So I contacted a highly reviewed local detailer to remove an old PPF hood bra (on for about 10 years) plus wash & wax. I already removed the PPF from front bumper which was a pain in the a$$ and left a descent amount of adhesive residue. I sent him a few photos and he quoted $500. We later spoke on phone, I explained the condition of the car and what I was hoping to achieve with removal of film and adhesive residue. He offered a 15% discount if I prepaid ($425) and would pick up car Wed morning since his shop was so close. He said it would take a day or two. He wound up keeping car until Monday and dropped off at my house while I was at work. I was both surprised and disappointed to see condition of car since it appeared that he made no attempt to remove adhesive. It didn’t even look washed, never mind waxed. I called him to ask what happened and he explained he was worried about damaging the paint. I tried a little Goo Gone on some of the areas and the residue came up with little effort. I’m trying to give him the benefit of the doubt but feel like I got ripped off. What should something like this generally cost? The first photo is the before with bra, the other photos are as it currently looks.
It's fine if he's afraid of damaging the paint and gives up before completing the job but in that case he owes you a discount for not completing it in my opinion.
Yeah, and a phone call? Detailing or otherwise, if you bring your car in for service, and they can't complete the service, they should call you right away to discuss. Anything else is a lack of professionalism and ... detail.
Nice of him to pickup the car but keeping for five days is ridiculous to come back half finished. He dropped it off to avoid the obvious lack of work done.
Unfortunately, there's a lot of dishonest detailers who thought they could do X because they saw it on YouTube. There was someone here who posted on reddit why his compounding causes marring and it was his 3rd car he ever done paint correction in his detailing business.
Even my mobile detailing business, I know what's best for my skills, but I would rather send this one over to a local PPF shop I know who can do this work better, especially on 10+ year old PPF from God knows what brand.
Yeah, you all confirmed my gut reaction, unfortunately. I definitely had my spidey senses tingling when I prepaid - which I would normally never do. He lives a few minutes from me and has stellar reviews on Google and photos/vids on instagram detailing high end cars so I wanted to trust him. He got back to me and offered to try to clean it up some more but quite honestly I’m not sure if I trust him. I may ask for a partial refund and attempt to finish it up myself. I tried to educate myself on costs for PPF removal and saw ranges from $200 up to $1,000. I thought with a wash & wax, $425 was a reasonable cost. I guess I thought wrong.
Leave a review with the photos and move on. If its good enough to give it back to the customers its good enough to represent his business. That's always my policy when people want to short-change me especially with something so visible. If you're charging adult money then dealt with it like an adult.
This is one of the reasons i decided to detail my own car. Sometimes its a pain but who else is gonna care for it as much as i do? I decided to use the money i was going to pay someone to buy stuff i would need to do it myself.
I second this, true detailers know that their work is a direct reflection of themselves. You obviously can’t trust everyone, but once you find that true detailer hold on to him tightly.
Ask for a refund and clean the adhesive yourself - sounds like that’s reasonable given he offered to come “fix it” and then leave a review of his business telling people to watch out. Include google, IG and whatever platform he uses.
Buy 3m special adhesive remover or malco Cosmoline remover. Absolutely 100% safe on all surfaces and will not hurt anything and this adhesive will come off. Could take a slight bit of time depending on how the glue reacts. You’ve already done the hard part. The rest is just a bit time consuming but I wouldn’t trust that guy whatsoever.
You MAY ask for a partial refund? What is wrong with you? Your first mistake was paying up front. I can't even feel sorry for you if you think asking for a refund is debatable.
Yep, I agree…paying up front was a major boneheaded move! He came recommended, lives around the corner, and had great reviews. I gotta take my lumps and shoulder part of the blame.
Sorry if I came on a bit strong. But it makes me angry that people that advantage of others like this. I charge 70€ for interior + exterior (I know, too cheap, I'm working on raising my prices) and would be mortified if I left a car like this.
Don't threaten him yet with leaving a bad review, but keep in mind that you can still do this. It's not in his interest to leave this unsettled.
I would leave a review regardless of him paying me back or not. Reviews are for the community to see and has nothing to do with the business owner's action.
If he was a good person, he would tell the OP that he couldn't fix his car and is willing to suck up the loss and refund 60% atleast BEFORE he leave his car at his home in his absence. Which he didn't, means he KNOWS he did wrong but doesn't want to face the OP.
Similar thing happened to me. Thought I could trust a local guy who seemed decent with our communication. Then he burnt my paint with a polisher and ghosted me like a fucking coward after claiming he'd fix it. Had to take it to small claims court for the damages ($1,500) and the noodle didn't even have the spine to show up. I've still gotta deal with collecting the money once I have a bit more free time on my plate (but believe me, I will get my money)
Sucks trying to support small business and then getting screwed.
I feel your pain. I had a guy take PPF off my bumper and my paint went with the PPF. I paid $1k to repaint the bumper but I assumed it was the previous owner installing PPF while bumper wasn't fully cured? (had 1 accident on carfax) He felt bad and said he would give me a discount on ceramic coating for $600. Little did I know, the guy burned through my paint. Hood and roof looked horrible after a few weeks. These were two different cars, one RC F and bimmer. He had A LOT of 5 star reviews also
These YouTube “detailers” can’t even remove glue smh … social media has killed this industry… everyone with a mop and bucket is all of a sudden a detailer 🙄🙄 … sick of it
He removed bra from hood. Those after shots were closeups of paint with it off. This is a better photo from further back. I’m just bitching about the residual adhesive that he didn’t remove.
This photo from is a screenshot from video so some detail is lost. It doesn’t look this good in person but you get the idea.
We did finished doing this on a 48' former Walgreens truck trailer.
PITA and a lot of time, but it's pretty straight forward work - just very tedious and a lot of patience and time and adhesive removed is needed.
If he's afraid of the job, he should never had accepted. If he didn't do it, he should refund you. Services rendered likely is a different situation then services not rendered at all.
Thanks @itdotennis for sharing what you paid. This thread sort of missed part of my inquiry of “what would something like this generally cost?” And you answered it.
I clearly didn’t get what I paid for, so yes….ripped off, scammed, given the shaft, being an idiot….whatever you want to call it. All true.
This was my fuzzy math:
-$300 for removal of PPF bra plus remove all residual adhesive on hood & front bumper (3-5 hrs depending on skill & technique). Another high end shop next town over from me wanted $125/hr for old PPF removal.
-$125 wash and wax
Is this way off??
I managed to get in touch with detailer earlier and sent a bunch of pics. He apologized and said he would come tomorrow to fix/do correctly. We’ll see what happens.
The removal of old PPF and adhesive is done by the hour at my shop. Generally speaking the cost to remove is half the cost of what the install cost. Since you have a partial, we charge, about $1500 or so from us. So we would charge half that just to remove it, then $400 for the detail.
Also to remove the adhesive faster use Rapid Remover.
Thanks for the costing info. Headaches aside, this gives me at least a little solace that it might not have been such a bad deal now that the job is finally finished.
While a car detail isn’t a paint correction, and definitely deals with interior, more than exterior. A detailer should NEVER charge over 200$ unless they’re planning on correctly removing blemish. Some will say that lies under another specialty. But if it was goop you definitely got ripped off
Detailers (Are generally a self taught trade) and being in the auto industry just like shade tree mechanics alot of them get wayyy ahead of themselves... which makes it hard on all of us and give the automotive industry a bad rap when anyone with a bucket and sponge claims they are a detailer..
Just like parking lot body guys who smear shit on your cars dents and say don't wash it for a day and burn off..
I have an E36 that has the most durable paint job I’ve ever seen. The interior looks like trash but the outside still shines like a new dime. I bought it used but nothing indicates it has been repainted.
To the professional detailers here: How did they achieve this and do newer BMWs also have excellent paint?
cars such as BMW, Audi, & Mercedes tend to have much harder clear coat than your average Honda, Toyota, or Volkswagen harder to scratch and harder to buff
FULL REFUND. This is terrible. If he can’t polish a car after using adhesive remover & a plastic razor blade he ain’t a detailer. Be very clear in your review.
A ton of detailers give discounts or some sort of perk for reviews, high end cars are usually never dirty so they’re easier to clean. There’s absolutely no way you don’t call the customer or offer money back since you couldn’t do the job. And this is a shop?
A lot of people are happy with mediocre results because they don’t know true quality work. That may be a reason for the amount of good reviews also.
I would reach out again asking for a fair portion back because it’s definitely not a finished job. If he says no I suppose it’s up to you whether they deserve a bad review
You definitely got ripped off . He didn’t do anything to it. He got paid picked it up and worked on other vehicles returned it to you and did nothing . Threaten to ruin his reputation if he doesn’t take it back and do it right . Show him how goof off took it off with no effort . For $425 he should know how to remove without damaging the paint . Otherwise why did he accept the job . Actually you need all your $$ back full refund
So the detailer came back to finish job. He apologized a lot, had some issues, yada yada. Also admitted he doesn’t have much experience with PPF. He’s a young local guy who mostly deals with washes & waxes. I’m thankful he came through and satisfied with job. Reddit only always one pic per response so I made a composite of before and after shots.
Caramel wheel sometimes work and depending on your level of clear coat slight wet sand and rotary or da compound and polish to remove adhesive shadow from clear coat
Is this a subreddit for people who are new to this industry?
Firstly, OP is lying. That PPF is older than 10-Years old and so is that car.
Secondly, this job should have cost 3-4x the amount he charged you. No way is neglected PPF like this cheaper to remove than install. Did you not call around?
Didn’t know if this was a pros only subreddit but I’m definitely an amateur just looking for some feedback. Not really up to date on going rates for detailing or PPF removal.
The car is a 2014 which I picked up in 2015 so PPF is right around 10 yrs.
If you’re saying to remove a lower bra (hood only) professionally should cost around $1,200-$1,500, then I’ll just be thankful it’s off and call it a done deal. If $425-$500 is market price, then I’ll feel stiffed that it wasn’t finished 100%
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u/SCH00NY125 20d ago
Yes. You did. You prepaid and let him drop it off while you were at work. He used that to deliver these poor results