I was told that my full wash, inside and out, would take about one hour, so I waited in their non-air conditioned waiting room. Two and a half hours later, I was so grateful to finally have my car back that I did only a quick once-over before jumping in and driving home. On close inspection at home, it was a fine wash job, with some obvious laziness: the ashtray was still sticky and full of gum wrappers, as it was when I left it, and the cup holder was still covered with dried-on soda, because neither ashtray nor cup holder had been opened?forgivable, an all-around mediocre job (for 2 ? hours and $87). Here?s what really bothered me, though: What had been opened, emptied, and scrubbed perfectly clean was my coin tray. Like many drivers, I keep quarters for tolls and parking meters, pennies left over from drive-through change, and so on adding up in my car. Well, it?s not that I counted every penny and found one missing?every penny, nickel, and dime was gone. They?d made no attempt to be subtle. They?d quite literally cleaned me out. Of course, the grand total of the stolen change probably came to less than $3, not worth the gas to drive back and complain about it, but I think that?s what bothers me most. What is this cleaner?s job worth to him? What is Fire House Car Wash?s reputation worth? What is customer confidence worth? The answer to all of these questions is, ?Less than $3.? If you need to trust someone with anything of real value, anything that actually matters, look somewhere else. These people will screw you over for $2.67 in change.
Pros: Average cleaning
Cons: Petty theft, took twice as long as expected, lazy about cleaning accessories
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