A couple years ago I had taken my 2003 Ford E-250 van that I was washing before putting it up for sale. I took it through the wash and when they were done wiping it down, the glass repair guy who was affiliated with this car wash told me I had a crack in my windshield. I drove this van every day and knew there was no crack, but I thought there might be a possibility that it may have happened that day and I just did not notice this dime sized crack right in front of my face.
So the kid from Romania told me he could give me a great deal at $80. I told him no that i was selling it and I was not going to spend a penny more on it. He did not want to lose money so he brought it down to $60, then $40, then $35. I repeated that i would not spend money on it. He gave me an offer of $25 so I accepted and told him that i would use him in the future if I have any windshield repair work.
While he was repairing my windshield he realized I was a locksmith and asked me if I would make him a key to his mid-90's Honda Civic. I remembered it very well with super dark tint, primered and appeared it would was being prepped for painting.
When he finished he asked me for my name/number/ADDRESS for the invoice. I found that odd since I was paying cash. He assured me it was standard policy and I would not receive spam calls or mail.
A week later after I purchased my new Chevy Express van, I was in the front of my house and noticed this same kid driving his Honda Civic by my house that appeared to be looking for an address. He came to a stop 1 house past mine and looked at me and then took off abruptly.
The next day I was on my way to a job and noticed a crack in the windshield on a van with less that 200 miles on it. Immediately I suspected this kid from Romania who also works with a bunch of family members that own the company. He must have done it at night under the cover of darkness.
I called the 16 st location and revealed my suspicions who in turn told me to call the owner at another location. When I spoke with the owner he thought it was the most absurd thing he had ever heard. He conveniently disconnected from the call and when I called back it went to voicemail.
I had a large credit on my prepaid card so I was going to use it and had gone back for another wash and spoke with the manager. I told her my story and she assured me she knew this family and that she trusted them and that they would never do such a thing. I had no proof so I could only argue my case to a certain extent without sounding crazy.
The next time I had gone back the Romanian kid was there and I was cleaning the mess out of the cab so it could be vacuumed. I was throwing everything valuable in a plastic bag to sort out later and had a trash can to throw the junk away, so I know this kid never examined my windshield.. I WOULD HAVE SEEN HIM DOING SO..
The kid walks up from behind the back of the van and told me that I had a crack in my windshield. I just glared at him for about 5 seconds without saying anything and told him not to worry about it. There are two things that made this kid guilty. 1) like I mentioned before I would have seen him examining the windshield if he did. So the ONLY way for him to know if there was a crack is if he did it himself. 2) If he had examined my windshield he would have noticed that it had ALREADY BEEN REPAIRED. That's how I know for sure he did it, but still I had no proof.
I had let my van go a couple months without washing it and the next time I came in I asked a random worker what happened to the Romanian (windshield repair) family. The worker told me they were being watched due to other customers who were suspicious and that he was caught with a spring loaded punch cracking a windshield. So the owner let them go....
After all that you would think they would apologize and give me some credits to make up for it, but they did not.
The last straw for me was when the Ultimate car wash did not appear to give a wax coat along with the appearance of the machine and worker not doing a thorough job of cleaning. When I asked if I could take it through again the kid gave me a hard time. After taking it through a second time I noticed bird dropping that were still there so I just took it upon myself to finish the job myself.
I'm glad I only have a few dollars left on my prepaid card. Since I have no reason to go back, I will be finding a new car wash from now on.