How a Promotional Air Freshener Saved me Thousands of Dollars!
And brought peace to my house.
A few years ago, I needed to sell a compact SUV to make way for a larger car. It was a great car but when it’s time to go, it’s time to go. Thing is, after years of carting children around, the back seat of this jalopy had it’s own eco-system living in and amongst the sea of plastic toys, forgotten sandwiches and dirty clothes! After we’d filled several rubbish bags, a further problem became obvious – the seat was coated in suncreen…
This might not have been such an issue on leather seats but cloth is known for it’s amazing ability to soak up and retain all that is thrown at it!
When the going get tough….you bring in the professionals (or so we thought!). Enter stage left Davo’s Dodgy Car wash and their cast iron guarantee to “clean the uncleanable”. After a protracted session, Davo and the boys declared our back seat free of funk and living culture. It certainly looked brand new!
But it was wet, very wet and Davo had shut up shop for a long weekend. It was raining and the car was put in the garage with its’ doors wide open.
It started slowly, the smell that is. At first, it was a sneaky whiff of something only remotely malodorous but within days had developed into the mother of all foul smelling abborations!!! With would-be buyers lining up to see the car, it was heartbreaking.
The next business day, Davo had “another go” to clean and get rid of the stench but was sadly unsuccessful.
In desperation I emptied 2KG of baking soda across the back seat and carpets, left it for 24 hours then vaccumed off. I even bought an expensive dehumidifier to remove all the moisture! The smell was now roughly a quarter of its previous potency. It was dying a slow death but not quick enough for buyers coming to see the car that evening.
On the net, I came across an interesting article on scents and their ability to trick our senses. The key takeaway was that Peppermint enfused our nostrils and confused our mind into negating any other smell in the vicinity – small wonder fresh breath mints are usually based on peppermint!
It was then I remembered a batch of promotinal air freshener samples in the garage….one was peppermint scented and made it straight to the dashboard minutes before a young couple came to see the car. The first thing they remarked on was how clean the car looked…and could they take it for a test drive? As the car rolled out of my driveway, they closed the windows!
Anxious minutes later, they reappeared beaming and raving about how wonderful the car was and how nice it smelled!!!
We did a deal there and then on the spot and I got the figure I wanted.
If it wasn’t for the promotional air freshener and the mind altering power of peppermint, I would have lost thousands on the sale or still be lumbered with the car.
There you are – promotional air fresheners can save you $1000’s and improve your “car-ma”.