Tuesday I had to take Gary "the MINI" Cooper in to the doctor. Poor guy broke his drivers side window motor....first time in 40,000 miles, too.

Took him to Downtown MINI (Orlando) since it's just across the street from my current job. The service tech who took the car was nice and did a fine job. I told him to be sure the car did NOT get washed...for all of the obvious reasons. I put a big note on the dash, too.

Well...they washed it. When I picked it up the passenger side of the car was in shadow and the damage wasn't noticable.

Yesterday I was loading some boxes in the car on the roof of the parking deck...and OMG. It looked like someone hit the entire passenger side of the car with a 200 grit disc sander. Horrible.

Went downstairs and yelled it out with fellow NAM member koolmini, who's job has him in the same building for a few more days. Finished loading the car, and took it back to Downtown.

The service tech was pretty shocked...he was certian they hadn't washed the car. (I'd stopped in earlier to check on it and talked to him. It wasn't washed at that point. Sean (the service manager?) wasn't available so I couldn't pick it up. Went to lunch, came back, and poor Gary had been beaten soundly with a dirty wash mit).

After some haggling (I really didn't expect them to do /anything/. I just wanted them to know what they'd done.) they offered to hit the worst of it with a buffer. I let them, so there are no pictures of the damage. It's better, but will need a LOT of hours of work to bring it back right.

Sigh. No pictures yet of what it looks like now (hell, I'm really not sure. The sun dropped to far to see it. This afternoon I'll see it again....).

This was what it looked like before. Just the one little rock chip:

 

I can't think of anything better than having koolmini watching your back in a situation like that!

 

That would make me furious , we are very particular on how we wash and dry our cars, especially the mini, it has it's own supplies that are only for the mini . At least they are going to try take the scratches out. When we went for our first service to MoN, we had a wind gaurd installed on the sunroof, they scratched it some, not bad and my hubby was able to get them out, but he about had a fit , we didn't notice it until we got home, but thanks to Griot's products all the scratches are gone .

 

Make sure whomever hits it with the rotary buffer knows what he is doing. I have heard good things about Downtown MINI's service dept so I am sure they'll take care of it.

Whenever I leave one of my MINIs for service, I make the service advisor type in a note in the actual service ticket not to wash the car. This is the only way you can be assured they won't touch it. Sometimes leaving sticky notes in the dash don't accomplish much of anything because if something is or isn't pointed out in the service ticket they'll take action accordingly.

 

sorry to hear. my car had so much swirls when i picked her up from
day one. those porters need education (oh wait, wonder how they
got the job in the first place .)

i had to scratchx the entire car and use a nice thick layers of wax.
it looks 10x better than when it was new.

 

I was a porter at one point in my life and I am not ashamed to say it. It is a tough job believe it or not. For minimum wage they expect you to be a professional detailer, chauffer, valet parking attendant, mechanic, etc. Those are the jobs that some of us have done in high school/early college to get us by.

When you are asked to wash a brand new car destined for final delivery, they don't give you any training, not even a decent explanation as to how to go about it. After all is their customer's new car. They hand you a dirty rag (That probably has been used from cleaning the coffee brewer all the way to the dealership's toilets) a hose and presto! That car has to be squeaky clean.

If you expect a 17-18 year old kid to be a professional detailer for $4 bucks an hour, you are seriously mistaken.

That's why, no matter what car you buy, always ask the dealer not to wash it/wax prior to delivery. Most dealers simply don't CARE about swirls in your new paint.

And yes I have an education, thank you very much.

 

I too was a professional car washer/porter in high school. As a "newbie" I wasn't permitted to do new car deliveries, but I did wash all the new cars on the lot. I was never "trained" and the only trick I picked up from my coworkers was that we used gas to clean up the grease and other assembly dirt. This was back in the seventies, boys and girls, we didn't have all the neat stuff that they have now. We certainly did not have power buffers that's for sure.

Of course, the cars were so poorly made back then that it probably wouldn't have mattered. You youngsters don't know how good you've got it.

Oh, and yes, I did drive the **** out of everything that I could. I didn't care that the car was going to be someone's "baby". Not my problem.

Michael

 

I justy picked my car up from having some warranty work done. That's another frustrating story all together! Anyway, I picked it up at night so I didn't notice until the next day all the swirls and scratches. Boy they really show up on BRG. I think it is a sign of how most people have no respect for others or their property.

 

I take my MINI to MINI of Ft Lauderdale (Florida), they usually will wash mine after service and they have never screwed up my paint (Dark Silver Gray).
They also service BMW's there, I guess if its okay to wash a 740, its good enough for my MINI.

 

I also take my MINIs to Lauderdale MINI but I decline the free car wash after each service.

 

I was just trying to see if I could help relieve some frustration off of keen
by venting with him.

but sorry if I offended anyone that were actual porters. my comments
were not fair, should not have generalized. im sure some of you do
great work. keep it up!