[Brent Deines]

I have found that dealerships are often times the most demanding and the least understanding, so you may be better off without them. On the other hand, sometimes it's a good thing to go the extra mile for an unreasonable customer. I look at it this way, $1100 over 11 years is only $2.83 per week. Is a good customer worth $2.83 per week? I often have very large customers make unreasonable requests, and the fact that I do everything I can to make them happy builds loyalty the the low ballers can't break.

I agree that it is unrealistic for the dealer to expect the technician to pay for the windshield, but who sets the expectations? Maybe the last repair service did not not address the possibility of the windshield cracking out like Glassdoc did. There is no excuse for that, but I know I got to a point where I rarely mentioned the possibility to new customers because the odds were in my favor, and I was willing to shell out whatever it took to pay for a windshield if necessary. However, if I was working on an expensive heated windshield with a HUD, you can bet I would be covering my butt before I started the job.

Don't get me wrong, just because I was lazy and perhaps a bit cocky doesn't mean I don't advocate explaining that "any" windshield repair attempt could result in the damage spreading. In fact, I had a statement at the bottom of my invoices to that effect, but again, out of laziness and cockiness I rarely asked customers to sign the invoice before I completed the job.

Anyone new to the windshield repair business should simply ignore everything I just said and go with the other advice offered in this thread previously, especially when working with dealerships. I know I could not have paid for an $1100 windshield even if I wanted to for several months after I started. Better safe than sorry when you are just getting started. However, for all you seasoned veterans out there, I think it is prudent to weigh the value of doing something extraordinary for a good customer. We all have our limits, and I have had to walk away from a few customers in my day, but very few to be sure.

My reasoning would be very different if I broke windshields on a regular basis, but it happened so seldom to me that I really didn't put much thought into what I would do when it happened.