Embassy Auto Wash

Let’s be clear: this is just an average car wash so you shouldn’t expect anything beyond that. I often don’t know why they have different cleaning tiers– it’s basically all the same. I have a car that’s at least 10 years old that I take to this place. They managed to break my side mirrors so they didn’t fold in any more and since I didn’t notice until the next day and there was no clear way to prove it, I suffered the $ 2000 (yes $ 2k) repair. But it’s convenient and quick so I still use them when I need to clean it. I have a new car that I will NEVER take to this wash until it too is nearly 10 years old.
If you aren’t emotionally attached to your car and you need a quick clean on the exterior and at best a wipe down on the inside, this place works. If you want a professional detail or have much higher expectations go elsewhere. And just get the basic tier wash. Paying anything more is a waste of your money!

I’ve been a customer for quite a while (mostly because it was the most convenient car wash for me) but I after my experience today, I won’t be back. I pulled in 2 minutes before closing and they already had the closed sign up so I went inside to ask nicely if they could still take my car since it was still before they closed at 5:30. The manager or owner that I spoke to was not apologetic in the slightest, cut me off while I was finishing asking if he could take my car to say «no, we go by the time on our clock» (and no that wasn’t synced to satellite time that I was looking at on my phone). After todays experience, they’ve lost me as a customer.

This is what $ 28 gets you. You judge for yourself! Check the photos!
They all work hard but with no quality checks customers are left to drive off. I think I will use one the car washes at the gas stations up the road.

Poor service, if you do the regular wash then it’ll be alright but if you pay for extra services their employees conveniently forget to do them. I paid extra for the seat wash and waxing. Neither were done until I had literally chased down the guy in charge of doing them and asked repeatedly that I had already paid for the service. He had the audacity to tell me to come back tomorrow, I refused and he finally cleaned the seats and did the waxing. Shocked by their behavior and service. I wouldn’t be surprised if their workers were illegals. Never again.

I went there yesterday to get my truck clean and they did beyond a terrible job. I take pride in my truck and I could tell they gave 2 S**ts about their jobs. I still had dirt stains all over the outside of my truck and they did a very halfassed job on the interior. Also Way over priced too I got the the top level wash, a bunch of high school kids in a school parking lot could have done a better job! I just moved to the area and didn’t know better I guess I need to look for a new car wash!

Lazy work. How is this place still in business? We got the platinum wash with a $ 5 coupon. I might as well have just burned the $ 23 I paid for the wash. Exterior was okay, but the interior still had dirt, dust and hair. We asked them to do a more thorough job and they walked over lazily and barely did a vacuum and wipe down expecting a tip for the extra few seconds they spent on us.
Very annoyed at how terrible this place is. When I got home I had to clean the interior myself. Avoid this place and save your money.

Expensive car wash and they lost my floor mat. They have no idea what happened to it… just poof it’s gone. The staff are a bunch of what appear to be undocumented immigrants and are not very helpful. Save yourself the frustration and drive 10 minutes to the car wash in Falls Church.

Rude is the best word to describe their customer service. I pull up and tell an employee the service I want, a $ 52 wash with interior he writes me a ticket and says 40 minutes. I come back in 40 min to find my car not finished and two employees woman at the register and an older guy with a mustache yell at me for leaving. I explained that’s what their employee told me I could do. The wash was not great for $ 20 maybe, for $ 52 — no way. Will never come back here.

Tl;dr — Terrible experience all around for a car wash that is half-​assed and careless, all for an exorbitantly high price. Avoid at all costs
The longer version:
If there were a way to encapsulate the concept of sheer unprofessionalism from start to finish, Embassy would be the end result.
In a rush and in need of a car wash pretty badly, I pulled into Embassy to get the deed done. Immediately as I pull up, the person taking orders begins to very pushily try to upsell me on anything that Embassy offers. When I place my order, she gave some more attitude and warned me that it wouldn’t be enough. Seeing that I wouldn’t budge, though, the unskilled salesperson takes down my order
Now the exterior wash itself isn’t any different from any other washing place, so the business really differentiates on how well the inside looks. Here, Embassy falls way way short. The windows were streaky and the inside of my windshield looked worse after the wash than it did before. The vacuum crew missed large swathes of the vehicle as there were distinct lines between what was cleaned and what wasn’t. The dashboard was still dusty, and the side mirrors were splotchy and actually requires me to clean them myself later on.
There’s a statement on the back of the order ticket offering customers a free additional service if needed, so I tried to both call and return back to make use of this seemingly generous offer. I got attitude from the workers in both cases (the cashier and the front sales lady from before), so I figured I’d cut my losses.
This is a terrible place to transact and your car won’t even come out clean. Take your business elsewhere

I wish there was a way to grade this location a zero stars. I just finished a wash there and am currently at another car wash having the vehicle detailed again. Not only was the internal detailing done poorly; even the external wash was a complete waste. Windshield was still dirty at the end of the wash and personnel made no effort to clean it.
Bottom line: this car wash is sub par and a complete waste of money. Might as well wash the vehicle yourself and save the extra cash for the auto vacuum.

If there is 0 star, I would give 0. I got a platinum wash, which was the most expensive one. My car came in and out in less than 5 mins. You probably can tell how sloppy the job is. After the wash, my car doesn’t look any cleaner than before. Dirty spots And stains are still there. Horrible! I know this place sucks but can’t imagine it could be this bad. However, I still see a line here. Lots of luxury cars. Seriously, people in McLean just have too much money and don’t care about the service at all, I guess.
I will save my money and go somewhere else. Don’t come ever!

Extremely dissatisfied with their effort. Interior wipe down is a joke. I see dust all over and see obvious spots that should not be visible. Seems like they didnt even do a basic wipe down.
Not going to return

I will let the other reviews speak for themselves regarding the quality of work and lack of service, but I hope anyone considering going here will read this and take notice:
I normally go elsewhere, but had a few minutes while my daughter was at ballet, so I stopped into Embassy. Before I went I took my ring off and put it in my ashtray because it was bothering me when I drove. The compartment was closed, and out of sight, so I forgot about it when I got out of my car to pay for the wash. When I was waiting for my car I noticed all of the women washing the car whispering to each other and then one turned to look at me and quickly glanced away when she caught my eye.
I got in my car and immediately thought something was up by the way the women were acting. Sure enough, my ring was gone.
When I went in the the manager to tell him he said it probably got sucked up with the vacuum. No, because that area wasn’t cleaned. The ring wasn’t valuable But it was the point of it all. I can NOT believe this place is still in business.
PLEASE be careful with your personal items in this or any car wash. While I generally believe most people are honest and do the right thing, you can’t be to careful.

Awful service — they just don’t care. Mats just thrown in, glass cleaner only used on inside of windshield, door jams not cleaned. Doesn’t matter what service you get — same lack of attention. Worth the drive to Reston for a good service at Three Cees

Pretty bad service on interior and on the exterior of the car. This place used to be good but now I won’t be going back to get my car clean. Just paid $ 20 and it was not worth. Also, they remove the front carpets and do not place it back, so before I head out, I need to fix it myself to avoid accidents. The rag they use to clean interior of the door, must be dirty or something, my door is all scratched. My car is new, barely 6 months of use. DO NOT USE THIS PLACE.

It’s just my go to place when I need a car wash and the car wash machine at the gas station is broken. My car gets a good wash. The vacuum job is ok. Be sure to get a coupon for your next visit for a dollar off. That’s if you decide to go back.

Poor customer service and poor quality clean.
One time at Embassy, I went up to the cashier and gave her some change as part of my payment. She shoved a quarter back in my face, saying it was not good. The quarter was somewhat corroded but was still easy to decipher. I told her it was against the law to refuse legal US tender and she called me a liar. I dug out another quarter but I was extremely insulted.
Another time I had the pleasure of meeting the owner (I think) of Embassy. I asked him a few questions about the wash process and he asked me why. I told him my uncle owns a car wash in Ohio and the owner proceeded to laugh, like me and my uncle had no clue what we were talking about.
The icing on the cake is the wash itself. I like to think I could deal with crappy customer service if the product was good but that is not the case here. The wash struggles to get the dirt off the body of my car, brake dust off the wheels, and inconsistently applies the tire shine. The workers do a poor job of cleaning the interior of the car. My windows are left streaky, the mats are barely vacuumed, and very little else is wiped down.
There is a gas station wash right down the road… you can get a better exterior wash for like $ 7 over there. I suggest doing so.

I will not be back.
I got the $ 20 wash — because I wanted the final wax clear coat. I was looking forward to the vacuuming — my front driver mat had some dirt and stones on it, but it wasn’t dirty. At the end of the wash, however, it looked like it was stained. I don’t know what they did instead of just vacuuming, but it was terrible. I pointed it out, and they steam cleaned it. It helped a little, but I still wish they would have just vacuumed it.
After going through the bay, the car came out with the same bird poop spots on it — and dirt on behind the rear tire, and dirt spots on the trunk. After pointing it out to them, they cleaned behind the rear tire and the hood, but I was so done with them by then I had already returned the coupon for next time, and just did not want to be there.
If I wanted to/​had space to clean my car myself, I would have done so.

JUST DON“T GO HERE. YOU“RE BETTER OFF GOING TO THE EXXON GAS STATION FOR A WASH. IF YOU NEED SOME INTERIOR WORK DONE GO TO SONIC SOFT CAR WASH.
I really wish it was possible to give a place zero stars because that’s what they deserve.
I never read the reviews but it doesn’t surprise me they are so horrible. Fortunately, nothing happened to my car and nothing will because I’m never going back. But their customer service is the worst I’ve ever seen.
I had a coupon for a Full Service wash. The owner (older man with white hair) was taking the car wash order and I asked him what the coupon would include and he said Full Service Wash but never detailed what that meant. Wrote me my white ticket and handed it back to me. My Dad was with me and went to go ask one of the workers to be sure to scrub my tires because they were pretty filthy, the owner then walked over and told my Dad that the «wheel package» was extra… ok that’s fine. The owner then came back and rewrote my white ticket and it was at that point that my Orange coupon either fell or the owner took it.
I went inside to pay and told the woman that I couldn’t find it and she said she’d wait. I searched my bags and once the car was done searched the whole entire car. Couldn’t find it ANYWHERE, but knew that I had had it 4 minutes ago. The owner saw it, I saw it and my Dad saw it.
Told the woman the story and she said you need to go talk to the owner outside and tell him that. So I approached him… I barely go the words out of my mouth «I can’t find my ticket that I showed you can you help me find it…» and he immediately snapped saying things like: well that’s your loss, i don’t have it, don’t be so careless and had an extremely raised voice. I asked him if he remembers seeing the ticket and he said «yes you asked for a full service wash» I said ok great. I can’t find it can we just go inside and talk to the cashier and he said no you have to pay full price. I asked if he thought I was trying to steal a car wash from him and he threw his hands up and said well maybe you are…
Now, OK. It’s a $ 20 car wash… WHY would someone try and steal a $ 20 car wash in McLean?!? Also, the fact that he assumed that first instead of trying to resolve a problem is BACKWARDS in customer service.
At this point, one of his workers came over and said he saw the ticket and gave it to the cashier. I walked in and told her this and she also snapped and said no no i don’t have it, you need to pay full price. I said look I understand that we can’t find the ticket and you need to treat it as cash but both your OWNER and worker saw the ticket and we can’t find it. She said go tell him to come in.
Another worker came up to me and said he put the ticket in the car and HE walked over and got the ticket and brought it to me. So I went inside and gave her the ticket and she immediately asked why one of the workers had it and that she was going to yell at them for taking my ticket… as if THAT was the problem. He was HELPING me out.
Or maybe they think that everyone is trying to steal a car wash from them and even their workers tried to steal a ticket from me so he could wash his car for free. But judging by my own experience and the previous posts it is obvious that the workers don’t even wash their cars there because they are SO BAD.
Thank you to the workers who helped me solve the problem. I hope you guys find new jobs where the management is better and the quality of work is higher.
I should also note that the car wash wasn’t that busy for a Sunday (looks like people are starting to take notice that this place is awful) I’m also 9 months pregnant. now I know that special treatment shouldn’t be given to pregnant women but to think I’d steal a car wash from you? I mean that’s the furthest thing from my mind. if anything I’m so hungry I should be stealing food from the Giant down the road (Don’t worry Giant, I’m not a thief)
Oh and the kicker, my car is done and I go to get in and there’s a big wad of fresh gum on my running boards… so I had to sit there another few minutes and wait for them to try and take it off.
Oh and I still have coupons left for a free wash but I’m going to use it to start a bonfire this Memorial Day Weekend.

As I left this car wash today, I realized that once again, I was going to have to clean the windows myself when I got home.
Either they’re using extremely dirty cloths or the cleaning agent has been diluted just too much.
The only thing this place is good for is giving your car a good rinse. And the good rinse means that I can do a good cleaning with windex at home.