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| - This makes for a rather long story, though amusing in spots, so for those that don't want to read it the summary is this: the guy is incompetent, dishonest and a thug. Stay away, far away.
I needed to get my mid-sized SUV detailed, as I do every year, and could not get to my usual place. I had known One-a-Minute from years ago, and figured they could do a good job. I was rather trusting when I dropped it off- the owner told me it would be $200, I confirmed that that included full interior shampoo and exterior wax, and left.
When I returned just before closing time the first thing that was obvious was that the vehicle had not been waxed. When I pointed this out, the guy started in about how it was because the previous detailer didn't know what he was doing! I asked why it hadn't been waxed and he said waxing was not included in the price.
I started walking around the vehicle, checking it inside and out, seeing more and more problems- grease spots that hadn't been taken out of the upholstery, places where there was no rubber dressing, splotches on the hood that hadn't been removed, and so on. The rear floor mats were jammed in badly and crumpled, and when I pointed this out he argued that they were not the original floor mats. I pulled them out and switched them- they had been put on the wrong sides of the vehicle! I was getting more and more agitated as I pointed these things out. When we got to the passenger side I saw that the pillar between the doors had not even been wiped down, and when I said that, he said "What do you mean?" I wiped my fingers over the paint and when they came up black, he started to collect some cleaning material to clean it.
I said, No, I didn't want him working on it ay more, and that I had to leave, so I would pay him $100 for the work he had done so far and take the vehicle as it was. He didn't even respond. He just jumped in the vehicle, drove it into his bay, dropped the roll-up door and locked me out.
Then ensued a six hour comedy of errors. I called the police for advice, was told that as far as they were concerned it was theft, so I waited in the empty parking lot for them to come. After about an hour I called again, and as I was talking with them, the guy came out with his wife and two kids. He approached me, and as he did, I told the police he was there. The officer asked to talk with him, so I offered the phone to the guy, but he just started shouting and refused to take the phone. When his wife moved forward to take it, he pushed her away, then they all turned and left.
I waited another hour and a half in vain for the police to come. Part way through a guy came around with a cup of coffee and sat on the bench in front of the car wash, so I struck up a conversation with him. Turns out he was a former employee who still did occasional handy-man jobs for it. When I told him what had happened, he snorted and said, "You and 300 other people."
He then regaled me with story after story of the disintegration of the business. A couple of years before it had been sold by the original owner, the Italian who had run it so well, to a Russian who had sold it shortly thereafter to the present owner, a Turk. My story-teller said he was embarrassed to admit he was Turkish as well, and recounted incident after incident of the dishonest, abusive, incompetent and generally brutish behaviour of the present owner. I had noticed that there had not seemed to be any business either time I had come, so it became clear that the owner's behaviour towards anyone who challenged or displeased him was killing what had once been a thriving enterprise. In one incident, he had become abusive with someone who turned out to be the Chairman of the TTC- and it is the TTC that owns the land the car wash sits on!
I could not wait any longer, so called the police again and gave them my home address, and arranged for them to meet me there. Long story short, after 5 1/2 hours the police finally came, took my report, went to the car wash to confirm the car was locked up, then were informed by the detective they contacted that the guy was technically within his rights to do what he did, under the "Repair and Storage Lien Act." So I had no alternative but to go back and pay what the guy wanted to get my car.
Once I retrieved it (two days later, as I couldn't come the following day), I found that he had worked quite a bit more on the vehicle, and done quite a good job on the interior. And he had waxed the exterior! But looking closer, I found the finish was covered in thousands of tiny scratches, the result of hand polishing with a dirty cloth. And the splotches were still on the hood. I took the vehicle to a friend in the automotive business, and he was able to very simply remove the marks by hand polishing with a professional compound. And the scratches are not too deep- I will have to have the whole vehicle waxed again to remove them, but no permanent damage.
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