Am I wrong to expect RO water

[PEI]

So last year I sold all our car washes, moved, failed retirement, and went to work as a service technician repairing car washes. Since I no longer own my own car wash, I went to the local self serve to clean my wife's car on my day off.

The self serve just changed hands and the new owner has gone to token only in the vacuums and bays. Tokens can only be purchased through the bill changer. The previous owner took tokens and quarters and so the new owner has changed the coin acceptors to only take their new token. I learned that the hard way right after the site was sold.

Today I purchased $10 in tokens and got 2 of the old ones that don't work. Then I found out that they had a price increase $4 to start for 4 minutes. I actually don't have a problem with that and so I used the bay. The soaps were all white and had no scents and they still don't have an RO unit, so no Spot Free.

My question is am I wrong to expect that at premium pricing I should get a premium experience and Spot Free Water?

 

[MEP001]

It's their loss for not offering spot free. Maybe they wouldn't need to charge a dollar a minute if they had more options. I'm only $1.50 for 3 minutes. I have all the options except dryers. I make enough that I don't have to try to get a minimum of $4 from every customer.

 

[MudMoney]

$ 4.00 for 4 minutes seems steep with out RO. I'm $ 4 for 4 minutes but got RO.

PEI
My concern if I elect to retire from car washing is trying to stay busy. I look @ the 6 retired guys that work for me @ my other business and they are in their 70's,they needed something to do. My wash will be the last business I sell is my thinking.

 

[Randy]

What’s RO water! No one here has RO water, it’s unheard of.

Most car washes here don’t have colored soap, just white with little or no scent.

We charge a premium for our wash services.

I’d be PO’d if I got a couple of old tokens that don’t work, that’s not right.

I don't plan on retiring any time soon because I need to have little something to do.

 

[MEP001]

I've talked to a few people about this to see if opinions varied from mine. Regarding the spot free, they all said the same thing, "So what?" and "Just don't use the car wash." IMO the new owner is chasing revenue and will fail. Maybe he'll eventually sell it to you cheap.

 

[Ryancross11]

I don’t have Spot free. I actually have zero room in my utility room for the holding tank and system. Only have had one customer ask why I don’t have it.

 

[Eric H]

In 22 years I’ve only had one customer ask why I didn’t have it. He seemed to be pretty POed that I didn’t have it. He had Florida plates on his yellow corvette.
I did explain that my TDS is less than 50 and that’s mostly due to high magnesium content. I told him about our naturally soft water because we have reservoirs instead of deep wells. The more I spoke the more confused he looked. Turns out he had no idea what Spot Free water was.

 

[2Biz]

Many of my customers have told me they like my wash better than the other two competitors in my town because mine doesn't leave spots. I have a softener that softens to zero grains and an RO that filters to 3ppm.. Customers do notice!

 

[PEI]

I wasn't clear. Spot Free was listed as an option on the dial but it didn't work.

As far as selling the washes, it was too good an offer to say no. I have been considering buying another wash though. Servicing Car Washes keeps me in the industry but it's just not the same as operating.

 

[2Biz]

Did it not work at all? Or was it just hard water and leave spots?

 

[MEP001]

I wasn't clear. Spot Free was listed as an option on the dial but it didn't work.

That's a different story. Yes, I would expect spot free to work regardless of price.

they still don't have an RO unit

How do you know that? Is it possible they added it and it's not working for some reason? Might be time to at least contact them as a service tech.

 

[Roz]

I wasn't clear. Spot Free was listed as an option on the dial but it didn't work.

As far as selling the washes, it was too good an offer to say no. I have been considering buying another wash though. Servicing Car Washes keeps me in the industry but it's just not the same as operating.

Too bad you are on the southern border of VA. Could always use some experienced help now and then for the larger projects.

 

[Greg Pack]

As far as selling the washes, it was too good an offer to say no. I have been considering buying another wash though. Servicing Car Washes keeps me in the industry but it's just not the same as operating.

Interesting, I've always enjoyed solving other people's problems on their equipment, and have gotten to loathe working on my own stuff.