Now that the holiday's are behind me, I have the time to write a review of my services with Odds & Ends Detailing.
On November 21, 2018, I contact Daryl regarding detailing a 2016 Lexus RX350 my wife and I have recently purchased. I explained that the dealership from which we purchased the vehicle did a horrible job of detailing the exterior and that we need swirl marks in the clear coat corrected.
I scheduled an appointment Daryl for an estimate on November 23, 2018 at 9 am. Upon arriving, Daryl viewed the vehicle and I further explained that the threshold leading to the driver's cockpit needed to be cleaned and all of the leather surfaces need cleaning and conditioning as well. Specifically, there was what appeared to be a white mark (against black leather) on the passenger seat that needed scrubbing. I also pointed out several other things that needed to be addressed during the walk around.
I negotiated a price of $375 for an interior and exterior detail job.
Daryl advised that I could drop the vehicle off on Monday before 11 am and it would be ready at the close of business on Tuesday, so that is what I expected.
When I dropped the vehicle off on Monday, November 26, 2018 the timeline for getting the vehicle back had changed because by his own admission, Daryl has scheduled another detail between the time I left on Friday and Monday when I dropped off my vehicle. Now, we could not get our vehicle back until Wednesday. While I was annoyed, that wasn't my biggest concern. When I dropped the vehicle off, Daryl advised the price could change because there appeared to be more swirl marks than he saw on Friday and it could take more time to correct them. For some reason, Daryl cited it was raining when he viewed the vehicle on Friday, so he couldn't see all of the swirl marks. That is factually not true. While it was an overcast day, there wasn't one drop of rain on the vehicle at the time of my appointment. He also cited the size of the vehicle as another reason for a 50% increase from the estimate (the vehicle was the same size on Monday when I dropped it off as it was on Friday when I went in for the estimate). My initial inclination was to walk way and book an appointment with Tabula Rasa for my detail, but I needed it done right away, so I allowed him to proceed. Sure enough, I received a call when he started that the priced would increase due to the fact it would take two passes with his polisher to remove the marks. Again, due to my time crunch, I allowed him to proceed thinking that in the long run, I would have a vehicle that looked new inside and out.
I requested of Daryl that he have the vehicle ready before the sun went down on Wednesday as I wanted to see his work in natural light. He advised he wouldn't be done until after dark (because he scheduled another detail after I made my appointment).
When we arrived to pick up the vehicle on Wednesday evening, the exterior did in fact look good. Most of the swirl marks were gone, so we were pleased with that portion of the detail. Due to darkness, we couldn't really tell what was done on the interior, so we took possession of the vehicle and drove it home.
The next morning when I backed the vehicle out of the garage and viewed it in natural light for the first time, I was thoroughly disappointed. With the exception of removing a stain on the passenger door arm rest, it appeared nothing else was done on the interior of the vehicle. The A/C vents still had dust in them, the mark I pointed out during my appointment was still on the passenger's seat, the scuff marks on the back of the driver and passenger seats were still there and there was no leather conditioner applied to any interior surface inside the vehicle.
Clearly Daryl knew he didn't perform those services, which is why he offered that we bring the vehicle back if we find the vehicle didn't meet our expectations. There are two problems with that approach:
1. I run a business and my wife works full time. We don't have time to be going back and forth to a detailer multiple times to have them perform work correctly.
2. The honest thing to do in that instance would be to say he didn't have time to perform the interior detail and not charge the $75 fee he quoted for that service. Instead he charged us the full fee for no rendered service.
With those two things in mind, I didn't have the trust in this business to return our vehicle for service.
As a result, I personally ordered products from Adams Polishes and detailed the interior of our vehicle myself. I also purchased a Rug Doctor portable carpet cleaner and cleaned the floor mats and carpeted areas of the vehicle (the dark brown water in the receptacle tank was evidence that he didn't clean the carpets either).
With all the Adam's products, Porter Cable polisher & Rug Doctor carpet cleaning machine and detailing brushes I purchased, I can now open my own detailing business.
Give me call if you are in Loudoun County. read more