Beware the car valeters!!

Liz · July 24, 2003, 23:08

Humph!! s:cry: :cry: s:cry:

Took my dear car to a valeters today so it would nice for JAE, the interior has come up lovely..but as I walked around the back of it pointing out where some polish had not been taken off properly, I found 3 new gouges out of my bumper near the rear light which definiately were not there when I took it in this morning. I know every single mark on my car and these marks screamed at me as soon as I saw them. Mr Boss at the company says that he has no idea whatsoever about how they managed to get on there...he has offered to pay for someone to paint over them and take the cost of it, has anyone else had a similar experience and what sort of results did you get? I am tempted just to bring my touch up paint and Langka to JAE and do it myself. Just a warning to anyone else - I wish that I had gone around the car with them this morning and agreed markings which were on the car before I left it in their possession.

Slacey · July 25, 2003, 08:04

I know how you feel - the first time I took my car in to the dealer for some work (TTE), the valeting monkey put a great big scratch on the passenger rear quarter panel.... but I never noticed at the time, so there it stays (until I work out what to do with it). Now, wherever my cars goes, I ask specifically that they don't clean it.

dancarbon · July 25, 2003, 08:39

The last time our 2 was serviced the ahem, valet, and I use the term loosely, it received was appauling, big chunks just not even touched, especially on the lower parts of the door and wings!

Plus I found some scratches afterwards as well, though the car does seem to attract them so I couldn't definitely say it was done at the dealers.

It's going back there to get the remaining discs replaced soon (3 weeks backorder for rear hubs) but I will be defininately asking them not to clean it, plus I think I'll try a different dealer next time.

Anonymous · July 25, 2003, 11:12

Which ones was it Liz.

I made the mistake of taking mine to the ones in the meadows carpark, the first time they did a good job, but it was only a month old. The second time they did inside and out. It was horrid! missed polish marks, they didnt do the dash from the steering wheel to the window, and for about a week I was slipping on the seats and the carpets where I think they polished them!.

Never again! Will do it myself. The only place it has been that was 100% excellent was at Mr T in Chelmsford, where they managed to get rid of my own scratches that I did the first wash.

Liz · July 25, 2003, 12:38

It was done at a Touch of Class at Progress Rd, Southend- they even had the cheek to put a sticker in my windscreen advertising themselves s:evil: :evil: s:evil: . It is where I normally get it washed and they do a good job, however, I am going to go DIY from now on, at least you can blame yourself and your not involved in an awkward standoff if something goes wrong.

Still got the hump!

Anonymous · July 25, 2003, 12:41

Quote from: "Liz"they even had the cheek to put a sticker in my windscreen advertising themselves s:evil: :evil: s:evil: .

THATS WELL CHEEKY!!!! s:shock: :shock: s:shock:

Anonymous · July 25, 2003, 19:42

Yes that annoys me a lot.

My other car, a Hyundai Santa Fe s:oops: :oops: s:oops: had so many stickers on it, it was hard to see what colour it was. I had the car about 15 minutes before I could get around to removing them. All but 1 came of easily, the last was advertising some Korean football or something. That was a bugger to remove. I got bits of it off, but it was a good 5 months before the air temp was high enough for the sticky stuff to "let go". I hate football, so that sticker was a right pain! s:x :x s:x

dimwit · July 28, 2003, 00:49

Took my car to Nick Whale (coventry) for repair work to the body, they said it would take 4 working days, picked it up after 22 days s:x :x s:x with a paint bubble in the quarter panel and a 4inch scratch on the inside door panel, phoned them straight away, no problem bring it in on the thursday 31st aug. 2 working days this time, they have offered me a curteasy car..
Let you know how i get on..

Liz · August 7, 2003, 17:27

Well so much for the bloke that is meant to be coming around to do my car, yesterday it was too hot, Simon rang this morning to be told that he would be around late this afternoon, and guess what, still not here. The company this bloke works for is called Paintech, apparently they do all the work from a van s:shock: :shock: s:shock: and they mix up the paint via a computer on board, however, I can point out on the VIN plate a perfectly good paint number. My problem now is that it is understood that we will not be paying for the work that Mr Paintech is going to undertake, so if I go somewhere else I can see me ending up in a small claims court trying to get the money out of TOC if they refuse to pay because I decided to go somewhere that offered good service. Has anyone used/heard of Paintech?

Pah, its too hot and I am not in the mood for being kept hanging around. Going out to wash the car myself now, the idea of cold water out of a hosepipe is really quite appealing at the moment s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Slacey · August 7, 2003, 18:08

Quote from: "Liz"Pah, its too hot and I am not in the mood for being kept hanging around. Going out to wash the car myself now, the idea of cold water out of a hosepipe is really quite appealing at the moment s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Blimey Liz, I'm even hotter and more bothered than ever now! s:shock: :shock: s:shock:

Liz · August 7, 2003, 21:09

Well I have a nice shiny car and you need to see a doctor Slacey!! s:shock: :shock: s:shock:

The Paintech bloke is coming around on Monday now, but I won't hold my breath s:roll: :roll: s:roll:

Anonymous · August 10, 2003, 11:30

Quote from: "Liz"It is where I normally get it washed and they do a good job, however, I am going to go DIY from now on, at least you can blame yourself and your not involved in an awkward standoff if something goes wrong.

Liz,

If you're planning on going DIY then you could a lot worse than go to Halfords to get your cleaning products from!! (Remember to wear a brown paper bag with two holes cut inside on your head so you don't get mistaken for a 'Max Muppet' s:lol: :lol: s:lol: )

At the moment there is a 'Buy One Get One Free' offer on all Turtle Wax products!! s:)

s:) The combination of 'Zip Wax Wash and Wax' and 'Gloss Guard' (both award winners in a recent Auto Express test) is particularly stunning, IMHO s:wink: :wink: s:wink: .

Be sure to get some Turtle Wax 'Cockpit Shine' as well. I used some yesterday inside the car and its really brought the interior back to life again. The best thing is that you can use it on rubber and leather (as well as vinyl) so you can smear it all over the doors and then just wipe it all off with a J-cloth s:)

s:) .

You can even pick up some Turtle Wax 'leather wipes' for cleaning your seats with...! I've been using these and my seats feel a lot more supple for it. For your tyres use 'Wet n' Black' (sounds like a dodgy porno I know) spray.

For regular washing I don't think you can beat this stuff at this price! Every now and then though, I use 'Autoglym Super Resin Polish' on the bodywork just for that extra 'va-va-voom'!

I get lots of positive comments from people so it can't all be bad s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Sorry if this sounds like an advert for Turtle Wax s:wink: :wink: s:wink: but for someone who was trying to reduce their Autoglym bill, this stuff fitted the bill s:D

s:D .

Sundance s8)

s8)

Anonymous · August 10, 2003, 14:14

liz,

SEND THE BOYS ROUND

s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted: s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted: s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted: s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted: s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted: s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted:

then you can smile LOL s:wink: :wink: s:wink: