Now in
normal circumstances I would not feel the need to post a review of this service
either positively or negatively as it was not me paying for the service however
to ensure that as many people as possible can make an informed decision before
employing this man I feel obliged.
For total clarity here I will start this out
by stating that I myself was not the customer of this business. The customer
was actually my mother and this is my interpretation of the events that lead to me writing this blog.
I live
in Gloucester and regularly return home to see my mum now and this incident
happened on one such occasion. I arrived in Dundee just after midnight on 21st
July 2016, when doing this I often have a glass of wine with mum to chat and
relax after the 7hr drive. On this occasion the conversation quickly turned to
mums car.
I will
digress slightly here. I myself take great pride in looking after my own car, a
habit that was instilled in me by my late father who was a Dundee taxi driver
for over 30 years, as a teenager I would spend many hours helping my father get
his car into a condition he was happy met the expectation of the customers that
would travel in it. As I have grown older I have now taken this a step further
in that I would class myself as an enthusiastic amateur Detailer, meaning I do
this as a hobby and have never taken payment for detailing any vehicle. All my
family, friends and neighbours are well aware of how OCD I am about my cars. My
mother more than any of them!!!! I regularly perform paint correction on a
variety of vehicles using my DAS6 DA Polisher and my preferred Menzerna
products. I’m now 40, been doing this a while.
Back to
the conversation with Mum, having seen the condition of my car on Facebook Mum
had decided to pay someone skilled in the same techniques I use to detail cars.
She had found Obsession Car Detailing and had, unknown to me, already had her
car “detailed” and paid the sum of £190. The service requested was an interior
and exterior Valet at a cost of £95. She described the sales patter from the
Proprietor, Tommy Magill. He had boasted of his many years’ service at John Clark BMW
and that if my mum would have a machine polish also then he would make it
better than the day the car left the showroom. Upon returning home Mum rang
Tommy to explain that her car had been coated with Supaguard at purchase and
because of this she wanted to cancel the Machine Polish. When contacted the
next day Tommy said he had not received the voicemail and he would now have to
find additional work to fill his day, Mum felt guilty and told him to just do
it. This work was completed on the 19th July 2016 and the car was
delivered to my mother at 10pm at her home address. It was agreed the car
should be returned to the home address as the work scheduled hadn’t been
completed within the initial agreed timescales. The car was supposed to be
collected at his workshop at 5pm but was still being worked on at this time. A
number of neighbours had seen the car being returned and the inspection taking
place outside and the following morning had asked about the reason for it. Upon
explanation to the neighbours many commented that they had received better from
the hand car wash on Dock St, Dundee. It was this that spurred my Mum to ask me
to review the quality of the work completed on the car as her expectation had
been set much higher.
On the morning of 20th July mum made her first request for a receipt for works completed.
On the morning of 20th July mum made her first request for a receipt for works completed.
On the
morning of 22nd July 2016 I washed mums BMW 320d F30 Touring using
the 2 bucket method and it was towel dried with a microfiber towel. Now at this
point no receipt had been provided despite multiple requests for one so I was
unaware of the exact work completed but during washing I witnessed no beading
or run off of water as I rinsed the car. I took a photo of the bonnet to show
the way water simply sat there, this surprised me as even a reasonable clay
produces significantly better hydrophobic properties on the paint as there is
no dirt left in the lacquer. Never mind the difference a machine polish should
make.
I then went round each panel of the car looking for any marks that in my experience should not be there. The passenger side wing mirror still had many many marks in the lacquer, none of which broke the lacquer or showed white.
The
front bumper showed significant marks under the front headlight, note how the reflection to the right has a very very hazy edge to it....
But to be honest the worst part was the rear bumper where the usual light scuffs, again not white, that you get removing bags etc. from the boot clearly hadn’t been touched, again I have photos of all of this. Not how dull my own reflection is on the bumper.
These were the worst areas however there were many other marks that if machine polished should have gone using even the lightest compound. My overall feeling towards how the car looked if I’m absolutely honest was how flat the metallic paint looked. It just didn’t shine!!!
Inside the car neither the cup holder or ashtray area had been opened to be cleaned.
This is insignificant in the grand scheme however was massively significant in later discussions with the Proprietor.
I then went round each panel of the car looking for any marks that in my experience should not be there. The passenger side wing mirror still had many many marks in the lacquer, none of which broke the lacquer or showed white.
But to be honest the worst part was the rear bumper where the usual light scuffs, again not white, that you get removing bags etc. from the boot clearly hadn’t been touched, again I have photos of all of this. Not how dull my own reflection is on the bumper.
These were the worst areas however there were many other marks that if machine polished should have gone using even the lightest compound. My overall feeling towards how the car looked if I’m absolutely honest was how flat the metallic paint looked. It just didn’t shine!!!
Inside the car neither the cup holder or ashtray area had been opened to be cleaned.
This is insignificant in the grand scheme however was massively significant in later discussions with the Proprietor.
After
the wash and review we decided that the appropriate course of action was to
actually take the car back to discuss the issues we had with the work. I
accompanied my mum at her request as it was clear that she didn’t want to face
the Proprietor alone and because I would understand any explanations given. I
can’t begin to tell you how good an idea this was as her initial concerns of
how he would react were absolutely justified. I have later discovered she was
actually very concerned whether she would get her car back when it wasn't ready for her collection.
Driving
up to the workshop I told mum that I would say nothing unless I felt it was
necessary. It was her money and I was merely there as support. First thing
asked for was the receipt of works carried out as this still had not been
provided, he said it had been sent via email.
Initially Mum stated she wasn’t happy as the inside wasn’t clean properly due to the cup holder and ashtray being dirty. Tommy response was that he did not know how to open it. This from a man who boasted of his years at a BMW Main dealer and has numerous other BMW vehicles detailed on his Facebook page. Mum then moved onto the scratches on the bonnet, I also have photos of these, which Tommy described as white so she couldn’t expect those to come out. The marks described were scuffs on the top lacquer and have subsequently been removed with minimal effort. In the following picture the marks run along the crease to the left of the bonnet. Not a single one is through the lacquer.....
It was at this point that truthfully I had heard enough excuses, when challenged on the depth of these scratches and asked what compound he had polished the car with he simply took an aggressive stance and would not enter even a reasonable conversation. I was asked to point out the various marks on the car and did so with Tommy following me round the car with his right fist continuously cocked attempting to intimidate me with the idea he was going to punch me, frankly I couldn’t help laugh at this point. I had done one side of the car and was told I was being “picky”. He turned to my mother and from an intimidating proximity told her that the condition of her paint was a “f**king disgrace, her car was a f*cking mess”, he later did this a second time. As I pointed out at the time his business name is OCD Detailing and by its nature detailing is about the smaller details so picky is exactly what I would expect for a £190 car wash.
After much attempting to reason with him he offered to return £100 of the money paid. When asked for it at that point he said he had no money on site and would “get it to us”. I did say to my mum in front of him that I did not believe she would ever see that money and he took offense at me challenging his integrity. At this point we left with no expectation of seeing anything from him.
Initially Mum stated she wasn’t happy as the inside wasn’t clean properly due to the cup holder and ashtray being dirty. Tommy response was that he did not know how to open it. This from a man who boasted of his years at a BMW Main dealer and has numerous other BMW vehicles detailed on his Facebook page. Mum then moved onto the scratches on the bonnet, I also have photos of these, which Tommy described as white so she couldn’t expect those to come out. The marks described were scuffs on the top lacquer and have subsequently been removed with minimal effort. In the following picture the marks run along the crease to the left of the bonnet. Not a single one is through the lacquer.....
It was at this point that truthfully I had heard enough excuses, when challenged on the depth of these scratches and asked what compound he had polished the car with he simply took an aggressive stance and would not enter even a reasonable conversation. I was asked to point out the various marks on the car and did so with Tommy following me round the car with his right fist continuously cocked attempting to intimidate me with the idea he was going to punch me, frankly I couldn’t help laugh at this point. I had done one side of the car and was told I was being “picky”. He turned to my mother and from an intimidating proximity told her that the condition of her paint was a “f**king disgrace, her car was a f*cking mess”, he later did this a second time. As I pointed out at the time his business name is OCD Detailing and by its nature detailing is about the smaller details so picky is exactly what I would expect for a £190 car wash.
After much attempting to reason with him he offered to return £100 of the money paid. When asked for it at that point he said he had no money on site and would “get it to us”. I did say to my mum in front of him that I did not believe she would ever see that money and he took offense at me challenging his integrity. At this point we left with no expectation of seeing anything from him.
That
evening my Mum received a heavily edited receipt which was timestamped to show
it was edited after the discussion of that morning. It had been turned into a
list of free works carried out and a section clarifying his statement on only
removing swirl marks from the car and nothing else (showroom bettering
quality?). If the free works hadn’t been done would the car have been returned
on time?
Not
surprisingly it accused us of being confrontational and that was his
justification for not providing the refund he offered earlier. For those that
know me, if confrontational was what I was then he would definitely have been
well aware of it. I have to say this came as little surprise and merely
confirmed my earlier assessment that he had no intention of honouring this.
Upon
delivery of the email receipt my Mum merely respondent with a Thank you by way
of courtesy and confirmation that the receipt email had been received. Tommy
seems to think that this is a confirmation that my Mum actually thinks he did a
good job.
Please
feel free to review the comments of the Facebook post that he has on his page
of my mums’ car where he is using it as an example of his quality work. You can
note from the comments on the post that when asked to remove the pictures he
has point blank refused and has simply engaged in childlike name calling. Screenshots below just in case he actually decides to remove them.
Take
your car to Dock St, Dundee if you want a wash and a hoover and if you want a proper
Detailing job do your research on http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/scotland where you will find many quality
providers in your area. Wouldn’t let this man near any car of any person I
know.
Incidentally
the car has now been finished properly and looks spectacular in my opinion. I also know mum is now happy with her car.
