Though he referred to "one of my employees" for who'd stood me up the 1st time I went to his car-wash-bay of a "shop" in Mississauga, I believe the "Chris" of Pro Auto Detailing is a one-man operation & a SHODDY operation at that. This person SHOULD NOT EVEN BE IN THE PSEUDO BUSINESS HE IS. He stood me up in the 1st appt. even after I'd called him 20 mins. before the appt. to find out if indeed his "business" was in the end bay of a coin-operated car wash. He confirmed, & ended our conversation with "see you soon." Forty-five frustrating mins. later of waiting, & after several of my unanswered calls/texts, I finally heard from Chris on my way back home, apologizing & giving me a story that his phantom employee left early & he'd gotten the "memo" about the departure late. He promised to do extra for me in another appt. he asked me to book.
Booked a 2nd appt. on another Saturday & realizing he was seeming unreliable, I texted him late Friday night to be sure he'd be showing up the following day. He texted me back to say he couldn't make the appt. because of a pressure washer problem, but that he'd be able to accommodate me any day the following wk. Somehow he knew on Frid. that his pressure washer would be ready & available any day the following wk. I booked a 3rd & final appt. with the fool only because I was to be in Mississ. for another appt. Chris told me I wouldn't even have to call him prior to the appt. to confirm, as he would be present for sure & he was booking me as his 1st appt. the day I was to come. At 1/2 hr. before our appointed time, I showed up & another customer was present waiting for him, telling me Chris had booked him at 11:30 & had told him it would take 2 hrs. to clean his car. My 1-hr. appt. was supposed to be at 12:00! He finally arrived late in the back of a TAXI with only a long extension cord in hand. In his car-wash-bay shop, behind a garage door on the bay, I could see only a small Armor All bottle & a vacuum. I wondered just what he was equipped with to give me the "deluxe extensive interior & exterior hand cleaning pkg." I'd paid for. When he was finally ready to attend to me, Chris asked me what I'd be paying for. I showed him my Buytopia voucher & without blinking he said he couldn't honour Buytopia vouchers; that they owed him "thousands" of dollars, & if he took my voucher, he'd essentially "be working for free."
He instantly tried to cut me a "great" deal of doing my entire car for $60, where he assured me that if I called Buytopia up, I'd for sure get them to refund me the $39 I'd paid, & then essentially I'd be paying him $20 only. Uh-huh. When I refused, the louse tried for a "rock-bottom" price of $40 where he'd clean my car from top to bottom, EXCEPT the salt stains. He has this thing about salt stains - no going near them unless he can squeeze more $$ out of you.
I called Buytopia up at the site, & their whole focus was that my voucher had expired (which Chris had worked out with me to honour, & then decided to not honour when he finally showed up). Buytopia could do nothing for me. What about the $2-3k the merchant claims you owe him, Buytopia??? It's a misunderstanding on the part of merchants to believe they're not being paid, but if they check, they'll see that they've been paid, is the crock story I got from Buytopia. I wanted a mgr. to deal with & none was around, I was told. That I was caught in the middle of a shoddy "businessman," & a dishonourable deal company who'd already gotten my money & wasn't prepared to help me, was my misfortune & my loss. This was my 1st time dealing with Buytopia AND MY LAST. The reviews here that I wish I'd seen prior to dealing with them may be dated, but I can easily add my bad review of their service or lack of, & how they never called the merchant on my behalf as they'd promised to:
http://forums.redflagdeals.com/buytopia-reviews-post-your-review-here-their-customer-service-1121125/
As for that Chris, hopefully if he's still signing up to do deals with Buytopia & the like, customers will read the reviews here & elsewhere & STAY AWAY FROM HIM. He also operates under "Clean Auto Detailing" (read more bad reviews here: http://www.yelp.ca/biz/clean-auto-detailing-mississauga ), & his phone #s are: 647-964-1821/647-407-7652/647-302-5242.
This is my 2nd bad experience with purchasing car detailing services thru "deal" companies & by now I realize there is a reason incompetent, unprofessional business people like Chris need deals: the likes of him could not hope to drum up business any other way. I think the companies choosing to put deals out for the public has a responsibility to check out the businesses signing on with them, to ensure some semblance of legitimacy & professionalism exist. A visit to the business' premises should be done before the "dealers" sign businesses on.
Save yourselves potential hassle & avoid dealing with these two bona fide sets of unprofessionals. read more
