‘Pits’ Car Wash is the Pip’s.

Pips Car Wash: Hilliard, Ohio

I always feel like I give businesses a second chance.  You know, like when you eat somewhere that ’should’ be decent and the food tastes like it slid down the fat hairy sweaty back of the guy in the kitchen; you might go again, right?   Okay, so maybe not that extreme.  But some businesses deserve a second chance, or even a third.

So, many many months ago, I checked out this self serve car wash on Hilliard-Rome Road (in Hilliard, Ohio of course) called Pips Car wash.  Its one of those that has the touch-less automatic as well as the bays with those spray wands, vacuums etc.  Anyway, they provide the convenience of paying with your card.  But, on this day, the machine was damaged, broken or whatever you want to call it and my card became jammed in the reader.  After fumbling with it for a few minutes, I was finally able to get it free, but my frustration levels were high enough that I went elsewhere to get my car shiny clean.

No harm no fowl, as the saying goes.  I returned months later to use their vacuum cleaner hoping that is didn’t suck as much as the card reader.  Well, actually, I suppose I did hope it sucked.  After I inserted the minimum amount of money to commence the sucking, nothing happened.  No sucking.  Disappointment.

Today I returned.  First to the vacuum (a different one this time).  Inserted my change and it started right up.  YAY! Oh wait, no suck.  The hose is completely disconnected.  Unfortunately, I had to repair the detached hose only to learn that the sucking, uh, did in fact suck.  This vacuum had a difficult time picking up dirt and dog hair, unlike many other area vacuum cleaners I have used.

I must be a glutton for punishment. I actually went to a wash bay.  I wanted to rinse out my engine compartment. They do tend to get a little dirty, you know.  

WTF? What am I selecting here?

For starters, I could not make out exactly which wash stage I was selecting.   The selector, pictured here, has at least three ‘OFF’ selections, two that are unreadable and the selector switch itself stops on the line at some selection points.  There was no sign of pre-soak from the nozzle and the high pressure soap appeared to be no more soapy than the high pressure rinse.  What a waste of time and money.

Speaking of high pressure, once you squeezed the trigger, it remained in the ’squeezed’ position until the selector was changed to a lower pressure setting.  I’m glad it wasn’t stuck in that mode when I switch to high pressure.  Otherwise, the wand could have shot up like a rocket perhaps hitting and damaging my car.

BTW:  The credit card validator was in good repair.  Yippee.  I walked over and tested it just out of curiosity.  Although I would not have been surprised if it was still in disarray.

Bottom line?  What a piece of shit car wash.  It is reminiscent of the car wash you find in the really really bad part of town in say Youngstown or Cleveland.  The bays were dirty I mean really dirty), the equipment was not kept up very well and the entire experience was nothing less than shitty.  This car wash is in a nice neighborhood and with so much competition around, I am surprised the owner has allowed it to get like this.  It’s not a bad location.  A good mechanical once over would do it good.

I think I am going to give up on second chances with some of these local businesses.  I’m tired of shitty service, stale bread and dirty facilities.  I really don’t expect them to get it 100% right every time time, but at least give it your best effort people.  I think that’s what it is; people just aren’t trying.  Maybe I am wrong.  Maybe they just don’t give a shit.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 6:17 pm and is filed under Pissed Off. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.