There are some good things about this Loop, like the extensive drinks section, and the extra-long gas pump hoses, but there are some bad things about this Loop, too, like the narrow corridors through which you must drive, the crummy layout of the carwash entrance, the carwash process, and the employee who was responsible for the carwash yesterday (Sunday).
A brief history of car washes in Northern California: there is a longstanding tradition of the hand-wash style car wash in this part of the country, and this is reflected nearby in the presence of Ducky's, Eco-Wash, Redwood City Car Wash, the other Ducky's, et cetera. The upside of hand-wash car washes includes an unparalleled attention to detail (no pun intended), increased jobs, and more cars serviced at once. The downside includes a slow, long wait (often outside in the hot sun), a tripled pricetag, and related woes. I prefer automatic style car washes, and there are very few nearby (there's one on Veteran's Boulevard at a gas station), so my heart skipped a beat when Loop developed their property to include one.
I've probably used Loop's car wash twenty times since they opened. One can either pay with cash/plastic or enter a wash code (purchased inside or at the gas pump). However, if you don't wait until the car ahead of you has completely finished with their drying cycle, there can be serious heck to pay. I think this defeats the purpose of having a multi-station car wash, and certainly makes the time investment higher, but it's still at least ten times more convenient (in my opinion) than a hand-wash.
Yesterday, I punched in my wash code and pulled my car into the tunnel, only to receive contradictory instructions from the wash robot. It blinked off and on, told me to pull forward and move backward, over and over, until the whole thing just shut down. Facing possible grievous bodily harm via exiting my car, I sat still and waited for a reboot to happen. It could only take a few moments, I figured, before an automatic or manual systems reboot. I waited, my half-soaped car dripping quietly. Pigeons full of soapy water interrupted their guano-painting session to fly down from their messy car wash roosts to investigate, and the guy in the car behind me proceeded to honk at me. What to do? I Googled the phone number for Loop, and even though they were definitely open, nobody picked up the phone.
Okay, my next move was going to be to drive out the wash chute and pray that it didn't roar back to life. I was successful in my endeavor, but the first responsible employee I located was incredibly rude to me. Like, aggressively rude, condescending, churlish, mocking - what the heck had I mistakenly done to THIS guy's Cheerios? He made it sound like I had committed some sort of felony by following the wash robot's instructions, and also made it sound like he wasn't going to give me a new wash code. He ultimately did give me a new wash code, but made it seem like it was this huge hardship/favor, and passive-aggressively followed the car in front of us as it drove into the wash area, loudly instructing them on how to use a wash code while glaring back at me.
I eventually left with a clean car, but it took almost half an hour to resolve this issue, and that feels pretty ridiculous. I'd caution anyone considering a car wash here to think about choosing another option, lest you fall headlong into the life of Rip Van (or car) Winkle. read more