We're all too quick to criticise companies when they do something wrong, but they don't often get any praise for doing the right thing. So I'd just like to thank SuperCheapAuto for doing right by me. I am not associated with the company in any way - I'm a web designer who just happened to buy on of their products.
I bought a soft-clean brush to clean my brand new Suburu Forester. On the site it said "The 25cm wide brush head has soft tipped bristles to avoid scratching surfaces" and "Suitable for use on vehicles, caravans boats and around the home".
The first time I used it, I was going over the bonnet afterwards with a chamois leather cloth and noticed all these small scratches over the car. They were mainly where there was a ridge in the bonnet, but it was pretty much all over. I couldn't understand how they'd got there and then I realised that it was the first time using the new brush. I checked the brush and unbelievably they'd used ordinary Philips screws to attach the plastic plate with the bristles to the body of the brush and several of those screws had knife-like burs on them. So wherever I brushed and the bristles parted (like on a ridge) it scratched the car. Obviously I was gutted.
I tried the obvious, using a bit of cutting cream to remove the scratches but this had a limited effect. I took it to my local (excellent) smash repair centre and he said the scratches were deeper than they looked and it was a total respray job with a cost of about $700. Not great news. So I decided to contact SuperCheapAuto to see if they'd do anything. I didn't in a million years expect any good outcome but I just wanted to put it out there into the universe and let them know about the brush. Therefore I was very surprised when SuperCheap emailed me asking for proof of the damage.
So I took photographs of everything - close-ups of the brush and of the bonnet - as best I could and emailed them back. Then a few days later I got a call from one of their representatives at the head office saying how much they regretted the damage and would they be able to get a closer look at the brush itself. So I drove over to my local store at a pre-arranged time and one of their staff had a good look at the brush and the damage to the car. Then he went into the office and called the rep at head office. Later on that day I got a call from them to say they'd pay for me repairs - I just had to get a couple of quotes.
Even at this stage I must admit to being doubtful that they'd pay, but I sent off the quotes and the next day they called to tell me to go ahead and send them my bank account details. Four days later the full amount for the cost of the respray hit my bank account.
Obviously I'd have preferred that a car cleaning brush they advertised as having "soft tipped bristles to avoid scratching surface" didn't badly scratch my two month old car, but they did the right thing and have compensated me for the cost to repair my car. So - that's that - there is good customer service out there but if you don't ask, you don't get.
Great post and thanks for sharing the good news story