Expiring Car Washes ? ! Rant

[Oaktree]

Yep. It's been that way for as long as I can remember if you buy it at the pump. Since we know this, we only purchase a car wash if we need it that day. I think it only saves us a dollar VS buying it at the car wash entrance with no fill-up.

I don't think I've seen a car wash/gas station in years, used to see them all the time.
I agree, why buy the wash if you're not going to use it the same day?

 

[fried1765]

As many times as I want in the next 30 days?
I've seen that offer at a local car wash for $19.99 you get to wash it once a day for a month.
I think what the OP is talking about is a single use car wash that you buy when you fill up your gas tank with at least X gallons. You have 30 days to use that code on the receipt to get 1 car wash.

Wash a car ..... "once a day for a month".
Anybody who wants to do that, has a car wash phobia, as well as too much free time!

 

[the old grind]

Wash a car ..... "once a day for a month".. Anybody who wants to do that, has a car wash phobia, as well as too much free time!

Yeah, but it's one way to get the lacquer off those aluminum wheels.

 

[oosik]

Most all the mud that gets on my pickup comes from a couple puddles/mud holes on my driveway. Does me no good to wash at the car wash. Pickup will have the same mud on it as I drive down the driveway - coming home. I wash the pickup at home. Besides - a nice light coat of dust protects the paint from UV.:laughing::dance1:

 

[Sigarms]

Yep. It's been that way for as long as I can remember if you buy it at the pump. Since we know this, we only purchase a car wash if we need it that day. I think it only saves us a dollar VS buying it at the car wash entrance with no fill-up.

I'll buy one at the pump when I fill my dads car up when he lets me drive his car. This way, he gets a full tank of gas and a cleaner car back.

The receipt with the code always has an expiration date on it. I look over at the car wash and if there isn't a long line, I'll buy the wash there. If there is a long line or I'm running short on time, I won't buy it. Only way I buy the wash is if I'm taking the car in right after I get the gas.

Not only do you have to remember to get back to the car wash in a certain amount of time, you also have to save the receipt, too many things could go wrong which could make you waste the money when you buy it on the spot IMO if you don't do the car wash right away after paying for it IMO.

 

[MossRoad]

I'll buy one at the pump when I fill my dads car up when he lets me drive his car. This way, he gets a full tank of gas and a cleaner car back.

The receipt with the code always has an expiration date on it. I look over at the car wash and if there isn't a long line, I'll buy the wash there. If there is a long line or I'm running short on time, I won't buy it. Only way I buy the wash is if I'm taking the car in right after I get the gas.

Not only do you have to remember to get back to the car wash in a certain amount of time, you also have to save the receipt, too many things could go wrong which could make you waste the money when you buy it on the spot IMO if you don't do the car wash right away after paying for it IMO.

We used to do the same thing for my in-laws' car. If we had to borrow it, I'd alway fill it up and get it washed to say thank you for letting us use it. :thumbsup:

 

[Bird]

I buy my gas at Bucee's now-a-days, AND they have the biggest and best car wash I've ever seen. And when I pay for the car wash at the time I'm paying for gas, my receipt includes a 6 digit number at the bottom of the receipt, to enter at the car wash AND it says "Good for One Year". However . . . I've never paid for the car wash without using it right then. And when you enter your code or pay for the car wash, it asks you whether you want to use the vacuum. If so it prints you another receipt with a code number to use at the vacuums. And there is no extra cost for the vacuums, but that code number starts the vacuum running for 8 minutes. And you have vacuum hoses with 2 different nozzles AND there's also a smaller hose if you want to use it on the dash. I do currently have 2 of the vacuum coded receipts in the car, and they say "Expires in 30 Days". The cost? $9. $12. or $16 your choice for how elaborate, whether special tire cleaning, etc.

And there has to be a very elaborate computer system to run all that.

 

[Frankenkubota]

I owned my own business so i was to venture out into other businesses and still do my primary job. Seems most my life i've had 2-3 jobs and not really for the $.

I owned a franchise sandwich shop. My niece ran it, i paid the bills and fixed the constant stream of broken restaurant equipment. We did couponing, lots of it! We would send coupons out to addresses in our neighborhood. Believe it or not, it's very expensive to mail coupons, forget about the discount on the food.

Occasionally one of the kids would question a customer about the expiration date. Customers do come in with expired coupons.

I had to tell all the employees to take any and all coupons, expired, from competitors, from the Home depo.......i don't care! That's why the signs say, we take our competitors coupons, that's just smart.

The large investment in couponing is only to bring customers to your business. To run them out because the coupon is out of date is short sited and.....not smart. The only reason the coupon is dated is to generate a sense of urgency.

In my case, and i bet in many cases, its a big loser for the owner.

 

[Thomas]

One of our many gas station offer free car wash but you have to purchase so many gallons,but the wash job barely cleans anything.
Super market gives you so many cents off gallon of gas,but you have to purchase so many dollars worth of food and only purchase gas at highest price gas station. :confused3:

 

[Sigarms]

Super market gives you so many cents off gallon of gas,but you have to purchase so many dollars worth of food and only purchase gas at highest price gas station. :confused3:

I have to laugh, this is a running joke between my wife and I.

With 2 16 year olds and my dad living with us, my wife can spend a buttload of money in a months time food shopping (not even talking about meat as the 1/2 cow in the freezer is getting low which will be refilled in February).

My wife is more frugal than I am (being I don't think the grocery market she shops at would be substantially higher than other couple of ones she uses for particular product just because they're offering money off of gas). She uses those "gas saving gallons" from the grocery store and will go out of her way to get the gas price knocked off at the pump. Thing is, I'm the type of guy that if I need gas, I'm not going to drive 10-20 minutes out of my way to save 2 cents a gallon, so when my wife tells me she has a gas saving card and to stop at "so and so", apparently I get a look on my face:laughing:

Now, that said, I will say this. In general, I believe the stations in our area that offer the promo from the grocery stores are the BP stations. Honestly, I don't see them being the highest price in gas around. On the last stop using that card when I was with my wife filled the Pilot up around 15 gallons for $15 (.99 a gallon, and the gas station was ironcially enough exactly on the way were were going). The station we stopped at is on what we call "gas row" where there is like 10 gas stations were we check out the going rate for gas, and this BP was more than competitive on their gas price. Just looked online, and that gas station is at $1.98 and 5 others are at $1.99.

We're both working out of the house today so I asked her who she uses and found this

Harris Teeter Fuel Points

Formula looks pretty simple. $1 = 1 point. 100 points ($100 spent) = .10 off a gallon, 200 points ($200 spent) = .20 off a gallon, and 1000 points ($1,000) = $1.00 off.



Basically comes out to 3.5% back for gas, maxing out at 35 gallons per cycle.

My wife can spend $200 in a supermarket on a "medium" shopping day in one stop, no problem.