Elephant Car Wash

Address:	616 Battery St, Seattle, WA 98121, USA
Phone:	+1 206-441-6776
Site:	elephantcarwash.com
Rating:	3.2
Working:	8AM–7PM 8AM–7PM 8AM–7PM 8AM–7PM 8AM–7PM 8AM–7PM 9AM–6PM

Location

Photos 100

Reviews 5

Anonymous User

I read the reviews before I went, figured "ok, theyll do a decent job but its not a full blown detail service" which is exactly what I wanted. I figured worst case, theyd clean the glass inside, do a decent vacuum job, and get the exterior nice and clean. The vacuuming was pretty decent, no real complaints there. Other than that, they were AWFUL. This place really is as bad as people say. Even the car wash tunnel didnt do a good job washing the exterior -- there was still dirt on the roof, all over the front bumper, along edges where the windows meet the body -- enough that when I ran my finger over it, itd turn black. The $7-8 brown bear car wash does a better job than this. After running the car through the tunnel, I sit in the waiting room for 15 minutes while I watch my car dry in the sun (hello water spots). After that, some ex-con "cleans" the interior for a total of 2 minutes. He has a squirt bottle and a rag, sprays the inside of the windows and wipes them off. That is, he didnt clean the windows, he wiped the spray off the window. That means that all of the corners were not touched, the entire bottom edge was untouched, and there were some streaks and water spots where it was neglected. The windshield looked better before I took it to elephant than after they were done with it. Im not one to be jipped, or at least as much as I can help it, so I called the guy over and showed him the dirt I had noticed on the exterior -- he took his spray bottle and hastily wiped it off (Im not even sure that spray is supposed to be used on the paint, but whatever). He spent the whole time saying "what else" "is that it?" like I was imagining it. They were very busy, and the supervisors were walking around yelling at the low-lives to go faster. After the guy re-wiped the windshield (but basically just running the rag in circles in the middle of the windshield, completely ignoring the edges and corners) I started pointing to the spots he missed. He started calling over the other guys and manager saying "I already did this twice, do you see anything on the window?" rather than just dealing with the issue. The manager kept yelling at him "just do it again!" and they started arguing. Eventually, I told him to just give me the rag and that Id do it myself, which I did. Ridiculous. For $25 (cost was for their "high-end" package minus a $12 coupon plus tax), I would have rather taken it through a brown bear, vacuumed it myself, and used some water and vinegar to wash the inside of the glass. Im going to have to anyway since about half of each piece of glass was untouched or worse, covered in water spots or the original dirt. Awful, awful, awful place. The only reason they get any business is because there arent any other decent car washes in the area. Total rip-off, even with the coupon.

Anonymous User

I am use to taking my car in weekly for a car wash to places with the same principles as pink elephant......Clean vacuum and dry. I took my car in there a few weeks ago only a month after having the car completely detailed by BMW Seattle. I must say that BMW did a great job on my car and I spent two years detailing cars in college (Somewhere the owners of this place never went). I got my car back from the car wash trashed! Both sides of the car have horizontal scratches all the way down the sides but yet the supposed owner says there are no way that the damage happened at their car wash because they detail the likes of Rolls Royces LOL and they do over 500 cars a day. Anyone who drives by the Denny location can tell you that they might do 100 cars a day and they certainly dont do 250k Rollss. After they conceded and polished the car a couple weeks later (Had the car for a whole day and never called to tell me the car was done I had to call at closing) the marks were still there. I asked them what they were going to do and that is when their world class customer service started. Both the general manager and supposed owner yelled at me telling me my car was trashed before it came in and they were not responsible and there was no way that their car wash could cause the damage because their people are well trained and their car wash is state of the art (You all know how funny this is if you have ever been to a real car wash outside of the NW). LOL funny part is as I left I watched an attendant repeatedly rub against a car while drying it......Shocker that cars get scratched! Dont take your car here if you are at all picky about your car!

Anonymous User

After living in LA, and always taking my car in for a wash and vacuum, I was appalled by the job performed by Elephant Car Wash. Not only was the exterior of my car poorly washed and dried, but they also simply skipped and missed spots, leaving my car spotty and unclean. The detailing I paid the big bucks for was mostly to clean the interior after Burning Man as it was covered in a fine dust everywhere! I even went over the car with their service manager to insure it was properly cleaned. It was as though they wiped the car with a wet rag, essentially not cleaning much at all. The vacuuming was sloppily done and there was no consideration for the corners or hard to get areas. I paid over $100 for a detailing I would have done much better myself. I will NEVER take my car here again, even for a simple wash and vacuum. The customer service was equally bad as they didnt even offer to redo the terrible interior cleaning. I didnt come close to getting what I paid for and was surprised as I never once had such issued while living in LA at the myriad of car washes I frequented. Simply deplorable!

Anonymous User

BEL-RED, BELLEVUE LOCATION-TERRIBLE SERVICE AND CAR WASH! First and last time I will visit Pink Elephant Car Wash. I went there to have a rental car cleaned inside and out. There was no communication what so ever. The employees were disorganized and did not clean properly. The back windows of the car were more dirty after than before I had the car washed. The back seat floor was not vacuumed. There were 5 employees standing around for the 35 minutes I was there... This is while there are cars waiting to pay, get washed and cleaned.... No one seemed to speak any English and did not give anyone directions or speak to the customers. PLEASE LEARN HOW TO SPEAK ENGLISH if you are going to maintain a life in America and have a job- I do not understand this. I looked for a manager or someone in charge that I could speak with, but was unable to do so- perhaps that was also why there were so many available employees not working.... When my vehicle was "finished", I was notified by having the man whistle and point to me and my car. Waste of my time and money. Needless to say I will not be going back.

Anonymous User

Attendants at the Denny location damaged my car twice. I lived nearby so I decided to try them out--my car came out missing letters from the logo on the back, and they were dismissive refused to look for them. Toyota quoted me $100 to replace the letters! CAMRY became MRY forever more. The second time I was in a rush as I was on the way to trade the MRY in to a dealer when buying a new car. I was short on time, so I ruefully took my car back to Elephant. Their attendants promptly broke my driver-side door handle off, then tried to tell me it was broken when I came in! After I yelled at him one of the attendants went inside and retrieved the broken door handle. The attendant mumbled that I would have to discuss compensation with the manager, who of course failed to return any of my phone calls. These guys easily knocked $200 off my trade-in value. If you love your car, steer clear of the Denny location. However, if youd prefer to mangle your car, theyll happily do it for you!