One of our readers, Mike, is, like many of us, interested in having a clean car. Also like many of us, he took his car to a local car wash. One of those places where you can reasonably expect your car to be cleaned and not rammed through four lanes of traffic, two parked cars, jumped over a curb and into a bush. Mike was only half right: his car was clean.
Just watch that sad video up there. If you're really into the full car-wash experience, you can watch Mike's original video here, and wait until about 2:40 for the real action. The dashcam views of the soap flowing over the window are actually sort of engaging to watch on their own merits, too.
Also, the way the music comes on in the car after the wreck and synchronizes with the regular beeping of that car alarm is pretty impressive as well.
In talking to Mike, I was told that his car was a 2009 Lexus IS250, and the reason given for the wreck was that the worker confused the gas for the brake. Even better, that worker at the Long Island City, NY car wash didn't even have a driver's license. Mike then tells me:
... when I approached the owner of the car wash asking why he just shrugged it off with: "well we have to work with what is available at the moment."
Ugh I wanted to punch him.
Damn. I kind of want to get in line to punch that guy too, now. I mean, sure, you have to work with what you have, but that sure as hell doesn't mean you need to be putting your employees who can't drive behind the wheel of customer cars. That's just what most accredited business professors would call "stupid as fuck."
Here's what happened to Mike's car:
Hopefully the car wash is insured, and the owner maybe managed to learn an expensive lesson about using employess who, you know, can drive.