so, I said, it could have been a malfunction of the machinary. It doesn't have to be a regular happening in order to substaintiate that something happened. I told him what I thought he needed was to look at the car, because to me it is so obvious once you see it, and tell me another plausible explanation. It didnt' rain on my car ... I parked it in a public place and then my garge ... Then he suggested someone vandalized my car. In my opinion its a way more feasible explanation that the car wash casused the damage then some random citizen poured five drops of chemical on my car in a public parking lot. Anyways, at the end it devovled into him telling me it was a good faith based buisness. TO which I scratched my head and said, "Good than you will understand that the most civil thing I can do is to approach you one on one and tell of the offense and give you a chance to make ti right before getting others involved." TO which he shouted "Are you threatening me?" Wow. Horrible customer service.
Listen, I understand that things go wrong sometimes. Mistakes happen. I only ask that you took a look and assess the potential that your business played a part. After I suggested this on the phone, it was sort of disgusting to have you say, "Well if that's all you want, then come on in and I will look at your car if that will make you feel better" I don't think there is much more I could have said. You just don't get it. For you the profit you make ... is more important than your customers. Its simple. We teach our kids from a very young age. If you do something wrong, even if its an accident, you take responsibility. It doesn't cost you much ... and by behaving in that way you would have gained a loyal customer ... and likely a few more. Instead, you lose my business and maybe others ... only to hold onto a measly $500 or so dollars.
Robert
Irvine,#2Consumer Comment
Sat, March 12, 2016
Unfortunatly you are assuming way too much in this entire thing.
First of all you did not even notice the damage to the car until the next morning. Just in the amount of time it took you to notice makes your claim that much harder to prove.
It could have been vandalism.
It could have been someone walking by your car and accidently spilling something.
It could have been you driving and something splashing on it.
It could have been there before you even washed the car.
And yes, it could have been something in the car wash that caused this. Unfortunatly, since there are many other "could be's", the amount of time that passed, and no others reporting damage. You trying to prove that it was them is an uphill battle.
One other thing is obvious in this report. No matter how much the owner accomdated you even if he gave you hours of his time to allow you to show him the damage and continue to try and get him to agree it was their fault. Unless the owner agreed it was their fault, nothing else he does would be enough for you.
So if you want to get "others involved", file a small claims case. Just be aware that the courts have a much higher standard than you can provide right now. So you will need at least one professional, such as someone in automotive repair, that would testify under oath that the damage is consistant with something found in the car wash. You also better have at least a couple estimates showing the cost to repair.