Obvious ones to me would be: Before: documentation of cars condition before to prove no damage done release of liability quote/estimate with payment promise of some kind and time frame for work to be completed After: Documentation of cars condition after to prove all work performed acceptance of work Final cost of work Is there anything else you guys use or would recommend? Besides agreements, etc, are there any kind of disclaimers you use? Maybe some kind of care instructions sheet?
^this And i think an agreement of payment upon completion, or within a certain timeframe is a good one, id have them sign it before you start lol. You could make a master form for all this. The release of liability probably wouldnt go over well with some people. If you do this alot, liability insurance isnt expensive and you can have them sign something that has the owner of the car "varify that the paint on the car being detailed is of OEM quality and fully cured" That way if you take your polisher to it and screw something up you can have legal documentation showing that the owner varified that the paint was polish-able, releasing you of blame.
I do a walk around with the person, and video the car prior and after. Only disclaimer I have is I do not do bodily fluids period, weeds out alot of SUVs and minivans honestly. Other then that unless I take the wheels off I don't have any, and If the wheels come off I re toruqe the lugs in front of them; before they drive off they also do a back up re torque. But I have only had too do that two times.
the easiest thing is to do a walk around with the car with the client, use a form like the rental companies do with a little sketch out of the car, once thats documented have them sign it. Also make sure you have it printed on carbon copy paper. I cringe to think of all the detailers out there that dont do this simple thing, i have seen many of detailers taken for because they failed to do this simple step I hate people that try and take advantage of a small business owner trying to make a living. remember guys, people are dicks
I am so glad I have have never had to deal with that, people in general lie to get leverage for a discount. Its sad. Maybe someone here who is a graphics person could come up with a simple PDF of a walk around sheet for the members to download. I would hate to see someone here get in to it with a dishonest client
That would be awesome if someone would do that. I have been looking for something like that for a while.
With you on that one. No bodily fluids period. People are always like "whats the big deal?" LOL right........ I don't think so. An ex-gf texted me about extracting the inside of her new civic because her sister's water broke in there. I nicely told her its never going to happen.
^^^ that is nasty. LOL Along time ago a cat had kittens in my car, I guess I left the window down enough one day and it hopped in there. I was driving down the street the next day there was a cat on my package tray in the rear window and a bunch of kittens on the floor board. It was nasty
Those companies that specialize in bio-hazard clean ups make a ton of money. It's usually 4-5 times the going rate of regular services. I see a bunch of blood spills in wrecked cars and it's amazing that shops don't demand extra for clean up. I try telling them, but they usually ignore it.
Photos, photos, photos. I had an incident where I didn't catch the previous damage by a detailer in my initial inspection or until I made it slightly worse. The owner was understanding and didn't make a big deal of it, but if he did I was glad to have some video that revealed the preexisting condition. I often take photos in front of the owner and more before washing the vehicle. Then more after the wash of any significant issues. The dirtier the vehicle, the more important. So much may not be visible until after washing. While I've never had an issue, it is on them to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to win the case. If you can show the condition of the vehicle before you touched demonstrated a general lack of proper care you should be pretty safe. I don't always share with the customer the before photos I take just in case of this sort of scenario. It's kind of my trump card. If they try to blame me for damage that I didn't cause I can embarrass them in court.
