Is it customary to tip the guy who does a $150 detail on your car?
If so what % is appropriate?

Thanks

 

Im not too sure but if you think the work he did is deserving of a tip then Id say go ahead but if you dont think its worth the 150$ you spend on the detail then dont.

 

Things have changed a lot, with some places even putting on the receipt that "an automatic gratuity of such and such percent has already been added to your total", which I vehemently disagree with because at that point it is no longer a gratuity!!!

However some businesses in the service industries feel they have no choice because so many people today either don't tip at all, or severely under tip to the point that the business has trouble keeping really good service personel.

It used to be that you were expected to tip for any personal service type situation, waiters/waitresses, valets, butlers, concierges, etc.

So, given this idea, if you get your car back and feel that the detail was done exceedingly well then I would say to tip the person 15 - 20%. That is a fairly commonly accepted percentage and shows appreciation for the service provided and makes a very nice thank you to the person who actually did the work for you.

Just my $0.02

DSTURBD

 

It's never dawned on me to tip for something like that because normally around here, the guy that owns the shop does the work.

 

Tip the detail guy? There are car washes that you can tip. But I never heard of tipping for a detail.

I don't get it. Before long we'll be tipping the Doc that gives you a prostate exam. Kinda like when the standard was 10% at a restaurant, now it's sometimes 20%. At what point are we going to just double the bill?

But I detail my own anyway.

 

I tip five for a $20 wash on my wife's car...$10 on a detail if I think they did an average job, $20 if they do a phenomenal job.

I wash and detail my own vette but when I was taking it for detail I'd tip the guy $10 up front and tell him to do a good job for me and if he did I'd give him another $10....helps if you go back to the same place?guy everytime cause he knows ya tip decent ;-)

nice vette BTW.....red is faster and verts are funner lol

 

So....if the $150 is going to the guy's boss or owner of the shop, then tip the bloke.

If the guy doing the detail is the only person involved, then he gets what he quoted. If you feel he went above and beyond the expectation of the original cost, give him another $20 with instructions to buy beer only....

 

lol...its ALWAYS 20% oldtimer (joking bout the oldtimer part :-)....unless service is really crappy...wait staff at resturuants only get paid $2.13 and hour, which only covers taxes...without tips they work for free



Batrtended my way through School to cover tuition and life ;-)

 

See in my day it was 10. Doesn't inflation take care of the increases? I was paying 30 bucks for a dinner with the girl and giving the standard 10%. So it was a 3 bucks tip.

Now I pay 60 bucks for a dinner with the ole bag and it cost 12 bucks for a tip.

BUT in fairness I do realize that 12 bucks used to be the 3 bucks using reverse inflation.

I just mess with people about this. You would be surprised how touchy people get

 

Yea it does help going back to the same place especially if the guy doing the work knows you tip well. I work at a marina and I know everyone who tips, doesnt matter if its 1$ or 40$, those people tend to get treated better.

 

Two weeks ago I detailed my 30' boat. Took me a week of afternoons to compound and wax but when I was done it looked like a million bucks. I tipped myself a couple of beers every afternoon when I finished for the day. I guess I work cheap!

 

3M cleaner wax seems to do really good, we use it a lot at work and it turns out really well for a one step process. Not sure how long it last though.

 

I guess if the detailer did a really fantastic job, then I would consider giving a tip. Otherwise, the $150 is enough. Anyway, I detail my own car at this point and have no plans to change that anytime soon.

 

For me it would be a NTS (No Tip Situation) the Price is the Price

 

 

I don't tip the owner. And I have never had a employee
detail my vette.

 

I worked at a detailer at a dealership for 2 years while I was in college.

At that dealership it was against company policy to accept tips, and no one ever tipped on details (Probably because they were $189). They would only tip on a regular wash if you did extra stuff that you weren't supposed to haha.

One thing I can say, is that as a detailer, if a corvette came in, I would be sooooo excited.

1. Its a cool car and very fun to detail a nice looking car.

2. Not much surface area or interior area, and 99% of corvettes are very clean compared to other cars. You could easily detail a corvette in half the time you could detail most sedans.

Most detailers are paid per job, so they're already making a killing over detailing your corvette. A lot of people bring in really dirty daily driver sedans and SUVs and minivans. Or nasty old cars that they're looking to sell. An average Honda Accord will take twice as long to detail as a dirty Corvette.

So, what I'm basically saying is by bringing in a corvette that is already reasonably clean, you're already giving a tip to the detailer in a way (assuming they're paid by commission).

Honestly I don't think tipping detailers is customary or expected. I would only do it if they really went above and beyond (lots of buffing, or 2 layers of wax etc.), and if you went to the same place more than once so the detailer would do an extra good job because he is expecting a tip.

 

Price of the detail includes supplies and labor costs, so no, I wouldn't tip. Same way I don't tip a mechanic.

 

Decisions, decisions... This is why I detail my own cars!! Not to mention the fact that I would not trust someone to do the job like I would.