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-   -   [RESOLVED] Hamza at Get Detailed - An Honest Review (Warning: Long Post) (https://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69557)

mrdanyo 07-07-2014 05:49 PM

[RESOLVED] Hamza at Get Detailed - An Honest Review (Warning: Long Post)
 
UPDATE:
Hamza and myself have come to a resolution, an update has been posted at the bottom of this post.
In light of how things turned out, I will eventually take this post down (soon) because everybody deserves a second chance.
However, I do feel that people should still be able to see how things transpired for a short period of time (so people will know how things ended).
The good news is that the issue has been resolved. Thank you to everybody who sent me msgs of support over the past 24 hours. I love this community.


Hi guys (and girls),

I feel that it's necessary for me to post a review about Hamza at Get Detailed for the damage he inflicted onto my vehicle. Let me first preface this by saying that originally when I first met Hamza, he seemed like a great young guy and we got along very well talking about cars and about life. I was recommended to him by a friend who went to highschool with him, and along with seeing his name pop up here and there on these boards, I decided to choose him over Kevin at GTA in Detail because Hamza was both cheaper and closer to home. Worst decision ever.

Before going to Hamza, I have never so much as put a single piece of cloth to my car (water washdown only) so it was in immaculate condition. No swirls, no scratches, no anything. It was pristine (minus a small rock chip or three). My car is my hobby, and there's no better way that to spend my summer weekends cruising with the windows down listening to the engine rev while shifting down into 3rd and 2nd. That's why I decided to pay for an extra layer of protection, to protect my hobby. I paid $400 for his OptiCoat service (he discounted the price from $450 but said he wouldn't protect the leather, which I was okay with) and that's pretty much the start of my nightmare.

After finishing the detailing job, I drove home, parked her on the driveway and decided to snap a few pictures to send to a couple of friends. It was about 6pm, so the sun was still out and when I stepped out of the car, I immediately noticed swirls all over my hood and body, but it was most glaringly obvious on the hood. It was probably the swirl pads Hamza was using. Not only that, but I noticed "cloudy spots" or "high spots" which basically looked like smudged grease spots all over my car. Obviously I was not impressed and told Hamza and he told me to bring her back to the shop for him to look at and that he knows what happened

So Hamza messages me, I believe it was the next day, and told me to swing by the shop that he rents out because he'll be staying late that day. I swing by immediately and I see him in his car about to leave (??). He see's me, get's out of the car and tells me I need to hurry because he has to go. So I show him the "cloudy spots" and he brings a spray over which he tells me is an opticoat leveler and sprays down the many many spots that I pointed out to him and rubbed them down aggressively using his cloth (which scared me because my car wasn't really clean). He said the swirls weren't his fault and blamed the dealer, and said that when he prepped my car for opticoat, he must've stripped the wax that the dealer applied to hide the swirls.... which makes no sense to me because I've had my car since last year and I've never so much as seen a single swirl and now it's all over everywhere. He's in a really big rush at this point and says he has to go and that he'll fix the swirls next time.

So about a week passes and Hamza messages me telling me he has time for me to bring the car in again so that he can take a look. I bring it in and he immediately sees the swirls and again says it's the dealers fault but says he stands by his work so he'll fix it for me. I don't care who's fault it is at this point, I'm just relieved and glad I found somebody that stands by his work. He cleans off the hood and then starts buffing away. Here is where things go SUPER downhill.

While buffing, I don't know if he was tired or what, but he was basically standing there nonchalantly one hand at his side and the other on the power buffer. At one point, he even received a phoneH call and continued to buff with his other hand. It didn't really bother me at the time because I thought that he's a professional and he must know what he's doing until I suddenly hear "BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG" in the span of about 1-2 seconds that my heart completely sinks to the floor. Hamza looks up at me and is kinda like "oh shit". Turns out the buffer "jumped" according to him and landed on it's side and continued to bounce around with the metal piece making direct contact to my hood. Shit.

Here are a couple cell pics that I took immediately after it happened. You can't see all the dents, but there was at least ELEVEN DENTS in there. I've linked it instead of embedding it because the size of the photo is actually quite large and takes up a lot of real estate.

PIC #1: http://imgur.com/rpv4YEw
PIC #2: http://imgur.com/Ve7KyW2
PIC #3: http://imgur.com/ewTFsKJ
PIC #4: http://imgur.com/9klngD5

There are actually more dents than are visible in these pictures. A couple FT86 members actually saw my car in real life after this and can vouch for how badly and how deep the dents were in my hood. Not to mention, my asian dad was flipping out too. I'm sure they can vouch for this too.

But yeah, there I am, standing heartbroken. My baby just got beaten up.... but Hamza was in a state of disbelief. I asked him has this ever happened before, and he said once, also on a twin, but that the other owner let him go.... (a preface of things to come? ....) and I felt really bad just looking at the guy. He was genuinely shocked. SO, I did what I thought was really honorable considering Hamza has been good to me this entire time (outside of his not so professional work) and told him to let's try to see if we can repair it. He works out of a PDR shop, so maybe his friends can repair it or something right? But he tells me he's not sure if it's fully repairable, because some of the dents were pretty deep and pretty sharp, and it's not just something you can pop out. I told him not to worry and let's try first. He thanks me and says all us FT86CLUB guys are really nice, and that if I'm not happy with the PDR, he will cover the cost of replacing a new hood.

The next day, I drop my car off at his shop in the morning at his request and he tells me he'll pick me up at the station closest to his shop when I get off of work (the station is about 5 minutes away from his shop). I let him know I'll be there at 7pm, and when I get there at 7pm sharp, I call him and he says he just stepped out of the shop for something and that he'll be here in 10 minutes. Cool. I wait 45 minutes and he still isn't here, and after a LONG day of work, I'm not exactly the most pleased with Hamza, but whatever. I give him another call and ask him where he is, and he says "I'm actually at Major Mackenzie and 404, heading down right now though"... which is not even close to his shop, lol. Eventually he arrives and picks me up, and I'm kind of just like whatever, I just hope my car is okay.

We go back to the shop and look at the car and honestly, more than half the dents were removed to the point where I could hardly tell it was there in the first place. HOWEVER, at least 3-4 dents were irrepairable. They were still there and unfortunately, I couldn't just be a nice guy and let something like that go. Hamza said it's about 90% repaired, which I agreed, but I said I needed it to be more than 90% and that I think I unfortunately would need to go ahead and have the hood replaced. He agreed and asked me to get a quote, which I did, which was $1300 which he agreed was fair. He said he would pay the bodyshop directly, which I was okay with and I went ahead and ordered a new hood.

HOWEVER, at this point, Hamza starts dodging my calls. He doesn't pick up my calls nor does he answer my FB messages. I call with my work phone and he responds immediately though. Interesting eh? Something isn't right here.

So talking to Hamza, he says that he talked to a few of his detailing friends on FB but they advised him to just "let me go on my way" but that he still wanted to do the right thing and cover the hood replacement. HOWEVER, he now had a condition, that I forfeit my original hood to him so he can sell for $500 and recoup his costs. PLEASE NOTE, even after all of this, Hamza did not refund me the original $400... and now he wants my hood to sell for another $500? He didn't ask me if I could give him my hood to help him out, but he gave me an ultimatum. Give me your hood, let me keep your $400, and I'll pay for your repairs... wtf? I tell Hamza that I'd prefer to keep it incase I ever want to sell or trade it in and he says that that's not an option, because if I want him to be held responsible, I need to give up my hood. He said that it's standard to do that. Not ever being in this situation before, I caved and said okay.

However, after speaking with family and my body shop, they tell me that it's not "standard" at all and that it should be my choice what I wanted to do with my hood. I tell that to Hamza and he says "why do you want your hood? you'll just store it away somewhere and it'll be useless. at least if you give your hood to me I'll be able to sell it for $500 or put it up on my shop on display". At this point, I tell Hamza that I paid him $400 already for his service which he didn't even refund me... and now he wants to take my hood too after the damaged he caused to my car? I told him that his $1300 (or technically $900 if you factor out the money I paid) was to fix the damages, NOT to buy my factory hood off of me. He disagrees and again, starts to ignore me.

At this point, I'm extremely frustrated. He starts ignoring and dodging me again (but again, not my work number) so I give him an option. I told him to think about it for a couple of days or else I'd have to consider escalating the situation, but that I didn't really want to do that. He again, did not reply.

A few days later, I messaged him again and gave him some options. I told him that he would be making a pretty poor decision as a service business to not do the right thing in this situation. I told him he could do the right thing and replace my hood and not force me to give him my hood, that he could keep the $400 that I originally paid... or that he could do the wrong thing, but at least give me a refund. Nobody in their right mind would have paid for a service after the guy puts 10 freakin' dents in their hood, but I did. I at least wanted it back. Finally he answers.

He said he would give me my $400 back, but that he wanted me to sign some waiver forms to release him of all liability on my car. Is he serious? He's serious. He says that he will require me sign them in his presence so that he could "protect himself". And this point I can't even be nice to this guy anymore. I tell him he's crazy, and ask him if he's really holding my refund hostage. He has conditions to everything! He'll only repair my hood if he can take $900 from me ($400 cash + $500 from selling my hood) and what... pay $400 out of pocket? And now he won't even give me a refund after clearly NOT performing the service I paid for (and actually damaging my car in the process?). I give him my bank account number, tell him to deposit my refund there, and that I want nothing to do with him anymore. He stands firm and is adamant on me signing the waiver and release of liability forms that he drafted up. I tell him to f--- off at this point and to just deposit the money in my account and that I wanted nothing to do with him anymore. I just wanted the whole thing to be over, because I knew he would never own up to the repair costs at this point anyway, he was way too shady/dodgy. He finally agreed and deposited my refund in my account.

So basically, at the end of the day, I at least got my money back... but along with it is now 3-4 visible dents in my hood. At least on cloudy days and if you don't stand up too close to the hood... you can't really see it (sigh), but I really wish Hamza would've done the right thing. He didn't, and now I'm stuck with it.

I just wanted to write this review because I know his name floats around here quite often when it comes to opticoating the twins. I'm sure people who's car he hasn't damaged probably don't have many bad things to say about him, if any at all... but this review is for you to know that IF anything DOES happen... you can bet your ass that you're gonna be the one dealing with the consequences. Don't be like me and look to save a couple of bucks and a bit of driving. Pay the difference and take the time to drive out to Kevin in Mississauga if you need. It's better than having to live with dents and swirls.


----
TL;DR - Hamza put 11 dents in my hood, charged me $400 for it, wouldn't cover repairs unless I gave him my factory hood to sell for another $500 (I pay $900 and he pays $400 for a damage that HE inflicted?), ignored calls and messages (only from my number), eventually gave me a refund but demanded me sign waivers and release of liability forms

Update (7/8/14):
Okay, I want to provide an update to the situation. Hamza reached out to me this afternoon for a resolution, which I have to tip my hat off for. It takes class to own up to mistakes and offer to rectify them. Hamza dropped off cash this afternoon to the body shop working on my car and said that I am free to use the costs for any repairs I feel necessary. He also formally offered his sincere apologies (they felt sincere, so it didn't feel like just an empty apology) and owned up to his mistakes. He also offered to redo my entire car (polish and coat) to my pleasing of which I politely declined.

I do believe that he learned a valuable lesson from all of this, and I hope in the future he will know to do whats right. Based on my most recent conversation with him, I believe that he will. He'll just have to earn back people's trust through his work again.

automatic 07-07-2014 06:26 PM

That kind of sucks what happened to your car, I wouldnt be too pleased about damage to my car. I would have expected a refund or a partial refund for my troubles.

However, I think asking for the hood after replacing it is "standard" in terms of compensation as this is how insurance companies generally do it. If you total your car, the insurance company will compensate you but you have to surrender the car.

Also I think signing a waiver form is pretty fair as well. Understandably you had some issues Hamza's dealings and were probably short on patience...but similarly if two people who got into an accident and settled it on the side instead of contacting the insurance company, they should sign a waiver of liability incase one party decides to go after the other even after the off the books replacement.

Cliu91 07-07-2014 06:32 PM

Took the time to read your whole post. Next time I advise that if you see someone doing a shitty job (on phone while waxing, buffing, etc.) take a video, and try to get a glimpse of them in their act. His work ethic is unbelievable. I'd suggest copying this post and posting them on other forums as I'm sure he is active on other car forums.

Secondly, I feel so bad for your car man. I freak out with two very minor scratches on my door, I can't imagine how the dents must feel.

I was considering on giving him business somewhere down the line, but now I'm going to make sure people avoid this shop at all costs. The only thing is... do you have any proof this was him? Perhaps a screenshot of an email conversation between the two of you?

coldy 07-07-2014 06:33 PM

Wow, I think you need this more than anyone right now.. *hug*

fyi. I know a guy! ;)

PMPB 07-07-2014 06:36 PM

Dude, you started with one hood. After his service, you should still have 1 hood + the services you paid for.

I agree that he was very unprofessional, and I'm sorry to hear about all your troubles, but I think Hamza was being extremely fair with you in correcting his mistakes.

mrdanyo 07-07-2014 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cliu91 (Post 1833909)
Took the time to read your whole post. Next time I advise that if you see someone doing a shitty job (on phone while waxing, buffing, etc.) take a video, and try to get a glimpse of them in their act. His work ethic is unbelievable. I'd suggest copying this post and posting them on other forums as I'm sure he is active on other car forums.

Secondly, I feel so bad for your car man. I freak out with two very minor scratches on my door, I can't imagine how the dents must feel.

I was considering on giving him business somewhere down the line, but now I'm going to make sure people avoid this shop at all costs. The only thing is... do you have any proof this was him? Perhaps a screenshot of an email conversation between the two of you?

Honestly you're 100%right. But at first I really liked him and never imagined something like this would happen. Had I known earlier, I would have filmed it and taken a billion more pictures.

And yeah, I have my Facebook msgs with him. I doubt anyone would spend an hour writing up this post (yeah it took me an hour lol) for no reason though, haha.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

mrdanyo 07-07-2014 06:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coldy (Post 1833910)
Wow, I think you need this more than anyone right now.. *hug*

fyi. I know a guy! ;)

Haha yeah :( I've actually been getting msgs about similar things happening to other members (also done by Hamza) since posting this less than an hour ago. I think we all collectively agree that we wish somebody posted about his poor service earlier, but since nobody did, I'll be the first.

My poor hood doe. :'(

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

wbradley 07-07-2014 06:51 PM

I feel your you. Bad luck and prior to this Hamza seems to be complaint free on the forums.

He did, however, offer to make good on the damage. He should opticoat the new hood and be done. You are not entitled to a spare hood. Perhaps he can fix it for resale to try and recover his significant losses here.

I feel bad for Hamza too. Hopefully this won't be a repeat performance and he will have learned an expensive lesson about taking care of an expensive asset. I believer he does deserve a second chance and I disagree with the thread title telling people not to deal with Hamza. As with all purchases caveat emptor. Again, at least he was going to replace the hood.

OP- I think you made a bad decision, should have accepted the replacement hood in exchange and gotten the opticoat applied to it/corrected. Instead you got a dented hood. Totally agree with PMPB.
You would ha e spent $400 and ended up with an opticoat and perfect hood. Hamza would have ended up down probably $600 plus fter the PDR and everything. And it cost him a lot of time too. Only if you believe he was absolutely unfit to finish the correction would I agree with your decision.

mrdanyo 07-07-2014 07:03 PM

@wbradley, he did not replace the hood though. He was only willing to replace it if I gave my my factory hood plus my $400 that I originally paid. He said he would sell the hood for another $500 which made no sense to me. That would mean I'd be paying $400 + giving up my factory hood ($500 value according to him) which has my VIN on it for a replacement hood? If I ever wanted to sell or trade in my car, it will be my word vs their eyes when they check and see that the hood is not the factory hood. Any replacement hood will net me with a lower resale value right off the bat.

So incase it wasn't clear, I'm actually left with my original but now dented hood. He offered me a free interior vacuum for my troubles, but I'm pretty sure anybody in my shoes would have to decline his super gracious offer lol. Believe me, I wanted a replacement hood, but there should be absolutely no reason for me to give him my factory hood and shoot myself in the foot should I choose to resell or trade in down the road.

If you rear ended someone and wanted to settle outside of insurance, would you say "I'll pay for your damages, but only if you give me your bumper so that I can sell it"? Probably not.
This review exists simply to inform others of what I went through. I don't stand to benefit from this post whatsoever.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

KPDoubleX 07-07-2014 07:22 PM

I am sorry you had to deal with that. If I saw a crappy job the first time, I would have never trusted him with my car ever again (no matter what he did).

Head over to Velocity Autobody in Markham and they have an amazing paintless dent remover that can get those out of your hood no problem. And then head down the street to Royalty Auto Spa and ask for Jeff. He is the best hands down in Toronto and treats all his clients like family. He will take care of all the damage he has done. He preps all of the cars at Importfest.

mrdanyo 07-07-2014 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by automatic (Post 1833901)
That kind of sucks what happened to your car, I wouldnt be too pleased about damage to my car. I would have expected a refund or a partial refund for my troubles.

However, I think asking for the hood after replacing it is "standard" in terms of compensation as this is how insurance companies generally do it. If you total your car, the insurance company will compensate you but you have to surrender the car.

Also I think signing a waiver form is pretty fair as well. Understandably you had some issues Hamza's dealings and were probably short on patience...but similarly if two people who got into an accident and settled it on the side instead of contacting the insurance company, they should sign a waiver of liability incase one party decides to go after the other even after the off the books replacement.

I inquired about what insurance companies do, and yes they do that if your car is totaled, but if it's just a panel they don't take your old piece. I asked a couple body shops that work on hundreds of insurance claims a year and they all told me that it's not standard outside of a totaled car, and even then, they don't always do it. Using my previous example, if you rear ended somebody and wanted to settle outside of insurance, you probably wouldn't say "I'll pay for your damages, but only if you give me your rear bumper so I can sell and recoup my losses". Also, remember that I still forked out $400 for what I'd call a "disservice" on my car which I didn't even ask back for.

I was actually extremely patient with Hamza, patient beyond belief. I was actually the one cheering him up after he put the dents in my hood and told him not to feel too bad. I'm pretty sure if there was an ideal customer, I was probably it, at least leading up until he started giving me ultimatums and conditions for refund.

You have to remember, it's not like he wanted me to sign a release of liability after covering costs for repair. If you got into an accident and settled outside of insurance, it would probably be a wise idea to have something like that. But he wanted me to sign waivers and release of liability forms for a refund lol, meaning I still fully absorb 100% of the cost of the damages myself.

mrdanyo 07-07-2014 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KPDoubleX (Post 1833992)
I am sorry you had to deal with that. If I saw a crappy job the first time, I would have never trusted him with my car ever again (no matter what he did).

Head over to Velocity Autobody in Markham and they have an amazing paintless dent remover that can get those out of your hood no problem. And then head down the street to Royalty Auto Spa and ask for Jeff. He is the best hands down in Toronto and treats all his clients like family. He will take care of all the damage he has done. He preps all of the cars at Importfest.

It was an expensive lesson learned, but I agree with you. Never again will I go back to a "bad job" for any corrections.
Thanks for these suggestions, I'll definitely check them out!

automatic 07-07-2014 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrdanyo (Post 1833994)
I inquired about what insurance companies do, and yes they do that if your car is totaled, but if it's just a panel they don't take your old piece. I asked a couple body shops that work on hundreds of insurance claims a year and they all told me that it's not standard outside of a totaled car, and even then, they don't always do it.

You have to remember, it's not like he wanted me to sign a release of liability after covering costs for repair. Yes, if you got into an accident and settled outside of insurance, it would probably be a wise idea. He wanted me to sign waivers and release of liability forms for a refund lol, meaning I still fully absorb 100% of the cost of the damages myself.


Yes you are correct about replacing parts and how insurance companies will not want the part. They dont want it because the amount of time/effort to recoup the cost of the part will likely be more than the value of the part itself. It was more of an analogy.

I misunderstood the waiver part. I was under the impression that he would repair, or repair + refund along with the waiver. If it were me and he repaired, or repaired+ (partial/full) refund, I'd sign the waiver.

I'm not sure how the communication is going now, but I would try to work out a new hood (opticoated)+ partial refund, and sign the waiver if everything is satisfactory. I think that would be a fair compromise considering what happened.

ZionsWrath 07-07-2014 07:58 PM

@Hamza7

"Review my services"
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62276
Quote:

Originally Posted by Hamza7 (Post 1643670)
Hey guys if you are on any of these social platforms I'd really appreciate a review if you've used my services in the past. These help me get the word out about my business to people who don't frequent forums but are still looking for good auto detailing options.

Here are the links:

https://www.facebook.com/getdetailed1

https://plus.google.com/+GetdetailedCa/

http://www.yelp.ca/biz/get-detailed-thornhill

If you want to follow what I'm up to you can do it here

http://instagram.com/getdetailed

www.twitter.com/getdetailedGTA

Thanks for viewing!



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