LAKEWOOD, Colo. — DENVER — Mark Swoboda takes pride in a clean car.
"I keep everything as neat as I can. My house, my cars, and everything," said Swoboda. "My mom just raised me that way."
So he makes good use of his membership at Cobblestone Car Wash, an Arizona-based chain with more than two-dozen locations in Colorado.
"I've been there many times," said Swoboda. "And this was the first time that had happened."
What happened, he said, was a loud bump on his passenger side during a car wash at the Lakewood location at Wadsworth and Jewell. He said he immediately got out of his car and noticed the scratches and a dent, and a car wash manager referred him to Cobblestone Corporate when the video was too sudsy to see what happened.
His emails show customer service representatives referred him to a manager who referred him to another manager, but since then, it has been silent.
"This has been going on for more than two months," he said. "People have incidents. Cobblestone does not reach out to them. They can't get in touch with anybody. You call a corporate office? Nobody answers."
Cobblestone Car Wash has a pattern of complaints with the Better Business Bureau, which has given the company an "F" rating after dozens of complaints involving membership issues and damage to cars.
"They're given a corporate phone number, and no one answers and they don't get a return call is kind of the gist of the consumer complaints filed against this company," said Rebecca Barr, with the Better Business Bureau.
Scott Portnoy said a Cobblestone Car Wash in Broomfield did $1,400 in damage to his tailgate this summer.
"I noticed a big jerk and a boom," said Portnoy, who said he could not get a response from Cobblestone Car Wash corporate for weeks, until his mechanic called them about the bill.
"They did wind up paying for it. They have cameras all over the car washes, so it was hard to deny that they didn't damage my car when you could see the brush actually smashed it, and then the tailgate was caved in."
Contact Denver7 reached out to Cobblestone Car Wash's corporate contacts, and a market manager who identified himself as "Shawn" called back. He blamed the delay in response on another manager leaving and apologized. However, he said there was no way the car wash caused the scratches on Swoboda's car. "There needs to be a way to substantiate the claim, and there is really nothing there."
Swoboda said that after months of being ignored, at least he has an answer and can decide what to do next.
"I just appreciate you coming out and trying to help us and other citizens that have problems with corporate people," he said. "Thank you very much."
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