Dear Customer,

           

This letter was written to answer the most asked questions, clear up misconceptions, and state what we believe is the direction Mr. C's must pursue for it to be an opportunity for many generations to follow.

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1. We believe Mr. C's Car Wash must be honest, fair, friendly, fast, and quality driven.

2. We believe that continuing to offer full-service washing to all customers will fill a niche in the market that no one else is filling.

3. We believe speed and quality must stay in constant balance.  If we take an extra 5 minutes on every dirty car we will upset 5 customers waiting behind that car.  Mr. C's is set up to take care of vehicles that are maintained regularly, a once every 3 months customer will need a detail before they will be happy.

4. Mr. C's strives to get our exterior only patrons driving away in a clean and shiny vehicle in 7 to 10 minutes from the time they have entrusted us with their vehicle.  We strive to get full-service customers back on the road in 20 minutes or less. 

5. We believe our employees work hard and are worth more than they are paid but we live in a world that does not allow everyone to make a living wage in 40 hours a week.  We find some peace in the fact that Mr. C's Car Washes wages are at the top of the industry average.

We believe Mr. C's is the best car wash in the industry only because we have a great work force and yet we know Mr. C's is far from perfect and we must keep learning.  Here is why we do certain things:

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Flex--Serve Model - With the exception of our express only locations (Shelby Twp., and Chesterfield Twp.) Mr. C's operates as a flex-serve wash meaning we offer exterior only, full-serve and detailing services.  This means our crew is engaged in differing levels of service each day.  As a result, we cannot compete with straight tunnel washes that are designed for speed but we instead outperform tunnel washes in quality.  We hand prep each vehicle before it enters our wash.  We hand wipe rims and hand apply tire shine (when the paid for service calls for it) to achieve maximum results and the best coverage.  Lastly, we towel dry each vehicle by hand as a final cleaning.  These "extras" are becoming unheard of in the industry.  We hope customers see the value in these extras and understand the longer processing time is the result of us striving to deliver the cleanest and shiniest car possible.  

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Rubber Mats - Due to overwhelming request to have the rubber mats washed we had to start charging.  Washing of mats was never listed as part of our full service wash but for the few requests we were happy to accommodate.  With the light color and luxurious interiors of today, rubber mats have become very popular.  Many requests were to wash all 4 mats even though only one was dirty.  Now remember most patrons have 4 more cloth mats underneath the rubber mats that must be vacuumed so we are truly cleaning 8 mats instead of 4.  These extra mats increase the wait time for other customers.  Our solution was to start charging for rubber mats to be washed.

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Cloth Mats - We bought mat washers that clean and dry mats better than we have ever seen.  These machines clean and dry much faster at a price of $2 per mat and $5 per long mat.

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3rd Row Upcharge - Over the last decade, popularity of SUVs has grown exponentially, resulting in the majority of vehicles washed in our facilities to be SUVs.  The reality is, larger SUVs that are not cleaned on a monthly basis take us around twice the amount of man hours to process when compared to regular sedans and SUVs maintained regularly.  We believe that rather
than increasing the full service price for everyone, it was more fair for the vehicles that cost us more to process to be up charged a little extra.  We concluded that vehicles equipped with 3rd rows were the most time consuming and costly to process on average.  As a result, we have implemented an up charge on our full service options for vehicles equipped with a 3rd row. Even if you always have your third row down or do not wish to have it vacuumed, there is still more hatch area to vacuum, extra and larger windows to clean in the back, and the size of the vehicle demands more soap and water and wiping on the exterior.  These are all reasons why vehicles equipped with 3rd row seating are charged a little more on the full service side.  Thank you for your understanding. Please note that any vehicles with an unlimited subscription are not susceptible to the 3rd row upcharge.  If you find that you are getting your interior cleaned more than once per month, the unlimited plan will save you money.

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Register Receipts - Collecting register receipts from every customer is our way of making sure the cashier stays honest and the customer gets all the services they paid for.

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Tips - Are not expected but they are appreciated.  Any tip given to any employee is pooled and distributed to employees in their paycheck based on a pro-rata share of hours they worked.

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Charity Adds - We no longer buy charity advertising but we are very happy to donate car wash cards for raffles or auctions. The donation request form can be accessed by clicking here, or you can pick one up at any location.

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Pick Up Trucks - All items, dirt and debris must be cleared from the bed prior to being washed to eliminate the possibility of items flying out of the bed and damaging the vehicle behind it or getting stuck in our equipment or conveyor track.  For these reasons, we require clean pick-up beds -- no exceptions.  If you have dirt or rocks in the bed, please pull off to the side and we will give you a broom and a trash can to clean it out and then get you back in line.  If we refuse to wash your vehicle, please understand we do this for the safety of your vehicle, the vehicles behind you and to keep our equipment free of debris or damage.

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Cup Holders & Consoles - If these are caked with goo it's not part of our regular service.  Cleaning these are time consuming and will kill production making it impossible to achieve the under 20 minute on the road again goal.  We do offer Detailing Services by appointment to satisfy your needs.  For best results, please have all your personal belongings removed from the console and cupholders for thorough cleaning.

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Navigation Screens - Due to the fragility of these screens and how easily they can be scratched, we only clean navigation screens upon request and cannot be responsible for any damage to them.

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Wait Times - On beautiful sunny days, especially after rain or snow, the car wash will be busy and waiting in line is an unfortunate reality.  Because of the continued labor shortages, lines can be long as a result of not having an optimal amount of staff to efficiently process cars.  Further, washes located in areas with lots of dirt roads will see longer wait times as we make an effort to take all mud and dirt off vehicles BEFORE sending them through the wash.  This keeps our cloth clean of dirt that can transfer to the cars behind.  Lastly, weather variability/unpredictibility can cause us to go from dead to busy with little notice.  Please know that we are working hard to process your vehicle as quickly as possible.  Customers can now check our live-stream cameras on our website to see whether or not to make the trip over to their preferred location.

 

Residual Drippage - Despite a thorough wipe down and blowing of the mirrors, vibrations from driving down the road will inevitably cause some drips to come out of the trim and seams of the vehicle while driving.  Unfortunately, this is unavoidable. 

 

Doorjambs - We are supposed to wipe the doorjambs on any wash that includes interior cleaning. The door jambs should be clean but as you drive more water will tend to drip out of the door onto the jamb.

 

Customer Participation - We kindly ask that customers refrain from assisting and/or taking our towels to wipe down their vehicle.  It is confusing to our crew and can be a safety hazard to those unfamiliar with our wash operations.  Our towels are custom sewn and cost $2 each -- we cannot risk them not being returned.  Further, our towels are customized for different parts of the vehicle so there is no cross-contamination.  Customers are welcome to bring their own towels and pull their vehicles out of the flow of our operations to continue any specialized cleaning they desire.

 

Windows - Lowering of the windows to clean the edge that goes into the door would have employees' fingers getting caught everyday. Besides, it would greatly hinder production.  Also, windows with stone chips, as you know, can crack anytime.  It is not the car wash that causes the crack, it is the stone chip.

 

Baby Seats - We should vacuum baby seats and around them as much as possible but for the safety of the baby we believe it could be hazardous for us to unbuckle and hope we reinstall properly.

 

Seats - Seats are now moved only for safety reasons, if either we are too short or too tall to safely move the vehicle we will then move the seats. We used to move the seats to vacuum and we received too many complaints because a lot of our patrons have trouble getting their seats back exactly in their preferred position.

 

Radio - The station should not be changed and we apologize if any of our employees took the liberty.  Also, sometimes while wiping and dusting the dash & console area the radio station gets changed unintentionally. We apologize for this.  It is also policy to turn radios off in order to reduce noise so that our employees can hear and be made aware of what is going on around them.

 

Door Panels - We should be wiping any dirt off the door panels but shoe scuffs and such are items that must be left for the detail department.

 

Loading onto the Conveyor - If you feel uncomfortable driving onto the conveyor or staying in your car during the wash, an attendant will be happy to drive it on the line for you and you can walk safely to the wipe down end.

 

Spare Tires - We do not dress the spare tire on the back because when you brush up against it by accident you will need to go to the dry cleaners.  We dress these tires by request only.

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Brake Dust - When brake dust is baked on it takes a rim polishing by hand to remove it.  This is something we can't do on the production line.

 

After Market Items - We cannot be responsible for any aftermarket items such as rims, bug shields, utility racks, light bars, etc.  A car manufacturer designs its vehicles and accessories so they safely go through the envelope of a car wash.  We believe the aftermarket manufacturers do very little research on making it through a car wash.  If we refuse to wash your vehicle, please understand we do this for the safety of your vehicle, the vehicles behind you and to keep our equipment free from damage.

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Ice and Snow Pack - The car wash is never busier than after a snow day. In order to efficiently process vehicles, we kindly ask that customers have all snow and ice removed from their vehicles prior to coming to the wash.  The amount of time spent trying to remove snow and ice pack results in longer wait times for everyone.  Vehicles with excessive snow and ice will be sent through the wash to see what the equipment will remove.  After that, we offer one complimentary rewash, however, the customer will have to wait in line again.  The best strategy is to thoroughly clean your car of snow before it has a chance to harden on your vehicle.

 

Tar & Tree Sap - These are items that must be left to our detail department.  It takes mineral spirits to remove tar and rubbing alcohol to remove tree sap, along with a lot of patience and time.  This is something we can't do on the production line. Please visit our Detailing Services for more information about Details and scheduling appointments. 

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Sincere thanks for letting us service your vehicle,
Nina, Josh, Vito & Bill