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Customer goes Berserk over Pre Soak!!

dogwasher

Member
My main attendant Jose that fixes "everything" left at his normal time on Saturday and was relieved by my other attendant that cant fix "anything" and as usual after Jose left all hell breaks loose. The SS Pre Soak pump exploded shooting soap all over the room and kept running for 30 min before I could talk him threw shutting down the breaker. So we could get back up and running we labeled the SS pre soak selection with a out of order label. One hour later a customer that looked like a 60 year old "Mr Clean" pulled into the self serve and proceeded to hang his mats up and spray his wheels with his own wheel cleaner(probably a Mr Clean product), after he put in about 3 dollars in quarters(thats the amount it looked like on the cameras?) he then realized there was no presoak and he went completely ballistic! Yelling at my attendant, hands going up and down it was completely uncalled for. My attendant was so shook up he refunded him $10 because Mr Clean couldn't remember how much money he put in! He took the money and left after he washed his wheels of the cleaner he sprayed on. Needles to say I was really upset at my attendant for giving him the $10. We had a talk on how we would handle this next time.
 
Just a good example of why written procedures and "what if" training are important, of course, wouldn't cover every incident, but might help.
 
Why would you be upset with your attendant? Big deal he did the right thing, he gave the customer $10 and the customer left, give the customer a refund so he’ll leave. Why did the presoak pump fail anyway? We’ve never had a presoak pump fail, blowup or whatever. On another note: Why have attendants, anyway? We don’t have anyone on site and it’s never been a problem!
 
Why would you be upset with your attendant? Big deal he did the right thing, he gave the customer $10 and the customer left, give the customer a refund so he’ll leave. Why did the presoak pump fail anyway? We’ve never had a presoak pump fail, blowup or whatever. On another note: Why have attendants, anyway? We don’t have anyone on site and it’s never been a problem!

First off I have had discussions with my attendants to not let anyone treat them that way. I don't need people like that at my wash they can take there money elsewhere. If I would have been there things would have been differen't. Regarding the $10, this guy used are free vacs, spent 5 Min in the bay with a car waiting on him, hung up his mats cleaned his wheels then put $3 (not $10)in the cashier then proceeded to yell at my attendant in a threatening way like he was going to punch him out. When he was asked how much he spent so we could refund his money he replied that he couldn't remember! Your wash is obviously a newer wash...wait until your equipment gets a little older...If I didn't have a attendant on site my revenue would be half of what is now.
 
Why couldn't he put some presoak in a spray bottle and help the guy get his car clean?

He could have handled it like "Sorry the pump just broke, but no problem, I'll just manually put some on for free". Then just drop some tokens in after so he can keep going. Problem solved.
 
Why couldn't he put some presoak in a spray bottle and help the guy get his car clean?

He could have handled it like "Sorry the pump just broke, but no problem, I'll just manually put some on for free". Then just drop some tokens in after so he can keep going. Problem solved.

Great idea! I guess I never expected a situation like this so we weren't prepared
 
I really think you probably handled it pretty good. Sometimes after a incident like this you do have to revise your procedures. I have three washes all in the same town each wash has it's own problems. They all have the same equipment. And yes I have had pumps blow up before. usually when I'm not there. As for attendants. I think they are really a good thing. We have part time attendants and Me and my son to keep things going good. even with all our precautions we are constantly having different equipment failures or customer failures.
 
While the $10 was a little excessive it ain't much in the grand scheme of things.

Once the situation is past My biggest regrets are being too harsh on my customers rather than too lenient.
 
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