Oops! I Broke it!

[repare-brise]

CPR, as far as invisable, when you repair it less than an hour (or 10) after it breaks, a customer would have to know it was broken in order to know it had been repaired(you can say that it's about 98% invisable, the little bulls eye on the end is more visable than the crack. As far as strength, a good crack repair is like a weld in metal, stronger than the surrounding material(thier are a lot of studies to support the strength of a crack, and if it was dangerous, or not as strong of the original WS I don't think that the insurance companies would accept it. Also I think that a repaired original WS is safer than any replacement. But alas, this is just my opinion.

Merci

Yvan

[CPR]

Thanks Yvan, not trying to give you a hard time in fact I like the way you do business. My point is you made the ws worse than whe you started if it cracks out, if your customer is ok with that great. But I think many will not be totally satisfied with the situation and ones reputation will suffer.

[StarQuest]

I don't think even the best of us can make claim to a invisable or perfect repair. There simply isn't one! Crack repairs are certainly an option but truthfully I have yet to see one that I couldn't indentify. Nothing wrong with what Merci suggested as long as all parties involved our satisfied. Will it look like a new shield? Absolutly not! I also limit crack repair to 4"-6". If its to the edge I'll pass. Reason being is because UV resin doesn't cure very well to the edge when it's blocked by 1"-2" off trim molding. (not enough UV present to cure and provide good bonding, not to mention air will leak back in!)

As far as offering a free replacement when a repair fails? I really think that's a personal judgement call you'll have to make when it occurs. If it's a new dealership account and you feel this one incident will put you to the street, I'd suggest either covering replacement cost or offer them free repairs until dept is paid. My dealership accounts have been educated enough to know some repairs will fail and won't hold me accountable for the replacement. With a insured customer? Never!!! Just tell them your attempt will not be charged to insurance. You tried your best....but just couldn't be repaired.

That's my input for the day;)

[cure4glass]

Merci I agree to a point,
As I mentioned in my earlier post ,when the vein cracked out I went ahead and repaired it, the customer was surprised at how well it filled in.I left it up to him to decide if he still wanted to replace it, that I would pay his deductible.I want the customer to be happy with the result.I called today to see if he had gotten a price on replacing the w/s and he said he appreciated the offer but was okay with the repair.I bet I get his next repair job.

[a1repair]

Greetings again, my fellow WSR techs,

This forum that Delta/Jeff Higgins has set up, ROCKS. It is certainly the best WSR forum I've come across and is a great "arena of WSR ideas" from probably some of the best, and hopefully passionate, windshield repair guys in North America.

That being said, a bit more of my 2 cents

CPR,

Thumbs Up! After reading your post, IMO you're right on the moola $$.

repare-brise/Yvan,

What you said should/could be true for the retail portion of the business, but if you were to go to the Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Porsche dealer and tell them without reservation, that unfortunately the unsolicited "bullsyes, star, eyelash, bat-wing" you were attempting to repair has now become a 3,4,6, or 12" inch crack but "worry pas". "I was still able to repair it".
Isn't there a humongous probability that whomever authorized you to repair it will jump out of his chair and run, (be it rain, sleet, snow or freezing rain) to see what the end result are? That would be my guess. What would his/her reaction be to the end result? We can only guess.

Example: Last week one of our technicians did just that, he broke a Saturn w/shield, and with his tail between his legs, walked back and (right up front) told the person who authorized the repair(s)and said star in the Saturn, for whatever reason, cracked beyond repair. I asked the "newly trained" tech what his, (the Saturn managers) reaction was. The tech said "his eyes bugged out of his head at first, and his chin dropped" until he told him what our policy was when that happens. Replacement for the cost of repair @ our expense. Relieved to say the least, the Saturn Manager said, "Oh! those things happen" And now you know the reason for this thread.

Dave M.
You being "fussy about cracks longer than 6", and where they are located" is again IMO good WSR business. Ostensibly you are not a WSR newbie. Kudos

[repare-brise]

A1

Before repairing the crack I would of course notify the person in charge, advise them of the situation. Since this has only happened to me once and it turned out to be a good thing in the end I remain optomistique. If it were ever to happen again I would do the same thing. If they hired you to fix a spot, they were aware that the Ws would not be 100%(We always shoot for 100% and sometimes achieve it, but we are are own worse critics I hope). Buy trying to fix the crack all you are risking is a bit of your time and possibly gaining another customer for crack repair. If the customer is still not satisfied, then yes buy all means replace the glass, but I maintain that it is our business to repair and not replace, and in the case of a fresh crack, a repair(done with the right equipment , resin , and experiance) will satisfy all but the most stuck-up of clients(and those usually have a Ws replaced and never repair anyways). As for the participation on the forum, yes it is fabulous, keep up the good work every-one, we all deserve it.

Merci

[glassdoctor]

Am I the only person that does crack repair on this forum? Why is every-ones automatic response to replace the WS. I do very well with crack repair, and if you fix it within a few miniuts of cracking(which would be the case here) no-one but you will ever know it was cracked

Can you elaborate on the crack method you use?

Perhaps I'm too critical, but I've never seen a crack repair that can't be spotted. Even a "perfect" crack repair in a practice sheild is visible, imo. I have never believed any resin is stronger than glass either. But you have my attention and I always like to hear what works for others.

As for the replace vs. walk away discussion, I didn't mean to sound fanatical. Each situation has to be assessed and a judgement call made. I don't think it's "right" to have to buy a new w/s... but in some cases it's a wise move. That's all. Also, I like the idea of attemting a repair of the crack to see if that's a possible solution. But some will crack out halfway across the w/s before it stops... those are too long to repair, imo.

[magicogar]

Hello all...Here's a scenario that I had:

The customer had a star break that had legs 1" in all directions. I told the customer that the cracks are very unstable whenever a tech fixes it. I told him that sometimes the cracks seem to be invisible, but to the trained eye, it's there. When I started applying pressure, one of the legs started spreading to 4". Luckily, that's all it spreaded and I was able to continue the repair without it spreading further (you can drill the ends here, but I felt comfortable enough that it won't spread on me anymore). The guy's eyebrows raised and I told him that this will happen sometimes due to the instability of the glass. He just said ok, and understood the situation.

Just really educate the person at first and let them understand that the glass is unstable during the repair process. Also, when it cracks out, don't show any signs of you panicking. Just relax, and try to tell them that the glass is very unstable to begin with and try to fix it. If they're mad, try to satisfy them. Give coupons, free repairs on next crack, anything. I don't know about giving away a replacement windshield tho....that's a little too much for me unless otherwise. It's like I'm fixing somebody's computer and somehow, the processor died on me and I have to buy him another pc. btw, this really happened and it's not my fault (the old thing was on it's last breath). Anyway, satisfy them as best as possible. If not, they'll tell 10 others about your crappy work.

[therock41500]

1 in every 1000, I say get new technicians

[paintlessplus]

1 in every thousand.........GIVE EM A RAISE .