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Biggest Pet Peeves --- and solutions

OurTown

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I saw a picture of something I can hardly believe someone would do - a passenger on an airline finished their meal and just dumped the trash on the floor in the aisle. It's just a complete lack of respect.
Entitlement is out of control these days. They should have had their ash beat when they were kids.
 
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MEP001

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My mother is 79, and I'm sure she would still clobber me if I did that.
 

Carl

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One I can think of that shouldn't really be a huge deal but is annoying when it happens...we dispense only golden $1 coins at our bill changers but if anyone needs quarters, they simply come inside and ask as we're there 80 hours a week. Sometimes we get people who for some reason love the golden $1 coins so they come by when we're not there and deposit a large quantity of bills like most recently $240 worth of bills and leave w/ 240 golden dollar coins sometimes draining a bill changer w/o even using a service. (they like to hand them out to kids or give the coins as gifts, etc.) These are not super easy to get from our bank but not super hard either. It just a great inconvenience to us and a little "pet peeve" although I know there are far worse. (I'll bet people think what they are doing is no big deal because it's an even trade so no one is getting "hurt")

Oh, the other one I have is maybe 5 mornings out of 7 the "night lizards" remove the cotter pins to our vacuums' lower door to be able to access the basins of vacuumed coin and then don't care to reinsert the cotter pin so next customer gets poor or no suction at all unless we've discovered this in time. They do this even though we clean out our basins EVERY night at 8 pm so yeah, a bigger "pet peeve" to me than the first one I listed.
 

mjwalsh

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Carl,

We have been giving out Golden $1 coins since the year 2000 but it has been a mix of both quarters & $1 coins. Hopefully, we will be giving out close to 100% $1 coins within 6 months from our two 4 hopper Standard ChangeMakers for when the rest of our washing machines in the laundromat portion of our business start taking the $1 coins. We are hoping to do like we do with quarters making recycling of them an even swap so we don't have to pre-order like the bank requires if they get them for us.

A related pet peeve of mine is that we used get the $1 coins direct from the US Mint until the previous POTUS along with misleading media rascals murdered that. Funny thing, whenever I had ordered the $1 coins from the US Mint early on ... the order taker was always upbeat & we would exchange some pertinent conversation. After the previous VP in a full blown all major networks news conference announced in the most insulting way possible the discontinuation ... I called the US Mint immediately & SURPRISE SURPRISE ... no one was allowed to comment other than saying that no one there was allowed to comment or refer us to anyone else. If that was not a "GAG" order I don't know what was, ever was & whatever could be!
 

Randy

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Lately we've been getting a lot of homeless people who think they can camp out at the car wash. It's always fun to call the police to have them do a wake up call at 5:15am
 
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MUD!!!!! My busiest wash also has the smallest pits and a healthy customer base of college kids that go mudding a LOT! I always tell them to please go elsewhere as my drains cannot handle all that mud so they just seem to go late at night when I am not usually there. I do plan on posting signs right above the meter boxes so it cannot be claimed they were not seen and also state there will be a cleaning fee billed to vehicle owner and that they have been under video surveillance since entering the property. Maybe that will slow it down.
 

docopp

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I went to $2.00 for 4 minutes Vacuum
and $2.50 for 4 minutes in the self serve bays
we keep our bays clean, great soaps etc
and we clean our vacuums well weekly and they have strong suction
 

Damoni88

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Where do i start?????
Loud music cussing with a kid right there.
Trash on the ground when a trash can is right there
Not hanging hoses.
Dumpers
I guess my #1 is the hagglers that try to hang out and wave rags aroumd trying to make money off my buisness. Now when i see them on cam i just call the cops to have them removed for soliciting and trespassing.
 
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bert79

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I came to this business from a previous career as a police officer. In the short time that I have been a car wash owner we have noticed a couple things happening in the bays that concerned us. One was clear prostitution, another was a man urinating in the bay and yet another was a trash dumper who emptied the (half full) bed of his pickup onto the bay floor. Having cameras we were able to get license plates. I can tell you from experience that police will be far more likely to help if you dont push to press charges on the first offense. We gave the plate numbers to the local police and they were quite willing to pay a visit to these people and advise them that we have cameras. I printed out photos so the offenders could be presented with evidence. None of the offenders have returned (or at least havent caused problems) since. I realize that a lot of you already know this and sometimes what we deal with is just part of owning a car wash but I thought I would share my perspective.
 

cap732000

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Haha! Reading you guys posts makes me believe there is a chance for me yet!! Every pet peeve is one I have been doing this long enough I’ve began to hate dealing with people. Trash, free loaders people
Who believe they loose a qtr and tear up 1000 dollars worth of equipment and whiners. It’s also amazing to me how towns differ! I have multiple locations in other towns over years and man some town just SUCK some are better.
 

Damoni88

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Im with you on this. I am retired military (US ARMY) and just seeing how these people treat stuff in unreal. I wanna make a sign that says "TAKE CARE OF YOUR EQUIPMENT" i dont use it. Also these are the same ones that come back saying something didnt work or they want a refund. The refund people i tell you sure used it till your time ran out so NO. Caught people peeing in bays and my first reaction to them is what the f*** are you doing?? And so you dont go to a grocery store parking lot and do that what makes you think its ok to do here, i work here and i dont want to be stepping in that. O i could go on and on. Signs dont matter they are either to ignorant and cant read, to blind, or just use it as a cigarette put outter or something they let their bad azz kids just bend up.
 

cap732000

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We get really tired of people coming and using the car wash as their personal restroom. We had one guy who’d come every morning between 05:05 and 05:20 and pee on the vac island. When he got caught he thought it was perfectly OK, saw no problem in peeing on the vac island. He didn’t think it was too funny when the police get involved. He thought we were “A” holes for getting the police involved. The public has little or no respect for the car wash business and they can do whatever they feel is right at the car wash.
Got that right Randy!
 

Alpine Dreams

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Bucket washers on Saturday afternoon with people waiting for a bay. This one had 3 buckets and would not leave.
If they don't immediately rinse and leave the bay after I ask them to move, because I have other customers waiting, I turn off the bay (If all other bays are full and it's a busy day). When they come to me with a fully soaped car wanting to rinse off, I finish whatever I'm doing and make them wait. Some of them feel the awkwardness and don't do it again. If this happens a second time, I tell them to leave or I will call the police. If they stay for the police, I have them banned so they can get a trespass or remaining after being forbidden charge so they get arrested if they show up again. People who are unable to stop before it gets to the trespass phase most likely have a personality disorder. When I work through my escalation, I am polite and kind. "Excuse me, Sir/Ma'am, would you please not bucket wash today, it's my busiest day and all my bays are full with customers waiting. If you were to do this later tonight or Monday through Thursday, I would probably not ask you to move." I do the same for people who wipe, dry and loiter in bays. If other bays are open, I let this go.
 

Earl Weiss

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I find people don't like to be told what to do. So,first I request that they please finish in a couple of minutes because others are waiting.
 

Damoni88

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I find people don't like to be told what to do. So,first I request that they please finish in a couple of minutes because others are waiting.
I can agree with you on this even though they are on your property. If you were on their property and the asked you to do something they would expect you to do it . So why are we so different??? I asked one guy yesterday to turn his music down he said i will just leave i said good dont go to my other two locations either.
 

soapy

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I have tried about every approach there is. Each situation is different. I explain that if everyone bucket washed like them I would go broke. I also explain that I have to control the chemicals that are used and brought into the property and there is no way for me know if their stuff is safe or not. I explain The city won't allow undocumented chemicals so they are violating city,state and federal environmental laws as well as city loitering laws.
 

MEP001

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I have a short fuse with people tying up a bay on a busy day. I always ask them politely first, tell then they're welcome to use the bay as long as they like as long as the timer is running, otherwise it's theft of service (Same arrestable offense as shoplifting, no minimum amount needed), and then I call the police and have them issue a criminal trespass notice. If they're so deluded in their sense of entitlement, they don't deserve a second chance.
 
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