I made an appointment with SCF after speaking with someone through their website. I specifically told them about the dog hair in my car. I was quoted around $200 for the detailing, plus approximately $50 specifically for the pet hair, bringing the total to about $250 for the inside and outside of my car.
I showed up for my appointment and another guy came out, looked at my car and basically told me, no, he wasn't doing this for $250. He wanted another $100 because of the dog hair, bringing the price to $350. When I told him I had already been quoted $250, he eventually came down to $300.
That really pissed me off.
What bothered me most is that the dog hair was not a surprise. I had already disclosed it, and I had already been charged extra for it in the original quote. My car wasn't trashed. There wasn't garbage or some horrible mess that they unexpectedly discovered. It was dog hair--the very thing I had already discussed when I got the quote. So I couldn't understand why I was suddenly being asked for another $100 for it after I arrived.
What made this even more frustrating was everything I had arranged based on that appointment. I was told the job would take 4-6 hours, so I had my mom follow me in another car so I could leave the vehicle instead of sitting there all day. I showed up expecting SCF to honor the price I had been given. Instead, I got there and suddenly we were negotiating a completely different price.
I chose SCF in the first place because of all the great reviews and because they appeared to be an established business with a physical location. Unfortunately, my actual experience didn't live up to that impression at all.
I left and took my car to another professional detailer. They saw the same car and the same dog hair, didn't complain about it once, honored the price they quoted me, and were professional and courteous throughout the entire transaction. And my car came out beautifully.
Maybe this seems like a small thing, but it was incredibly inconvenient and disappointing. If you're going to quote a customer a price after they've specifically told you about the dog hair and you've already added a pet-hair charge, then either honor that quote or make it very clear beforehand that the price could increase when the vehicle arrives. Don't wait until the customer has shown up for the appointment and made arrangements around your 4-6 hour service to tell them the price is suddenly $100 more.
In the end, I'm glad I walked away because the bad experience with SCF led me to a detailer I'm extremely happy with. Sometimes one bad experience really does open the door to a much better one. read more