"Helpful and very good job done on our car, especially in removal of tree sap.

Car mats still very damp on collection - car is full of condensation after being left for any period. Obviously it will dry out over time but current weather has delayed this*.

Overall very pleased with the condition of the car on collection. Will definitely be using your services again."

*four days of warm weather and rain meant that there has been high humidity, but luckily a 'mini-heat wave' is forecast for the weekend, 25/05/05.

"Application of Ultrashield on my Corolla was fairly satisfactory.

I was expecting a thick and permanent coat on the paintwork but it was fairly thin.*

Generally the job was satisfactory."

*Paint sealants work on a microscopic level, filling and sealing the microscopic pores in your paintwork and coating the car in glossy coat of Polymers which is just a few microns thick. Sealants cannot be compared in thickness to clear coat lacquer, apart from the extra shine, they are virtually invisible.

"Car came back nicely, person that did Supagard/valeter was very helpful-

1 big problem is on close inspection of bonnet it is very finely scratched all over. I believed it was buffed 3 times and in my opinion looks much worse than when it came in.

Is there anything you can do to improve this?
Regards
John Carmody"

John Carmody - Grays - 24/05/05

"Gary,

Just a quick note to thank you and your team for the job that you did for me on my bonnet. As you know I was not 100% happy originally with the finish. Instead of telling me that it was as good as it could be like I am sure most companies would have done, you and your company showed fantastic customer service by allowing me to bring the car back and redoing the bonnet at your own cost.

The two guys who worked on the car (Mark and Sean) were very helpful giving advice on future care and gave me a wash mitt to care for my car better.

Your commitment to customers is absolutely fantastic and I cant begin to tell you how impressed I was with your no fuss attitude, I will definitely bring my car back to you and recommend you freely. I am entirely satisfied with the work completed.

Good luck with everything there, I am sure your business will go from strength to strength. Please pass on my best wishes to all your staff.

Regards
John Carmody
Director
AAI International Ltd.

"Apart from the scratch to my rear tinted windscreen, I was very impressed with the friendly helpful service I received.

Gary was understanding when I was late for the initial assessment and Rob tried hard to make amends for the damage to my car during the valet by touching up the stone chips and carrying out extra cleaning too.

The steak promotion is a unique idea and I very much enjoyed the lunch."

Note: Lisa asked us to remove a sticker from the inside of her rear windscreen which was over the top of the tinted screen film. Unfortunately, while removing the sticker we cause a scratch to the film. We take full responsibility for this and have offered to pay to have the tinted film on the rear screen replaced.

"Service was excellent above expectations
Would recommend your company to others.

Please supply a stamped addressed envelope!"

Note: Sorry about that. We usually do supply a stamped addressed envelope with our feedback forms. Thank you for sending the form back anyway, despite this oversight on our part.

"Your service was excellent. The car was very clean and the only criticism I can make is that the seat belts could have been cleaned.

The staff were particularly courteous and helpful."

Note: Although we tried several different products we were unable to get the seat belt straps clean. I'm afraid that it is sometimes the case with cream or light grey seat bets that they don't come clean although a improvement can often be made.
It should have been explained to you that we had tried (just about everything) to clean them when you collected your car, you have my sincere apologies for the breakdown in communication.

"If the end result is only what counts then 9/10.

But a variation between quotation items and on the day replaces items - 2 different people.

Poor adherant to times for completion."

Note: I'm sorry for any confusion caused. It is very unusual for somebody to request parts of the exterior to be cleaned when having an interior valet. While Sean said it could not be done, Mark agreed to do the items as extras, this accounts for the difference in quotation. The extra work caused us to over run, I'm sorry for any inconvenience but glad you were happy with the end result.

"I brought my Astra in to have the wheels treated as I had a bubblingunder the paint of the wheel.
Gary assured me they could be done and would not be a problem.

I picked the car up and took it home and noticed that there was still bubbling under the paint. I phoned Gary up then took the car back.
He helped and contacted the vendor who did them and arranged for the wheels to be done again.

Once again the wheels were done only to find he had done a matt and gloss colour. I got in contact again and Gary helped me no end - he assured me that he would personally check the wheels.

Once they were done he gave me a full refund and a free valet for all the inconvenience the vendor had caused.

The wheels were perfect and all bubbling had gone. They looked like new.

I can't congratulate enough Gary and Mark for all the help and assistance they gave me, they fell over backwards to help. That is real client satisfaction, all companies should treat customers this way,

I would not hesitate to recommend Clean Image to all my friends and colleagues. You did a wonderful service. I will return if I need anything else done.

Many Thanks"

*Note - I'm sure everybody knows the feeling when you have one of those jobs where nothing seems to go right. This was one of those jobs! Thankfully 'third time lucky' trumped 'Murphy's law' and we got the job done in the end.
Things do go wrong in any business, mistakes are made, employees have off-days, sometimes it seems that the whole universe is against you. But at Clean Image we try our best to make sure that these are our problems, not your problems.

"Excellent service from booking the valet right through to picking up the car.

One small point - The glovebox was not cleaned/touched - not sure if this is included?*

Otherwise superb I would recommend Clean Image to everyone who wants to enhance their car. I sold my Beetle to the first couple who saw it and I am sure the valet convinced them.

So good I'm coming back with another car!"

*At Clean Image we have a Personal Items Policy which states:- "Glove compartments, map pockets and centre consul are not to be cleaned unless specifically requested by the customer, in which case any items contained therein should be placed in a san-bad and placed in the boot - inform customer. The glove compartment and money pockets are to be considered private - Remember Clean Image's honesty policy" (Yes, we have an honesty policy to.)

"I thought the customer service was good as I wasn't pressured into unnecessaryservices.

The overall finish was very good but I noticed a couple of minor quibbles after I had left. The rear mats weren't replaced on the floor* and a bit of the upper window hadn't been polished off - but it did rain when I was leaving so may have been due to that.

Overall I thought a good valet."

*We place the mats in the boot if they or your carpets are damp - it helps the car dry out and avoids any problems with damp odours. You should have been informed, I'm sorry that you were not.

"A note of disappointment RE the service my wife received, especially given your web site statement of procedure.
(1) Charged a medium fee for a two seater sports car! I am keen to understand 'small'!.
(2) Charged £25 for leather conditioner & 'advised not in stock' & given a bottle to take away!
(3) Charged for Diamondbrite without asking for it.
(4) Promised phone call when ready, none received!

Please provide a refund for the above items. "

Dear Mr & Mrs Proudfoot,

Sorry for the misunderstandings regarding the valet we carried out on your car – we are currently taking steps to ensure that there is less chance that it happens again in the future by making changes to our website and with a staff training session. We hope that things have now been explained to your satisfaction and that you are happy with the work.

I’m writing to you concerning the testimonial/feedback form you sent us (copy attached) as we do put all testimonies on our website. Would you please consider writing another testimonial to replace or to be added to one you have already sent us?

We don’t mind showing that sometimes we have problems, but do like to show that we resolve them to the satisfaction of our customers and your co-operation would be much appreciated in helping us to do this.

I do hope that you take us up on the offer to clean your car next time you are in town and look forward to seeing you.

Once again, our sincere apologies for the misunderstandings.

Regards
Gary Wray

"Clean Image followed up on our feedback and resolved the misunderstandings.

My advice is to be clear on your requirements.

A complementary car clean was a goodwill gesture too."

We recently received this letter from an unhappy customer:-

Dear Sir,

Silver Valet to Honda CRV

I was quoted for the above valet £139.95 and was told it would take seven hours to do the job. I dropped the car off at 10.00am and subsequently received a phone call at 4.00pm to say it was ready.

On collecting my car I found that the air conditioning was not working, but this has now been rectified.

I noticed that the rear door window had not been opened, so the glass and door surrounding the metalwork was dirty.

The four side windows had not been lowered and were dirty along the top edge.

This morning I had a closer look at your Company's work on my car and found the following:-

1. Various door rubbers were dirty.
2. The tailgate metal surround was dirty.
3. The tailgate rubber was dirty.
4. The driver's door bottom was dirty.
5. The nearside rear top door rubber was dirty and had grit in the rubber channel.
6. The empty spare wheel well had not been cleaned.
7. Cleaning cream was left on the mirror side of the driver's sun visor.
8. The sun roof metal recess had not been cleaned properly.
9. The sun roof leading and rear rubber edge was dirty.

The above had now been rectified and has taken me one and a half hours to do the work your staff should have done in the first place.

You may wonder why I am not well pleased with your service. I ask myself if you are really "Chelmsford's Premier Car Valet Centre"?

Perhaps after due consideration of the above, I think you will agree that I am due a substantial refund of my monies paid to your company for the poor workmanship carried out on my car, and for the time I have had to spend completing the job.

Your early reply would be appreciated

Yours faithfully
Name withheld.

We gave this matter due consideration and this gentleman will not be getting a refund.

As you can see from the testimonies on previous pages, we don't always get it right first time - after all, nobody is perfect and all companies make mistakes, it's how the company handles those mistakes that really makes the difference. We will bend over backwards to please our customers, even if we feel we are not at fault. We will rectify any problems, and we give upgrades, and free stuff to make up for any inconvenience. We realize that it is customer satisfaction that is the No.1 thing that keeps us in business. However, there are some customers we just don't want or need, especially when they treat our team in a disrespectful and condescending way.

When mark took the booking the customer asked what would be the latest they could bring the car in and still collect it the same day. We agreed that if he dropped the car off at 10.00am he could collect it at the end of the day. But when he dropped the car off at ten, he then insisted that we had to get it done by 4.30pm because he had to go and play bowls. Mark advised him he thought the car only needed a Bronze Valet but he insisted that we carry out a Silver Valet - all the while he was talking down to Mark. In order to please the customer we had to have two valeters working on the car to get it finished on time.

When he collected the car he said that he was happy with the valet but we should give him the valet for free because he claimed his air conditioning was not working. And he tried to bully a member of staff into admitting liability in writing (We don't do anything that would effect air conditioning and so it would be highly unlikely that we would break it. We also felt that the air conditioning on this car might work more effectively if the engine were running, which was something we didn't get the chance to test).

It should be noted that if any customer is dissatisfied with our service, including broken air conditioning, they are protected by consumer laws -- and so are we -- we must be given the chance to rectify the situation. So we declined the customer's suggestion that we gave him a "free valet" and instead said that we would have an independent inspection done on the air-conditioning unit to determine the fault and the cause.

However, the next day when we phoned the customer he told us that the air conditioning was now working and that he was happy with the valet. The next day we received the above letter listing many complaints and asking for a "substantial refund".

We strongly suspect that this customer was actually happy with the valet, but he would have been happier if he could try-it-on and get some money back out of us. At no point has he expressed an interest in us to putting things right, instead he wants money. Unfortunately, such people do exist and every business has to find a way to deal with them. Our way has always been to stand our ground and announce that we are not a soft touch.

As previously mentioned, the customer should have given us the opportunity to rectify any issue that he was not happy with. As he didn't we are not obliged to give a refund even if this were a genuine compliant. As the customer has rectified the claimed problems, there is little we can do except offer an explanation:-

Firstly, the valet times as marked on the appraisal forms are 'average times' and they are estimated to allow room for our valeters to 'breath'. So for example if another customer comes in with an enquiry, they can take the time to talk to them, and not be in a rush to complete the work on time. It would not be unusual to finish a valet in under the average time. This is irrelevant in this case as this customer demanded we finish the car early and we had two valeters working on it. It was completed early which is what he wanted.

Secondly, we have different levels of service, if we did every little detail on every car, got every bit of grit out of every door rubber, then we would only have one type of valet, it would cost many hundreds of pounds and take several days to do -- we have to draw the line somewhere, even on the Gold Valet. On a Gold valet we clean the spare wheel compartment and and all the shuts and door surrounds as standard, but on a Silver valet these things would have to be selected as extras and we would be happy to do them for anybody who asks. (To see dirt in the rubbers on the tops of the doors on a Honda CRV, you would have to be standing on a chair, which goes to show the lengths this customer went to to find fault.) We do open the windows to clean the tops, but obviously if there is dirt and moisture in the window surrounds (top or bottom), then this dirt will transfer back to the glass leaving streaks. It's a problem we are well aware of, but without taking the doors apart, there is little we can do about this.

In this case we are satisfied that we carried out the work we were commissioned to do to a satisfactory standard.

"The treatment I received on the day was very good. Mark was extremely helpful, friendly and professional. He even tried to help me out on an unrelated matter (steering wheel!) Which was above and beyond the call of duty. The work it's self is to a good standard also.

My only suggestion would be to get a receptionist or train the guys in phone manner. The couple of times I called prior to booking, the quality of phone handling did you no favours!"

Response: We are well aware of this problem - and this problem has now been told to go and find employment elsewhere. In fact, I think I can say that he was serving out his notice at the time you would have talked to him. I'm sorry to say that you were not the only person to comment (see below) - and I cringe to think of the people who didn't comment or complain. I can only offer our sincere apologies to all our customers and assure you that all our current staff members understand and share our company's commitment to customer service.

"Overall, I was pleased with the result - the car is now substantially more pleasing to the eye.

One minor negative point - the final finishing left five small areas where the wax/cleaner hadn't been completely removed - door mirror, roof, window upright, cigarette lighter, interior windscreen."

Response: You are quite right to pull us up on these bits. As you can see from the testimony above we have had a minor staff problem for a couple of weeks. I believe that your car was valeted by a trainee, but should have been checked and finished by a more senior member of staff. Obviously this was not done, and for that I apologize.

"I was very impressed with the friendliness of everyone I spoke with. Your attitude towards giving your customers just what they need really inspires confidence.

Mark helped me to understand just what I needed doing and quality of the results was excellent. My car was appraised fro part-exchange today and the dealer couldn't believe the car was as old as it was.

Only one small thing - probably because it was raining but some grubby finger marks on the door handles. That's the only reason I can't give 100%.

Thank you."

Response: This is the third testimony in a row with a 'but', so you should be getting the picture now. Yes, our standards did slip for a while. Unfortunately, when you have one guy dragging his heels, everybody else has to work twice as hard to take up the slack, and with everybody having to work flat out, we lost a little of our edge.

Obviously, nobody is perfect 100% of the time, I can't promise that we will never have another grubby finger mark incident - but frankly, if that's the worst of our problems, I'll be a very happy man! (We have scheduled our next two training session to cover 'telephone enquiries' and final detailing and checking work). But remember we do have a "Free Valet if it rains" offer, so customers (who aren't part-exchanging their car) can bring it back and we will restore it to a freshly valeted condition!

"Overall I was pleased with the service and would recommend to others.

I was originally disappointed with the finish on the dent repair although this was rectified after a brief discussion.

Will use you again."

"Excellent quality of repairs done to remove scratches, dents and alloy wheel scuffs in a very short period of time.

Will recommend to others needing the same.

90% - some water marks left, only complaint."

"The car was in a scruffy condition with badly scuffed wheels, dents to body panels, scuffs to paintwork and soiled hood.

Very pleased with the transformation and my 6 year old car looks 'showroom fresh'. This improved it's resale value by over 1000.

My only criticism is that although the interior and boot were in pristine condition, I don't believe the bonnet was opened and cleaned underneath*, otherwise completely satisfied. "

*On a silver Valet, we don't do under the bonnet. There are three reasons for this. Firstly - nobody ever looks under the bonnet of cars! The only person to see a clean engine bay would be your mechanic, it's doubtful he would much care. Secondly - Cleaning engines bays has become a tricky business these days. There is a lot less space around the engine on modern cars for us to work, and they have become packed full of computers and electronic gizmos, meaning that we can't use pressure washers as we did in the old days, and have to clean them by hand which is a time consuming process. Thirdly, most of the 'dirt' in the engine bay is oily and really doesn't do the engine any harm, in fact it can protect it.

So why pay us for our time for something you don't need and nobody is ever going to see? The only time we might suggest cleaning the engine bay is when you are selling your car and we do have it as an option, otherwise we leave the area alone.

Having said that, I understand that you had paintwork correction, so it's very possible that compound and polish would have splashed down into the shuts. And if this is the case, then it would have been visible with bonnet closed so Mark should have opened the bonnet to remove it. If he didn't then you have our apologies and I will review our procedure and ensure that checking the shuts and washing down them down (With AutoSmart Tango) takes place on all cars in future. It will be added to our check sheets.

"Kieran did an excellent job on my ford Puma, the interior smelt fresh and looked god as new. Underneath the bonnet the engine bay was clean as you can get and the paint on the car had an incredible shine. The Kat was looking at it's best, although saying that, I was a bit disappointed with the result of the stone chips. However, do appreciate that there were quite a few!*

I would definitely recommend using Clean Image to anyone and I will be using the again.

Work Carried out:

• Silver Valet
• Diamondbrite
• Double V2K Stage two
• Attend to Stone Chips
• Valet Extras x2
• Leather Conditioner"

* I'm afraid there are no magic answers to stone chips, I'm afraid all we can do is touch them in. It is true that they can be treated in detail, but often the results are not very good and it's is incredibly time consuming so not cost effective. I'm sorry if this wasn't made clear to you before work began. There is a full article about stone chips here.

"Quality of work Excellent.

The valeter sale of the services the company offers somewhat robotic, i.e. over rehearsed."

Note: I'm not really sure how to respond to this, it's not something we have ever been accused of before, especially as Kieran was you valeters and he is maybe the least rehearsed of all our staff! Maybe you just caught him on an off-day, and for that I apologize on his behalf. Having said that, we do constantly train our staff, and we do rehearse then in order to give consistency of service - but i assure you it is done for the customer's benefit.