The Art of Detail

I was very happy with my car when they were done. I just wasn’t happy when I was told I was expected to pay 20% on the regular price from the deal on living social. They said it was because of gas, but my certificate said gratuity not included and that’s it. If I knew in advance I would of been happier.

Super weak Sauce. Finally pinned him down to schedule an appointment (after the expiration date on the deal). He missed the appointment, no call, no email, NOTHING. Phone doesn’t pickup, no voicemail, doesn’t respond to my emails.
FAIL

Like everyone else here, I bought the Livingsocial «deal» and tried to schedule an appointment.
1) Called the number on the Livingsocial voucher, gave me another number to call
2) Called the 2^nd number, gave me another number to call
3) Called the 3^rd number, message said to call the 3^rd number (the current number I’m already calling) and tells me to leave a message.
4) The 3^rd number cannot take messages
5) *facepalm*

***NEVER GET YOUR CAR DETAILED FROM THIS COMPANY, EXTREMLY UNPROFESSIONAL***
After three cancellations, and six months of attempting to get this company to come detail my car, they finally came two hours late after I called to ask where they were. After cleaning my car they informed me that I needed to pay $ 10 in tax. I said I would need to go get cash from the bank since they did not accept credit card. They warned me my seats might be wet from the cleaning. Upon returning, I gave them their tax and tip and they watched me go back into my building.
Upon returning to work my coworker immediately let me know that my pants were completely destroyed. Whatever they used to clean my seats, or whatever they did completely ruined my jeans and nice sweater I was wearing. I’ve uploaded images of what they did so EVERYONE may view how completely unethical and unproessional this company is.
When I called to complain about spending $ 100 on detailing that made my seats even worse and ruined an additoianl $ 100 worth of clothing they simply said they saw my pants but warned me my seats were wet and they couldn’t do anything because they were just the people who cleaned the car. When I called their manager, it went straight to voicemail of course. I left a very detailed voicemail and have yet to hear back from him.
BUYER BEWARE, this company is a complete scam and has the absolute worst customer service I’ve ever experienced in my entire life. I truly hope that people do not choose this company when they need their car detailed. I lost $ 200 and I wouldn’t want anyone to have to go through the same thing.

BEWARE! I have the same story as many on here. The bummer is that Art of Detail will re-​open with a new name and will probably run another Living Social deal. Shame on LS for allowing sleazy vendors to rip people off. If you got hosed call Living Social and demand your money back… the merchant is out of business and the LS refund policy states that they’ll refund you if that’s the case.
My wife bought me a living social deal to get my truck detailed for my birthday. She set up an appointment for a few days after my b-​day. A couple days before the appt she called to confirm and they said they had no record of the appt. They set another appt. Day of that appt they called and cancelled saying their truck was in an accident. They gave us a new appt date. That day came and went with no show and no call.
I called their number to find out what was up and it had a message saying they were very busy because of living social and to call scheduling at another number. Called that number and it had a message saying for Art of Detail service call another number. Called the third number and it said they had no vehicle and weren’t doing detailing anymore.
Buyer beware of both LS and this slimy detailing business.

I purchased the Living Social deal the first time they ran it. I called to book an appointment the same day that I purchased the deal, and they were able to fit me in the next week for 1 out of the 2 detailing services I had purchased. It went really well — they were flexible, they came to my office, we found a spot for them to work, and I felt they did a great job (they did upsell me, but what can you really expect).
I called back a couple of months later to redeem the other detailing service Living Social I had purchased on the same day, and just like everyone else says, they gave me an appointment 3 months out (which was supposed to be tomorrow). Today, having not heard from them to confirm my appointment for 9 am tomorrow (it is currently 4 pm), I called them. The first number I called directed me in a voicemail to a 2^nd phone number. That phone number’s voicemail greeting directed me to a 3^rd phone number. THAT phone number’s voicemail greeting told me that their vehicles were broken down so they could no longer provide mobile detailing services.
WHAT?
It’s the AFTERNOON before my MORNING appointment the following day, and I have to call 3 different phone numbers to be told by a voicemail greeting that my appointment will not be happening?
Unbelievable. Would never work with this company or recommend them again, which is REALLY sad because they did great work — but if they’re going to jerk their customers around like this, it really isn’t worth it. There is too much competition out there for them to behave this way.

DO NOT PURCHASE THE LIVING SOCIAL DEAL!
This is the worst Living Social Deal and least professional «business» I have ever had to deal with. I purchased the original Living Social deal in February of 2013. I made several attempts to call and schedule my detailing with either no answer or someone would answer, say they would call me back, and never return my call. I was unable to get in contact with anyone associated with the business until May. I was then told the earliest available appointment was September 14^th, because they ran another Living Social deal and booked up quickly. One would assume a competent business owner would not run another advertisement or Living Social Deal without first fulfilling the initial wave of customers the original deal brought in.
I was so relieved to finally get ahold of somebody on the phone, that I bit my tongue and scheduled an appointment four months in advance thinking I would at least get use out of my purchase and eventually, a clean car. September 12^th rolls around and I called to confirm my appointment for the 14^th. The call went to a voicemail stating to leave a message, or text and they will get back to me. I received a confirmation of my appointment at 12PM on Saturday, September 14^th. On the day of the appointment, I received a text at 12:41 (already 40 minutes late) stating that they needed to change the time to later in the afternoon. Elias then told me he cannot confirm the guys can make it to my house by 4PM and suggested pushing my appointment to the next week. At this point, I was beyond frustrated and asked for my money back. Elias then told me that he would only refund half of the money because the Living Social coupon was now expired; even though that was his fault seeing as they couldn’t provide the service in the timeframe the coupon was valid. I decided never having to deal with the business again was worth losing half of my money, but have yet to receive any kind of refund. The Art of Detail is a company with absolutely horrible work ethic and zero integrity. I strongly suggest you save your money and time and do not do business with these people.

NO NO NO. Still never heard back from this ridiculous excuse of a company. I had to pay another detailer (who did a fantastic job) to come and take care of my car seeing as these pathetic scam artists took my $$ and ran.
No work ethic. Thanks for teaching me a valuable lesson Art of SCAMMERS.

Do not buy from The Art of Detail. They have horrendous business practices and aren’t worth the time or headache.
I called Elias with Art of Detail 2 months ago and told him that I had purchased a Living Social voucher and would like to schedule an appointment. He told me that he was driving to an appointment and would call me once he got there so that he could look at his calendar. I agreed but never got a call back. I tried to call him again the next day but only got his voicemail. I left a message and another one a few days later. After two weeks had gone by and he had failed to contact me I finally sent an email expressing my frustration. THEN I got a call back FINALLY and he told me that they were booked until September (this was in July). This was upsetting since I had called 2 weeks earlier and probably could have been scheduled sooner had he actually returned my call like a good business person.
So, I finally got my appointment scheduled for September 17^th at 3pm. I was going to have to leave work a little early in order to make this appointment but was willing to after waiting 2 months to use the voucher. I got a call from him at 7:41 pm on September 16^th. Elias told me that they had overbooked for the 17^th and would like to do my appointment earlier in the day so that they did not have to drive to Mira Mesa and then to East County (where I live). I told him that I had work so I would only be able to work with this if he could come first thing in the morning. Then I would go into work a little late rather than leaving a little early. He told me that he would see what he could do and then call me back.
***I should not have even received a phone call the night before my appointment, less than 24 hours before the appointment to reschedule because they didn’t feel like driving so much.
After wondering if he was going to call me back, I finally called him at 9:43 pm — 2 HOURS LATER. I got his voicemail and left a message saying that I needed to know as I have a job and need to schedule what is going on.
He responded to my voicemail with a TEXT. Extremely unprofessional. He said, «No we are not going at 8am, we are still working on it, we will see how tomorrow goes». He left me with a cliffhanger as to HOW TOMORROW GOES. Did not say if 3 pm was still on or anything. Again, this is after I told him that I had to go to work. Therefore I cannot wait around to see if they can MAYBE fit me in.
I told him that I wanted a refund at this point — getting my car detailed is not worth this crap. To this I received several rude text messages including statements like, «Listen lady I understand you paid for you discounted service and want it done! But we only asked to change the time of your appointments, we didn’t actually change it, but I think your really overreacting for absolutely nothing and no harm done! So by all means contact livingsocial and get your $ 69.00 which we only get $ 34.50 of and put it towards another detailer who will charge you $ 120.00+».
Ok Elias, it is not my problem that you only get $ 34.50. That is the deal that you agreed to. And paying $ 120 would be worth the bs that I have dealt with in order to attempt to get my car detailed with you.

I’m giving them 2 stars because when I called the owner (Elias) told me they were booked until October 9^th (I’m expecting our first baby Oct 15 hence why I want the car detailed) and he told me he could squeeze me in on the upcoming Wednesday and the guy they sent (Julio) was really sweet, arrived on time, and did a pretty good job. However, their business practices are shotty at best. I purchased a Livingsocial deal, and on the voucher it says taxes and gratuity not included. Ok, I understand, it means tip the guy please. NO it means they charge you an extra $ 35 when they’re done because they automatically include the tip and tax. I think this is horrendously rude! What if this guy did a terrible job? He still gets a max tip for doing an awful job? A tip is a tip, not a surcharge. I as the customer decide how much you receive based on the job you did. So not only did I pay $ 69 for the deal but I’m being charged $ 35 on top of that once they get to my place?!! I might as well have just paid the $ 138 for the detailing out right and just said they’re tip was included. I also don’t like the fact that I’m being charged extra and all this guy did was bring a bucket. He’s using our water and our electricity. No company van, no generators, no pressure washer. I feel for the kid though, the «shampooing» is him hand scrubbing the carpets with a brush. It’s like some teenagers decided to open a car washing business. If you get one thing from this review please let it be DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THE LIVINGSOCIAL VOUCHER, because it is NOT a deal at all.
Update:
He finished the job and it’s not bad the exterior looks great, but the interior is not nearly as clean as I would have liked. However, to be fair there was a lot of dog hair. He also asked if I wanted to do a clay bar at the beginning (immediate up-​selling). He said it would only be $ 8 extra so I agreed. When it was all said and done and I asked how much I owed, since you know my voucher wasn’t enough, He said it was $ 35 for the clay bar plus whatever I wanted to leave as a tip. Umm excuse me? Apparently what he meant was either I pay $ 35 for the clay bar or $ 35 for the tax and gratuity. I paid the $ 35 and that was that. I feel like I’d been lied to. The windows are also definitely streaky so I’ll just redo those myself with Windex just in case they want to charge extra for him to redo it. No weird smell though like others have said. All in all, I feel like I paid $ 105 for something my husband could have done for free.

DO NOT BUY THE LIVINGSOCIAL DEAL FOR ART OF DETAIL.
I purchased the LivingSocial deal in May and called today to try to schedule my appointment. After listening to a recorded message about their high call volume, I texted the number provided in the recording. I sent my text about how I wanted to make an appointment for this week. The response I got stated «When did you buy your coupon?» I responded that I got my coupon in May. The next text message stated that the next available appointment would be in December.
RIDICULOUS.
My deal expires on November 19 so when I told this to the person at Art of Detail that December was not an option, he stopped responding.
Avoid dealing with the company at all costs. Not worth it. $ 69 deal down the drain.

Be aware — their LivingSocial deal is scam. They told me they sold too many deals on LivingSocial and therefore overbooked for the next 3 months. Couple days later I see the same deal on LivingSocial again. Interesting way to run business…

I don’t want to give any stars, but Unilocal requires you to!
My husband wanted our cars detailed, I saw this deal with them on Living Social, it seemed like a great deal, so I told my husband about it. He purchased to vouchers for his Truck and My Venza. He purchased the voucher in June they told us that their soonest appointment wasn’t until August 19^th. They said they would be here at 12pm… Thinking that would be plenty of time for me to get to work since I have to leave at 3. They were an hour late! They did my car first, since it was newer than my husband’s truck and would need less work… They left some greasy streaky film on all the outside windows front, back, sides. the side mirrors were all smudgy and I could not see out of them coming home that night. Plus, my car smelled like mildew, which it didn’t smell like that before the detailing! I am assuming they used mildewy towels when cleaning interior.
My husband said his truck had the same greasy streaks on his truck windows. I felt that we would have gotten a cleaner car by going threw the drive thru car wash at the Exxon station!
The the final slap, was I discovered that they totally stole money out of my and my husbands cars. We keep an emergency stash of money in the car (yes I know we should have removed it, but we totally forgot about it) I discovered it was missing when today I was going to give this homeless lady a few bucks and I didn’t have any cash in my wallet, then I remembered my emergency cash… I opened up my little compartment and the little wallet was empty!!! I had $ 50 in it… gone! I asked my husband if he used it and he said no… then he went to his truck to check his emergency stash… his is gone too! So on top of the Tip my husband gave them for a horrible job, they also gave themselves a bonus of about $ 100!
Do not purchase any vouchers from them! They are thieves and do horrible work! Truly a Buyer BEWARE!!!
P. S. Yes we should have removed the money, but honestly, we shouldn’t have to worry about being stolen from especially if they want good reviews and good word of mouth referrals!

Just like all the others that were duped by the LivingSocial deal, I am furious with this company! Basically, take your money elsewhere or DIY because this was a classic case of ‘if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is’.
I purchased the deal but couldnt get an appt for at least a month and a half. Once the dude finally returned my phone and text, he admitted they were overwhelmed due to the popularity of their deal. I booked the appt for a Wed at noon. I work full time, but offered a coworker lunch if she could follow me home to drop off the car. I was stoked she said yes and I was excited to finally get my car detailed! That is, until they called and wanted to come earlier… like, an hour earlier. I explained my situation, how I am at work and couldnt really make it back home any earlier but I will try (and was home about 30 min earlier than planned). Apparently this wasnt good enough because the rest of the day, I received exasperated attitude from the main kid I had to deal with.
They finally show up… not even early like they had wanted to… in this beat up old minivan. Call me crazy, but isnt presentation everything? I would think ‘The Art of Detail’ would want to show off their skills in the very transportation they arrive in? The kids hop out of the van and the main one starts looking over my car. Its an older car (06 civic)…not the cleanest… but the guy seemed rather annoyed that my car wasnt already clean. Then the upselling starts. Even though the deal said essentially every nook and cranny would be cleaned, this kid proceeds to tell me that they need to ‘deep clean’, which will be extra. I told them I would totally be down to pay a little extra, but pay day isnt until tomorrow and I wanted to tip. He says, «OK, instead of $ 40 for the upgrade just give me $ 30 and dont worry about the tip.» Ohhhhk… So you can just make up your own pricing on the spot? Just like that? You dont need to call anyone? Seems legit. Whatevs. My car better be sparkling when its done.
After I head back to office, I decided to double-​check the fineprint on the deal. I talk with my friend and feel that it was a little lame that I was upsold and the job I already paid to have done should be sufficient, so I call to tell them to just do the regular job and I dont want to pay extra (and, if all would have gone well, that would obviously be their tip). The guy pretty much refuses to go back on the deal and even belittles my hard earned money by saying, «Its only $ 30.» EXCUSE ME? ONLY $ 30? Thats a tank of gas, buddy. Thats some lunches for the week. Thats my SDGE bill. Its a co-​pay for the doctor. IT IS $ 30! (In other words, dont fucking knock the worth of my money!) This is when I decide to talk to his boss… he says fine, his boss will call me.
Elias calls me. Says all the customer servicey stuff he should to make a customer feel better… says they will just go ahead and do the extra ‘deep clean’, no charge, and he will discuss the attitude with his worker. OK, well what about the extra money I already paid? NEVER SAW IT AGAIN.
AND…the real fucking kicker… MY CAR LOOKED LIKE SHIT. I will post the pics of the stuff still all over the outside of my car (they obviously used the ‘clay bar’ they raved about, but it didnt actually clean stuff off! Just covered it in the clay!) and the carpets are NO WHERE NEAR deep cleaned! I could not even tell they had been touched… and only the mats had been vacuumed, the actual carpet wasnt even looked at!
Last but not least, I had left my spare key for them just in case something silly happened like they accidentally let a door close and locked or something. Dude leaves the key IN PLAIN SIGHT, RIGHT ON MY DRIVER SEAT. My car sat like that for almost 5 hours until I came home from work… had it been on a public street, who knows what hooligans may have taken it upon themselves to steal my car? A rude gesture, in my opinion.
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Bought two details online, one for each of our cars. They called 5 minutes before appointment to verify location (mine is tough), were on time, worked NON-​stop and made both our 9 year old cars look fabulous inside and out, did exactly as promised and were quiet, no interference and very nice young men. I wasn’t sure what to expect, since my usual detailer had disappointed me last time, but so glad I called Elias. And if you want excellence in product/​service as well as character, this is the place.
Ginny

I’ve had been wanting for a while to get my car detailed since we bought it used from the owner a year ago and felt it could use some extra love. I saw the Unilocal reviews for this place and thought I found the perfect place! It seemed even more perfect when I had also found a living social deal for their normally 140 package for 70. Like I said the car needed some extra love and the living social deal seemed like a good buy so I didn’t mind spending the extra cash to see my car super duper clean. About a month out from my mother-law’s visit I decided to call and see if I could get the car cleaned before she got here. I called and left a message, however, a week went by without anyone returning the call. I remembered the message mentioned you could text the number, so I did. I got a reply hours later stating that the person was unsure if they could fit me in in the next three weeks, and I needed to text them the next night. Fine, I understand things get busy, no problem. So I did just that, and I found out that I could not get my appointment until August (it was may when I called), the person explained it was due to the company giving out living social-​like deals through other sites as well. It was super tough to book an appointment three months in advance as I am a server and college student and can have an unpredictable schedule, still it wasn’t the biggest deal in the world and I just kinda figured it out.
The company called me the night before and asked to move my 3’o clock appointment to noon, which was totally fine since I got the day off. Once noon rolled around no one was there, then 15 minutes later the company called again stating that the last car took longer than expected, again that’s understandable. They said that the guys coming should be at my house by 12:45, 1:00 at the latest. At 2:00 someone FINALLY showed up, literally as I was going to call the company to see what’s up. Once they got there they took about 2 to 2 and a half hours to clean my car. Once they were done, I gave them my living social deal and figured all was squared away. Nope. They guy told me that tax was not included, now I’ve gotten haircuts and massages through groupon and livingsocial before and tax was never an issue. Fine whatever, then they told me it was an extra $ 20 for mandatory gratuity and tax. Now I’m a server, I totally understand the tip thing, however if the tip is mandatory you need to tell your customers. They didn’t take cards so I had to dig every last dollar out I could find that I wasn’t expecting to pay because, well they were waiting on me. So not cool to not give that heads up. I understand the small type on the living social deal states it does not include gratuity, but art of detail never spoke of a mandatory one.
Once they left, I looked over my car in detail. Cleaning the middle console was part of my deal, and it was so dirty I had to go back and use a magic eraser to clean it out. They just closed the door over the cup holders and didn’t clean inside at all. Then there were streaks all over the dash I cleared off. The next morning when my husband went to drive the car, he had to pull over and clean the windshield because there were so many streaks on the inside he literally couldn’t see. Also, we have a little dog who comes on car rides with us. If you have dogs you know they leave little nose prints on the inside of your car window, I still have those prints on my car as we speak… Overall I was unimpressed. I don’t feel like I should have to go back in and re-​clean my car after spending $ 90 on cleaning it…
They guys cleaning my car were in a hurry to go to the next customer so I can’t help but feel that my experience suffered as a result of that. I understand being busy, but I also feel like you shouldn’t take on more customers than you can handle.
I was really hoping we could make detailing the car a habit, but to be honest I would rather do it myself from now on. On one hand though, they did shampoo my seats and carpet, which was nice and was literally the only thing I couldn’t have just easily done myself. Maybe it would have been better checking these people out before all the deals came out since everyone else seems to have had a much better experience. I however don’t think I will return ever, ever again.

Do not purchase this LivingSocial Deal! This is the only vendor I have ever written a bad review about after purchasing a deal.
I purchased a LivingSocial deal (in March) and Elias scheduled me months out (in May), cancelled at 9 pm the night before my appointment, then refused to reschedule and stopped responding to my calls and texts.
At the same time that his voice mailbox was full and he said he had no capacity to honor the deal for months, he was advertising another deal on LivingSocial. This is a scam.

Best detailing I’ve ever had done. I will absolutely be calling Elias again. He came out today to do our two cars – a small SUV from 2001, and a newer Mini Cooper. The Mini looks brand new, but what I was most surprised about was the SUV. I haven’t seen the SUV look this good since, well, ever (I bought it used). Because of the car’s age, and because I park it on the street, it was developing this worn «spot» on the hood. It’s probably been there for almost a year. Elias was able to get it out. The leather seats also looked brand new.
I took him up on his offer of the clay bar treatment for both cars, and I’m so happy I did. It got out all those little «flecks» that I can never seem to remove when I just wash my car. And it actually made the car feel different – the body feels more protected from the sun now.
He came out with one other worker, and apologized because he said he’d normally bring two guys, but the third guy called out sick. It was no problem – working together they did both cars in about four hours. Like I said, they did an amazing job with both cars. They were very friendly and professional. The Art of Detail is now my go-​to for mobile detailing.

I found these guys through a LivingSocial deal. The owner, Elias was very friendly and was able to book within a week. They traveled to my work in La Jolla and were done with my car in about 3hrs. He and his partner did such a great job on my car that you’d never know a toddler completely trashes it on a regular basis. One more thing to note, they do charge a $ 15 gas fee for traveling depending on the distance. You’d have to check with them. But I definitely recommend these guys!

one word… AMAZING!!!
I almost hate to write this review because I really (seriously) don’t want to share but these guys are so very deserving of the praise it would be criminal not to!
The thing about having these guys come detail your car is that by the time they are done you will start to suffer from delusions of grandeur!
«Is that shiny gleaming spectacle of auto perfection really mine?» That’s what you’ll ask yourself when you have The art of detail on-​site to clean your vehicle.
Seriously! No one would ever guess that in addition to my two giant dogs, I haul around numerous sweaty, dirty, loud, cheeto-​eatin’, gatorade-​drinkin’, soccer playin’ pre-​teens to and from a variety of activities. Only Elias and his crew know all my dirty secrets and they’ll NEVER tell!!!
These guys come out to wherever we need them to and give all three of our GIANT vehicles a spectacular scrub-​down for insanely reasonable prices! The best part is how fast and quiet they are! They arrive early in the a. m and do all their work without EVER disturbing anyone. The neighbors never even notice that the guys are there but they are always astonished at how spectacular the trucks look afterward. They come and go w/​out disturbing anyone and manage to not waste one single unnecessary drop of water (which we are thankful for)!!
One time is all it will take then you too will be hooked! Just PLEASE don’t hog them!!!