"Kereta lama" polishing standards

Just to let off some steam from Saturday's evening.

Earlier this week, I saw an auto-detailing package on a group discount site and bought 2 units. Called the franchise and arranged for a session to be redeemed on Saturday and Sunday, at a branch near my house. Had an excellent sporty morning at The Club Bandar Utama this morning; then drove back in the afternoon for my wife to pick up the Forte to be sent for the auto-detailing session.

Sent her back to the shop 3 hours later to pick up the Forte, and she remarked that the car looked like it had only undergone a normal wash. I thought that perhaps it was just wet from the rain (yup, it was parked out in the earlier rain although there was at least space for another 2 cars in the shop) but when I went down to inspect the car, it was clear that there were dust and light scratches very much visible on the car.

Now, I don't expect the Forte to be gleaming like a brand new car, but for a car that had just underwent auto-detailing, it simply didn't looked so. And there were dust on the dashboard, handbrake, etc (yup, the dust were there prior to the session but that was also why I sent it there in the first place).

I thought that they may have thought that I bought the car wash package only and asked them if they did indeed auto-detailed the car. I was informed that the car could only be cleaned as per its condition due to several "reasons" as per the following :

1) The group discount package was "too cheap". The Branch did not want to participate in the package as it was not making monies, but the HQ arranged for such a "too cheap" package. As such, they had no choices but to clean my car. But should I really want the car to be polished properly, I must pay the actual RM300 instead of through the group discount site.

2) The car was old and that was the best condition that they could clean the said car in accordance to the group discount package. Moreover, it was in black colour so that was to be expected.

3) When I requested for a cancellation of the next service that I have booked for my Harrier at the same branch the next day, I was informed to call 3 sets of tel nos, which was not answered despite my calling over and over again. The AM informed me that previous customers had cancelled their group discount services so I could do the same; or to send my car to another SS2 branch to be cleaned properly.

I tried to reason with them on the above points as per the following :

1) It was not my fault that their HQ had packaged a "too cheap" package with the group discount site, and the Branch should have passed constructive feedback to its HQ instead of penalising customers.

2) The car was indeed old, at just 2 years of age. And I believed that I understood how a car would looked like after a polishing job. In fact, that Forte that I sent in had previously undergone a RM2k SierraGlow treatment when it was new, so its paintwork could not be as bad as per claimed.

3) I live in Sri Hartamas, and if I was going to send my cars to SS2 for the polishing works, I may as well continue utilising the services in my housing estate. The reason I had decided to try the site's package was because I thought that it would be better given that the services were from a bigger franchise, the materials used was Meguair's and that it was supposed to have cost RM300 per service albeit at a huge discount vide the site.

As the car really looked no better than my own wash (perhaps I was just a good car wash person so my regular washing looks like that of their "professional" services), or the rain brought dust on the body and into the interior when it was parked outside , I asked if I could view the CCTV on the actual works done. The AM thereafter informed me that I could view their works of the previous day; but on that very day, all their shop's CCTVs were not working. Right...

What a load of bull from this shop!

I had e-mailed to the franchise and the group discount site's customer services; and am awaiting to see if they would respond. As for the appointment made for Sunday; if the quality is such, I might as well just stay home and wash it myself rather than to drive there to send the car and pick it up again. If they won't refund the package I bought, I won't be any poorer but I'll be wiser anyway.

Oh, and I have since gathered from these "professionals" then that only new cars could be polished up to good standards; since a few-years old car was already considered as "kereta lama" standard. Great knowledge for the uninitiated!

I'll share on their answers if they do respond to my e-mail. Cheers.