Debra Gorgos
Active member
Fill in the Blank: The scariest thing about owning a self serve car wash is ___________________
Car Wash Forum
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The scariest thing about owning a self serve car wash is ___________________
- Thread starter Debra Gorgos
- Start date
It’s the people who come to these Self-Serve car washes, not necessarily customers. Over the years I’ve been in fist fights, had to draw my weapon, I carry a Sig P220 .45, thank God I’ve never had to fire it. We go to the car wash at 05:30 so we don’t have to interact with anyone, most of the night lizards have gone into their holes at that hour. Self-Serve car washes are pretty much a magnet for the trash of society and a transfer site for the dump, a place that people can come to drop of whatever.
We have a lot of illegal immigrants in our area, due to the natural gas fracking industry. I have kicked several of them off the site, due to loitering and just generally $hitting the place up. Twice I've had them drive circles around my lot watching me (for upwards of an hour). Not a comfortable feeling.... I am always packing, but that doesn't mean I want to have to use it if things escalate.
Earl Weiss
Well-known member
I find the best way to get loiterers to leave is to tll them they have 5 minutes to finish up wherever they are doing an them leave if they are not paying customers. This usually does not result in any hard feelings as opposed to telling them to "Get out".
Monday: power washed a massive paint dump. Tuesday: used oil pads to soak up an oil change in one of my pits. This morning: degreased a bay from a taco truck dumping his fry tank on me at 2am. All despite signs in every bay that say no paint, oil, or grease.
People suck.
People suck.
mjwalsh
6 bay SS w/laundromat
Earl & others,
That tends to be our "trying to be fair enough" approach also. Too often we get answers stating they are waiting for a ride etc. Sometimes it becomes somewhat of a "cat & mouse" type of game with them lying about being with someone etc.
The rest room in our laundromat makes for a subtle helpful draw for maintaining some customers & potential customers. On the down side ... rest rooms can be tough if someone stays in too long with the door locked.
I wonder if any car washes have free wifi for their customers???
So what's new. That's pretty much a normal week for us and it gets real old fast.
Yes there are some crazy people out there. Years ago a guy pulled in with a large mower on a trailer. I walked down to bay, spoke to the man and told him it was ok to wash the mower from the top down but please don't wash the deck and I walked off. Before I got 2 bays away, he sped off obviously not finishing. A few minutes later I was filling some vending machines and didn't notice he had driven back in and circled around and was behind me. Suddenly something hit me in the back and someone was screaming obscenities at me, and maybe this will pay for the clean up. It was the lawn mower guy and he had wadded up a $20 bill and hit me in the back with it and then burned rubber off the lot. Now that was scary. That could have been a bullet. I taped the $20 bill inside my changer for years as a reminder every day to be careful and more aware of what is going on around me.
mjwalsh
6 bay SS w/laundromat
I remember motioning to what appeared to be some rich kid's son to turn down his stereo that was clearly way to loud. I could not have been more gentle & kind. & it usually is enough & just the right touch for most who don't have a malicious intent.
The under 30 year old went into a tizzy wanting to talk the owner. He then called me every name imaginable accusing me of being racist & persecuting the homeless ... keep in mind ... both him & me are whiteys. He was so pathetic he even called on our listed phone number about 2 weeks later. I happened to answer that specific line. Again he goes into a spiel about wanting to talk to the owner about how he was abused!!! After trying the reasoning approach again ... I might have finally had to hang up on him ... not sure. Sometimes ... it seems like somehow someone behind the scenes (truer faith at work) finally vouches for an owner & straightens those kind of lunatics out. In a worse case scenario IMHO sometimes they find fellow lunatics & form sort of a gang against a person???
The under 30 year old went into a tizzy wanting to talk the owner. He then called me every name imaginable accusing me of being racist & persecuting the homeless ... keep in mind ... both him & me are whiteys. He was so pathetic he even called on our listed phone number about 2 weeks later. I happened to answer that specific line. Again he goes into a spiel about wanting to talk to the owner about how he was abused!!! After trying the reasoning approach again ... I might have finally had to hang up on him ... not sure. Sometimes ... it seems like somehow someone behind the scenes (truer faith at work) finally vouches for an owner & straightens those kind of lunatics out. In a worse case scenario IMHO sometimes they find fellow lunatics & form sort of a gang against a person???
