Chris Parkinson, "Before 'n' After", Bungalow Farm,  Smeaton Lane,  Rugby,  CV23 0PS 

Terms & Conditions  for rustproofing your vehicle

A £100 deposit will be required to confirm your booking.  Send a cheque for £100 with the date of your booking and a telephone number on the back together with a signed copy of this "Terms & Conditions" sheet.  You will receive by return a receipt and confirmation and a very comprehensive 21  page visitor information pack which gives you easy to follow instructions on how to get here and contains all the information you will need to get the very best out of  Warwickshire. Note that my own satnav tells me,  "you have arrived etc.." about 400 yds short so use the maps I send you for the final 400 yds.    All the local attractions are listed in the 21 page information pack with their postcode for satnav purposes and the courtesy cars have satnav installed so you can have a delightful,  stress free day out. ( Don't worry if you have not used a satnav before,  we will show you how to use it and its very simple.)  On the information pack you will see the price quoted. This is the price you will pay. (If, for some reason, the amount is more than you understood from reading the price list you may cancel by contacting me straight away - I will return your deposit and cancel your booking) 

Payment

The balance is payable by cash, Bankers Draft or Building Society deposit account cheque. No other kind of payment will be accepted. You should take particular note of these conditions if you are picking your car up when the banks are closed because your vehicle will not be returned without payment & no cheques (apart from the above two types) will be accepted.   

Your Day out - you are welcome to use the courtesy car all day.   Customers are kindly requested to come in a relaxed frame of mind with the intention of enjoying their day out in Warwickshire.  

Your vehicle is insured for £50.000 in my premises When you arrive at my premises your vehicle will be inspected by myself together with you the customer and any existing damage to paintwork, bumpers etc will be noted on a "check sheet".   When the car is handed back to you, you will be asked to inspect the car and sign the check sheet to indicate that the car is being returned to you in the same condition that you brought it in. I have insurance to cover your vehicle up to £50.000. If your vehicle is worth more than this I can arrange extra cover for a day for a small charge. 

You receive your car back thoroughly cleaned. Your vehicle will be thoroughly cleaned & washed before it is given back to you. You may find there are still some small smears of Waxoyl here and there.   These smears are easily removed with Mer, Autoglym or any other good car polish. I know that for most of my customers, waxing their pride and joy is their greatest pleasure in life. In order to keep costs down it makes sense therefore to leave this final detail finishing to customers.  Please do not worry about this. Most customers are highly delighted to get their car back with the bodywork a good deal cleaner than when it came in. If you are one of those people who meticulously leathers off the vehicle every time it gets wet however, you will probably have to do this final finishing which requires nothing more than your usual waxing of the car with Mer or Autoglym. If you are still worried about this, I can demonstrate to you on the day how easy it is to remove any last traces of Waxoyl with Mer or Autoglymn. If you still feel unable to accept this and require me to carry out the final detail finishing there will be an extra charge of £50 for waxing your car. 

Oozing Waxoyl will reassure you that the job has been done properly. You will find that Waxoyl will ooze out of the doors, boot lid, bonnet lid and wings for a while.   I will give you some very absorbent towelling rag to wipe this off.  I would advise you to let it drip for about 3 days and then wipe it off with some white spirit.  (It should have finished dripping after about 3 days.) Waxoyl does no harm at all to paintwork, and is very light and easily removed, even when dry, with white spirit. You will find some Waxoyl usually drips out of the car onto the drive when the car has just been rustproofed (particularly on very hot days).  For the first day or two therefore, you may want to park the car where this is not going to be a problem or just put a dustsheet down in the garage. 

If you inspect the underbody after 3 days you will see what a good job I have done . I clean the underneath of the vehicle really thoroughly. When you first get your car back the black Waxoyl underneath will appear very thick. However after about three days, it will shrink right back to a very thin film (dry film is one fifth the thickness of wet film). This thin film gives a clean, crisp look to the underbody (unlike the dreaded "bitumen sludge") You will be able to see every detail. Even spot welds are visible through the film. You will now be able to see how I have got your vehicle incredibly clean underneath. All the road dirt, flaky old rust and loose paint and underseal have been removed. You should particularly feel inside the wheelarch lips with your finger tips. Notice how clean they are and how thoroughly they have been coated with Waxoyl . 

I  take great care not to make any marks on the upholstery. You should just check when you receive your car back that there are no marks because if there are it is very easy for me to remove them on the spot with a cloth and a little bit of white spirit. 

You will find a smell of Waxoyl lingers for about 2 or 3 weeks after the car has been rustproofed. The smell will be particularly strong just after rustproofing.  The smell will be strong for about 2 or 3 days and will then gradually disappear. 

Reliable equipment

I go to great lengths to be absolutely reliable as many customers travel great distances to have their vehicle "Before 'n' After'd".  I have back ups for all equipment.  Water pipes are properly lagged and there is a spare, lagged,  water tank in case of any interruption in the water supply. On the very rare occasions when I do have problems I will usually be able to warn you in time and re-book you. There is a very remote chance that I may have a problem while you are on route and I am unable to contact you in time. This happened to only two customers last year so the chances of it happening are about 0.1% or one in a thousand. If for some reason, I cannot do your car and am unable to contact you in time the following terms will apply: Customers will have the option of cancelling their booking and in this case the deposit will be refunded. In the case of cancellation of the booking no other compensation will be paid. If customers have travelled less than 100 miles, they have the option of rescheduling the booking and receiving a £50 discount..  If customers have travelled more than 100 miles but less than 300 miles they have the option of rescheduling and receiving  a £100 discount. If customers have travelled more than 300 miles the vehicle will be rustproofed for half price and the customer will receive a grovelling apology!  My decision will be final on what distance has been travelled. 

Rectification

Many customers travel long distances to bring their vehicle to me. Quite a few even travel from Scotland. Customers are able to travel this distance because they have complete confidence in my work and I would never betray this confidence. I rustproof each customer's vehicle as if it was my own. Due to the nature of what I do it is vital for me to protect my reputation. As the sole specialist since 1987 I consider myself to be the only person who has the expertise to make any judgements about the quality of the job. In order to protect myself in case of misunderstandings (or very occasionally - bad faith), I have to make the following a condition of accepting your vehicle for rustproofing: 

If, for some reason, you are dissatisfied with my work you can bring your vehicle in for inspection and rectification if necessary. My decision on what rectification needs to be done will be final. No refunds will be given in any circumstances. 

Payment

£100 deposit required to confirm booking. The balance is payable by cash, Bankers Draft or Building Society deposit account cheque.  No other kind of payment will be accepted. You should take particular note of these conditions if you are picking  your car up when the banks are closed because your vehicle will not be returned without payment & no cheques (apart from the above two types) will be accepted. 

Land Rover models One of the pleasures of rustproofing Land Rover & other 4 x 4 vehicles is that most of the rustproofing can be fairly easily inspected. Customers are usually astonished and delighted with the results and my Land Rover Customer Survey mailshots show nearly 100% satisfaction. In order to protect my reputation I have to make the following proviso however. On all Land Rover models (Range Rovers, Discoveries etc. etc.) , there are several hundred fittings on the underbody and chassis. On the back axle alone there are about 35 fittings. Most fittings require to be sprayed from at least six different angles to ensure 100% coverage. It takes 30 litres of Waxoyl and several thousand pulls of the gun trigger to cover the underbody (not including cavities, inside of chassis etc. which take about another 10 litres of Waxoyl) While I am always trying to achieve 100% coverage, this cannot be guaranteed and customers will have to accept 99% coverage. In practise this means that when you take your vehicle to have a new exhaust fitted you may see a few dry spots, usually no bigger than a coin. If this is unacceptable, I am willing to spend an extra hour or so chasing the last 2 or 3 dry spots to ensure 100% coverage but I will have to charge an extra £100. (You also have the option of making a note of these dry spots and bringing the car back to me for free touching up). 

Dogs. I do not allow dogs in the courtesy car.   So unless you are very young and fit and enjoy walking all day please do not bring dogs as it will severely limit your options.   It is a particularly bad idea to bring a dog in the winter months if you are not young and fit.   There is nowhere to sit in my premises.   So if I am late finishing your vehicle for some reason  and you have a dog and it is cold and/or wet you will be severely inconvenienced.    If you are young and fit and come in the summer with your dog, both of you can have a very enjoyable time because there is a lovely walk across Newbury Common and then along the canal (with plenty of rabbits to chase on the common!)

Please make sensible arrangements for travelling, particularly in winter.   If you are coming a long way,  why not make arrangements to stay overnight in the B & B's I list  in my information pack? 

I cannot concentrate on your car properly if I am worried about your welfare and it just makes my day thoroughly miserable if I think you are not having an enjoyable day.   A couple came down from Scotland once with their dog in the winter.   They drove all the way down through the night to get to my premises for 9am.   It was a horrible cold and rainy day.     Their Land Rover 90 was extremely rusty and it took a lot of time to blast off all the rust so I was very late finishing it .   They refused my offer to pay for them to stay at my recommended B & B saying that they had "commitments" at home they had to get back for.   So they then drove all the way back to Scotland.   I felt thoroughly miserable.   So please take heed of the previous two paragraphs:  please only bring a dog in the summer months and only if you are young and fit and please make sensible arrangements for travelling because bear in mind that I cannot speed up the process of rustproofing your car and I will not be pressurized into taking short cuts because I have my reputation to consider .  It has to take the time it takes to do a proper job and I will not release the car until I am thoroughly satisfied with it even if it has already been paid for.

Damage  It is extremely rare for any damage to be caused to a customer's vehicle by myself.   No damage has ever been caused by myself  to a vehicle either by the pressure wash or by the waxoyling process.   (Land Rovers are designed to withstand regular - even daily - pressure washes).    About once a year a vehicle  will develop a fault during the work.   In previous cases this has always proved to be caused by some kind of bodged electrical or other repair done before the vehicle was brought to me.     If I am aware that I have done damage I will of course inform you and give you a signed statement admitting liability and ask you to pay for your car normally.  You will not be allowed to leave without paying and your car will not be released until you have paid.      You should then get an estimate for putting the car back to the condition it was in before the damage was caused.   

Please note that under law you have a "duty to mitigate my losses".   What this means is that putting the damage right has to be done at a reasonable cost and if I think your first estimate is too high I may ask you to get a second estimate.  When we are both happy that the work can be done satisfactorily and at reasonable cost I will send you a cheque for half the amount on the estimate.   You should then send me the original vat invoice for the repair (this is for my accounts) once the work has been carried out and I will send you a cheque for the remaining balance.   Please note that I will only  pay for the vehicle to be put back to the condition it was in before it was brought to me.  No claims for "diminution of value" will be accepted.  In cases where a fault is noticed which I was unaware of and which the customer attributes to myself,   please note that I will require proper evidence that the fault has been caused by myself.   I may require a report (a phone call will usually do) from a garage and in the case of some kind of  aftermarket electrical installation it is very likely that I will need a  written report from the installer and/or the manufacturer. 

Delays I am usually fairly efficient and try and finish within my advertised times but please make contingency plans just in case I am an hour or two (or even more) later than advertised. (Please note that advertised times are an indication only  - they do not constitute an undertaking on my part and should not be interpreted as a contract - if time deadlines are always extremely important to you,  may I respectfully suggest doing a google search for "type A personality")  If I have your mobile phone number I can phone you and warn you and this should not be any hardship.   For example you could perhaps fit it in an impromtu evening meal nearby before picking  the vehicle up.     

Courtesy Car   Please note that while I always try to make sure the courtesy car you have booked is available for you,   for various reasons it is sometimes not possible to provide it.  (So please do not make business appointments which rely on using the courtesy car).    In these rare cases I will  drop you off at your chosen local attraction.  The courtesy cars are meant for touring the local area - they are not meant for motorway dashes or to make long business trips.  For this reason there is a £50 surcharge if you do more than 100 miles.   

If for any reason you are dissatisfied with my work you can bring your vehicle in for inspection and rectification if necessary.  My decision on what rectification needs to be done will be final.  No refunds will be given in any circumstances.   

Please print this page off, read it and sign it at the bottom to indicate that you accept the conditions and send it me.  If you wish to borrow the courtesy car please print off :"terms & conditions for loan of courtesy car."   
 

Name ............................ 

Date of rustproofing booking   ...............................

Signed ...........................   

Dated..............................