Hopewell Valley Car Wash — Local services in Hopewell Township

On May 20, 2023 at 10am I brought in my 2020 Lincoln Aviator to Hopewell Valley Car Wash in Pennington, NJ for "Full Detail". I have paid $355.86 in advance for the service, including a $20 tip. I came with my wife to pick up the vehicle at 1PM.

On the drive home my wife called me from the vehicle and reported that there is a strange wind noise from the driver's door. Upon inspection the driver's door top right corner was found bent outward creating a sizable gap that allowed wind and rain to enter the inside of the vehicle. (See photos) There was also a half inch horizontal scratch in the upper right corner of the door.

We immediately turned around and returned to the car wash reporting the damage. The supervisor named Carlos and an attendant named Miguel were the only employees present. They admitted that the vehicle was damaged but claimed that they have no knowledge of how the damage occurred. I was given a Customer Complaint Report to fill in. Supervisor Carlos was not well versed with customer service complaint resolution and could not provide adequate information on the process for rectifying this situation. As such we requested to speak to the owner of the business who was not on the premises.

When the owner arrived he did not dispute the damage and offered to take possession of the vehicle for a few days with the purpose of repairing it. I was not comfortable with giving him the vehicle since the business was not straightforward and transparent in determining the cause of the damage. It took 10 days for the owner, Dominic Paranzino to review the surveillance tapes to determine the cause of the damage.

In a phone conversation on May 30, 2023 at 1:29pm EDT Mr. Peranzino stated that his employee Miguel has locked the keys inside my vehicle. He then used an "airbag" device to pry open the driver's door in an attempt to unlock it and gain access to the vehicle causing the door go off the hinges and scratching it.

The owner refused a refund for the detail and repair, and offered 5 free car washes instead.

I filed a complaint with the Better Bussiness Bureau in hopes of resolving the case. The owner refused to respond to the BBB. Use at...

STOP!!! DO NOT USE THIS CAR WASH! The car wash is under new ownership. I went there today to get my car washed. I believe the person I spoke to was either the owner or manager He asked me what wash I wanted and because it was a new menu I told him I wanted a basic car wash with interior and the wax that they can add to the wash. He stated to try to sell me on a hand applied wax but I only wanted the basics. Next he asked me if I wanted the tires done. I said "don't you always wash the tires? He was really rude and said "since you can't make up you mind look at the menu." He had an attitude that immediately told me I should have gone to another car wash. I chose the supreme wash at 19.99 without tax,that included everything I wanted as well as Rain X I don't usually watch the car go through but I did today. I noticed that when it got to the Rain X the light did not light up. I spoke with a woman, who seemed like she was in charge of the people wiping down the cars and explained what the issue was. She went back to the manager who said he would run my car through again. I was short on time and asked for a free car wash ticket. He said he couldn't do that so he took my car around for another wash. When they were finished wiping the car down I asked the woman (who also had an attitude) if they would wipe the inside of the doors. She said that is not included. I asked if they vacuumed because there were still areas that needed it and I'm not talking about between the seats or any other hard to reach place (and they didn't wipe the dashboard or the console). She then said that I was expecting to get a full detail for the price of a wash. I very nicely told her that she might want to go to Capitol Car Wash (and I was about to say to see what other car washes do) but she cut me off and said "why don't you go there." I was flabbergasted that a business, especially a new one, would be so rude to a customer. She then said with a sarcastic tone "bye bye" and turned her back on me and walked away. I have never experienced any person in retail that would even consider treating a customer like that. I wish the old owners were...

One star says I hated it, but that is too severe. But I'm certainly not happy. Bought an "Ultimate" SpinSaver coupon and am disappointed. The first group of vacuumers (before the wash) did a decent job but forgot to vacuum the trunk area of my Subaru Forester, which I had left uncovered so it might be more visible. Ok, I pulled around afterwards and found their shop-vac and did it myself (one of the guys came over and tried to make amends, and he offered to power-wash the mat which I appreciated). But it was the 'after wash' group that I am most disappointed with. The whole front and backseats area got minimal wipe-down, and some parts none at all, like all 4 door handles still had dirt sitting down in the bottom. The area of shifter and cupholders console was not even touched and was visibly dirty, as was the folded-down door to the auxillary plug area. I asked one of the staff to come do it, and she did right away, by spraying 3 big sprays of water right at the shifter, and I watched it disappear into the shifting compartment before she got her cloth on it! I had to point out the Aux. plug area, and at that point I felt like I was going to spend a lot of time on that so I stopped looking. The dash was done about 2/3 of the way to the windshield. I found a lot of small drip marks that I came in with, so the whole thing was barely a once-over and didn't have that 'clean' look. And they didn't tell me my car was done, just left it running with the door open and I'm supposed to know they aren't coming back because it is done. They get a + for the outside being clean and the windows were clean and clear.

Maybe I am expecting too much, but it didn't take a lot to clean it up as I found out when I did it myself later. Maybe this was just a bad staff day. Since I am not the only writing about poor work, I recommend someone should check the final work of every car that goes out to make sure it meets their standards, and that staff is trained well. I'll use the second coupon I bought but won't...