UFC 89: Red Baron vs. Mudders

[Red Baron]

This is beginning to seem like a mission now. Heavy rains have rendered my new "Clean Up Your own Mess...Min. $25 Cleanup Fee" less effective that I anticipated. The farmers around here are almost unbearable! They never "wash" their trucks here, they only come to leave 300lbs of mud and $1.50 for my troubles. Sometimes they just shovel off the mud and leave me no money. I'm determined to run them off even if it means losing the business of a few farmers' wives.

Hence a Lloyd Christmas moment this morning. I felt like Llyod as he rode his mini bike, laughing like crazy after having spiked Harry Dunn's drink with Turbo Lax. I got to the wash, opened only the outside/mud bay because of the rain, and cranked the price up to $1/minute. I also placed a temporary sign explaining that the price had been raised in that bay and would be lowered again when the fields are dry.

I'll either run these mudders off or they're going to pay me an amount comenserate with the hassle.

I'm not sure I have the temperment for this business. lol

 

[Bubbles Galore]

I don't envy that problem at all. If you really want to run them off, go to .50/minute and then it might make having to clean up the mess a little more worth it.

BTW.....that title is hilarious!

 

[Jim Caudill]

Hang in there, Red Baron; I want to see you succeed. I remember a few years ago seeing a picture of how a car wash operator lowered his "overhang" to prevent trucks from even entering his wash. I had to shorten my hoses due to semi-trucks and other large vehicles, pulling up outside the bay and washing everything from their engines to wheels and even the inside of their chipper truck, outside on the pavement. You talk about a mess to try and clean up! The semi's would pull up close, make their mess; than turn around and back up to the bay. Had a dump truck stick his nose in the other day, just wanted to clean his windshield so he could see; I let that one slide since I was there.

 

[MEP001]

I had a BFI open-top container truck (with container) pull up alongside the exit of three bays, wash one side of the truck, then turn it around and wash the other side.

A friend who has a wash with a truck bay finally blocked it down to 8' with height bars. The bay is only doing 20% of what it was, but hopefully it will pick up once people see that they can use it without getting covered in grease.

 

[Red Baron]

I don't have problem with semis anymore. Evidently word gets around - the last one I caught here I told him the next time I'd get on my hands and knees and find every microscopic, which I would expect his insurance company to replace. My first reaction is one I've learned to distrust. lol

 

[MEP001]

I don't have problem with semis anymore. Evidently word gets around...

It does...my friend's truck bay was used a lot by trucks, in fact there was almost always a truck on the lot during the day. After only a month they've almost completely stopped coming in at all.

 

[jloebker]

Red, I agree mudders are an annoyance, but at my wash it takes more like $20 to wash off 300 pounds of mud. I happened to be there when a mudder spent $30 to wash. Maybe a part time attendent would help. My concern is if I run them off I may not only loose there wife, but son's,daughter's, and not to mention there neighbors, and friends business. The best revenge for me is to "Take their Money"

 

[MEP001]

jloebker, he has farmers bring in equipment and a shovel with which they knock off the mud. They don't care about scratching up their John Deere like a guy with a 4x4 would, so they're going to have to spend more.

I agree with his policy. Just yesterday someone washed a bunch of screws out of his bed and all over the bay and lot, and the worst part was that about a third of them landed standing up on their heads. I asked the guy "Were you going to pick those up?" and he says "Yeah," then "Do you have a broom I can use?" I told him that since he didn't bring a broom that it was clear he planned to leave them. I had him pick every one of them up. If it ****ed him off, fine, I don't need him as a customer anyway. If it taught him that it won't be tolerated but he comes back, even better.

 

[Chiefs]

Thank God we operate an express exterior tunnel!!!

 

[Danny]

Stories like these make me glad I am a distributor and don't have to deal with the general public. It is so much better to deal with professionals and business owners.

 

[Waxman]

I guess when you're a new carwash guy like me, these things don't bug you as much.

I clean my bays multiple times per day. Since I offer detailing, too, I just figure the customers that cost me a little more at the wash will someday use my detail services.

 

[MEP001]

I just figure the customers that cost me a little more at the wash will someday use my detail services.

A little more is one thing, but what if the messes are so bad that others can't use the bay until you drop what you're doing and clean it? And what if each person who spent $20 washing left the bay so bad that it took you half an hour to clean it? I'll bet that would bug you.

 

[cleaning up mud]

The semis leave some grease every now and then but hardly any mud, its the kids that play in the mud and then come to wash the trucks off that I have a problem with, and its not just cleaning up mud! Its the cost to have the pits pumped that is expensive! Don't forget that!!!!!!

 

[Tom Thumb]

Red Baron,
keep up the good work ,you makes the rest of us proud.
Sometimes these customers just do not listen to us no matter how hard we try.

 

[Eric H]

If it ****ed him off, fine, I don't need him as a customer anyway. If it taught him that it won't be tolerated but he comes back, even better.

What is this guy going to bitch to his friends about anyway. "So, I was at the CW the other day spraying screws out of the back of my truck...and the guy expected ME to clean it up."

I had a school bus hit one of my doorways last week. The driver got angry when I called him on it. Bitched that he was going to tell all of his friends not to come here. Told him to make sure he include the part where he drove his 10'4" bus into my 9'9" door.

 

[Red Baron]

What is this guy going to bitch to his friends about anyway. "So, I was at the CW the other day spraying screws out of the back of my truck...and the guy expected ME to clean it up."

I had a school bus hit one of my doorways last week. The driver got angry when I called him on it. Bitched that he was going to tell all of his friends not to come here. Told him to make sure he include the part where he drove his 10'4" bus into my 9'9" door.

I hear ya brutha.

I think this video explains the problems we have in our society these days. It's called 2 Democrats Stuck On An Escalator:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XivNwQ76mCs

 

[Red Baron]

Bitched that he was going to tell all of his friends not to come here.

My standard response to that threat is: Hey, if your friends all think like you, you'll be doing me a huge favor by telling them what a jerk I am.

 

[JustClean]

I listened to the advice on this forum and put up a sign saying: "Dirty bay incurs minimum $250 clean-up fee."
A few weeks back I watched a guy making a big mess. I was waiting what he would do after finishing his car. Of course, he jumped in and took off. Luckily, my exit is in a bit further away and they all have to come past my entrance. So I had time to stop him. I was desperately waiting to say this to a customer eventually and I have to admit it felt great: "Sir, how would you like to pay for this?" - "What do you mean?" "Well, cash, Visa, Mastercard,...? - "Huh?" - "Sir, we have a $250 dirty bay clean-up fee. You left it in a way that no other customer is able to use it - therefor the charge.".

You should have seen the look on his face when he drove to the bay put in money and cleaned it up. Mind you, two days later I got abused by an anonymous caller

 

[Red Baron]

I listened to the advice on this forum and put up a sign saying: "Dirty bay incurs minimum $250 clean-up fee."
A few weeks back I watched a guy making a big mess. I was waiting what he would do after finishing his car. Of course, he jumped in and took off. Luckily, my exit is in a bit further away and they all have to come past my entrance. So I had time to stop him. I was desperately waiting to say this to a customer eventually and I have to admit it felt great: "Sir, how would you like to pay for this?" - "What do you mean?" "Well, cash, Visa, Mastercard,...? - "Huh?" - "Sir, we have a $250 dirty bay clean-up fee. You left it in a way that no other customer is able to use it - therefor the charge.".

You should have seen the look on his face when he drove to the bay put in money and cleaned it up. Mind you, two days later I got abused by an anonymous caller

I have done everything I could think of to deter heavy mudders, to no avail. Just 2 weeks ago I put an 18" tile scraper in each bay along with a sign telling customers it's there to push their mud to the drain and another on the meterbox telling them we may ask them not to return if they leave a big mess. What do they do? They use my scrapers to chunk the mud from their fender-wells so that they spend even less money, and still leave the mud on the floor. They're oblivious to signage.

So starting today we have adopted a policy the mudders cannot easily get around. During normal dry days they get 30 seconds for a quarter - but on the days following rain, while the streets are still wet and 99% of my customers then are mudders, our "Mud Pricing Is In Effect Today" Windmaster signs go out and our price goes to 15 seconds for a quarter.

I've put on a second worker to help with mud, and by gosh the mudders are going to pay him.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

Money is the language that should help (Cull the Herd). I have problems with mud in the spring and in the fall, but no problems for four months when the mud is frozen solid. That must be the only advantage to living where i do. Do you have a quarter start- So they can still make a bad mess for 2 bucks. I would have the start price at $2-4 .