No its not quite like that !! they seem to have a system
1- spray a product like snow foam on the car and then leave it a little while to soak
2-Then they hand wash the car with hand wash mitts
3-Then they spray the alloys
4-Then jet wash the car
5-Then dry the car and do inside the door shuts
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A mate of mine runs his own company and started off as a valeter, so knows what he's talking about. He won't go anywhere near them.
I however do...and i'm fairly impressed with my local one. For instance when they put the car through the first bit with a rinse to get rid of the worst stuff e.g. grit, they then use a mitt. The seating area is right up the other end of an underground car park. I sat and watched one day and one of them dropped the mitt on the floor. It went immediately into a bin full of other similar type things and he went and got a fresh one.
The other thing is, i'll occasionally bung our cars through a normal automated car wash. My local hand wash lot gave me a semi-rollocking when I took my wife's car in to them (dark blue colour) as the swirls from the automated wash were quite noticeable. I put my hands up...and they polished the bonnet and front wings, for no extra cost.
£10 mon - thurs, £12.50 fri, sat, sun is IMO good value, for inside and out, inc tyre paint, hoover, windows and dash wiped, inc door jams. But like everything in life you get what you pay for. I have no doubt Stu will be able to tell us what a proper job would provide.
Edited by Westpig on 31/07/2009 at 21:12
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There is a valeting firm occupying quite a few parking bays in the Shopping Centre near where I live and when I go past them, I see very little evidence of copious water being used to valet the cars. Also, and not unsurprisingly, a large percentage of these cars are dark colours especially black ones!
Anyone who is reasonably fastidious about their cars wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.
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There was one near me, full treatment by 2 people working for about 10 minutes, for £5. Good results. One day there was lady there in £150K+ Bentley Convertible. I made conversation with her, the way one does, and said I was suprised that she was using them for such a car and she said they were fine and her husband owned the business, among many others in the area! A few weeks later a mini-bus and some Immigration /police turned up and the workers were taken away and not seen again!
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I couldn't do it. Pay someone to wash my car that is. Not a man or a machine. It would feel the same as paying someone to mow my lawn. Despicably decadent and lazy.
Takes me 20 minutes to vacuum, wash and leather a car dry. What's more its a little bit of excercise, a spot of fresh air and you by default check the vehicle for damage while you do it.
Pay???.............Aye......that'll be right!!!!
Pah!!!!
;-)
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A mate of mine runs his own company and started off as a valeter so knows what he's talking about. He won't go anywhere near them.
Hmmmmmm. I'm not aware of any professional qualifications/degree one can get for setting up a business to run a valeting firm.
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Hmmmmmm. I'm not aware of any professional qualifications/degree one can get for setting up a business to run a valeting firm.
Didn't say he had any professional qualifications....just that he knew what he was talking about in that field i.e which 'stuff' to buy and how it should be applied etc.
His business was more the industrial side of things e.g. lorry fleets, but originaly inc cars, although not any more, he's diversified into industrial spillages, utility company clean up work and that sort of thing.
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>>I have no doubt Stu will be able to tell us what a proper job would provide.<<
Truth is, even with my low overheads, I cant do cars quite that cheap as its difficult to get the volume when you go to private houses - you could say Im better value in that you dont have to leave the house and find something to do whereas at home you can do whatever you like, infact many of my customers who have more than one car, go out and leave me to lock up, so its about as pain free as it can be.
I do the job Westpig describes for about £20 with a surcharge for very large cars of £5 and a discount of £5 for something like a Smart or MX-5 which is alot less work.
It usually takes me two hours to do that said job although ive been known to go to 3 hours to get the job done right, I dont have a set time limit.
I also discount for a company that I have an arrangement with which gives them nearly 25% off for a volume of 5 cars per week - they are very local and of the 30 or so staff, more than half are regulars.
I am a mug when it comes to 'my word' though. I did an interior on a Focus C-Max the other day - totally obliterated farm hack - for an agreed price of £30 - In the end I was there just shy of 6 hours, which including costs works out at less than £5 an hour, mainly because I couldnt leave it sort of ok, it had to be spot on or it would bother me intensely, especially as it was through a recommendation of a very dear customer of mine who recommends me to anyone who will listen to her!
The upshot is that so impressed were they, that I now am doing two of their cars monthly for £70, which means they will never get that dirty and so there is more profit in the jobs, despite the horrific first job which seemed hardly worth it at first.
Whether or not you value a hand car wash as equal to the sort of thing I do is down to the individual and I wouldnt say Im better as its down the the individuals doing the job - there are some terrible mobile valeters aswell, hilariously bad in some cases. Its whatever you find sorts you out.
There is no money in full valeting it has to be said, quick washes and wash/hoover is where the coin is, if you can line up the work.
Its not just immigrants that fall into the valeting trade though, there are alot of ex-cons who take it up as nobody asks many questions - infcat the guy who trained me had convictions for armed robbery and various drug related crimes, but he taught me well and was somewhat of a reformed character by the time I knew him. Some of us though just love the work, its why Ive only ever done this since I left college.
Oh and the best qualification for valeting is experience, no piece of paper could teach me what I know.
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>> Oh and the best qualification for valeting is experience no piece of paper could teach
Quite right Stu, and that applies to many things, not just valeting.
In my job we see and have to implement the ideas of qualified experts, often making the job less productive and efficient causing ongoing problems.
Said experts never ask the chaps that can do it properly for an opinion, instead baffle the suits with rhetoric...the suits don't ask either.
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Isn't that the case with a lot of occupations these days. The more total drivel that can be spouted the higher up the greasy pole people climb. The problem is that as these people are generally in managerial roles its very difficult to tell them a few home truths - like get a life and talk some sense that people can really understand. Instead those on the first rung of the pole coo, feign and look impressed - and the worse it gets.
Rant over.
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So true FC. That remains the primary reason why I choose to remain self employed. It's often not as secure and can often be not as lucrative but at least I don't have to listen to or follow instructions from people for whom I have limited respect. That part is priceless.
Washed my car today by way of tenuously and feebly attempting to drag all this back to topic.....
;-)
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I've washed and polished my tractor this week. It is 5 years old and looks like new. My missus grumbles when I nick her dusters for polishing and window cleaning.
Many tractor dealers use professional valeters to clean up their second hand tractors, most are filthy.
We have got a hand car wash near us, they are Latvian and do a fair job for £5 a car. I don't know what they charge for tractors.
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>>It's often not as secure and can often be not as lucrative but at least I don't have to listen to or follow instructions from people for whom I have limited respect.<<
Amen to that. I dont think I could stand working for anyone else now, just watching the Apprentice worries me about how dumb one needs to be to earn good money. If they are the cream, its no wonder we are where we are. Not even common sense is required these days.
Im afraid finding a good valeter really is down to finding someone else who is happy with theirs or just pot luck.
Alot of offices have onsite valeters or arrangements like I do and they seem extremely popular for busy office types. Most of my customers are either owners or senior management, but there are a few ordinary folk aswell.
In my little close ive seen three different firms at work so they are certainly popular here ( I refuse to work on my doorstep! ).
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Well stu it is obvious you enjoy your job and are good at it but how do you find a good valeter !!I know you will probably say a recommendation but it something most people do not have done so getting a person to recommend someone is going to be difficult
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