Introducing myself.....

[Gerardk1960]

It's already a quite a while ago that i was surfing a bit on the internet and found this forum by coincedence. Though i had planned on spending some time here to introduce myself i never really found the time to do so. Work and time for the family (g.f. and our two little boys) kept me pretty busy and beside that it was also because i knew writing a little something here would take some time for me as it would have to be in English, which is not my motherlanguage. Im from the other side of the big pond. Holland, to be more precise. We speak Dutch here (and i do that much much better! :biggrin:
Well, i will give it a try anyway to tell you colleagues a little more about myself and hope it makes sense to you: before i started with windshield repairments i had my own little company in greeting cards. had that for about 5 years and was looking for something completely different. One of my neighbours was doing windshield repairments and was quite enthousiastic about that. So, to cut a long story short i decided to join in as well and started for the same (franchise)company. When i look back now at my start in this business i do regret ever having taken this step to join as it was only a short time after that when we got into trouble. The guy who had been running that company gave us loads of problems and most of us decided for a mutiny and as a result of that we had to find ourself a lawyer and ended up in court. Well, to cut another long story short we won and had to re-organize ourself somehow. For that we found another franchisecompany that also did windshield repairments at the time. During the years that became less and less important to them and i saw more and more colleagues leaving (several of them with lawsuits). Recently i took the step myself as well and am now working on starting my own company again (no franchise anymore of course as im sick and tired of that). The work itself is quite ok i think, most of it is from transportcompanies which you visit on a more or less regular base so that you built up good contacts with the people there. Thats an aspect i quite like. What i also like about the job is the freedom that you have: no one looking over your shoulder all the time (well, apart from the g.f. that is
I may just hope that the bad luck will stay away from me from now on, cause i think i had my share the past couple of years: last year for instance i found out one morning that someone had broken into my Van and had stolen all the tools and my ladder. With all them tools gone i couldnt do any work anymore and it was with a lot of trouble that i finally managed to get some new stuff. Good tools are pretty hard to get here and im still looking for a "new" GlasWeld ProVac 2000, which i still miss every single day that im working (i know this isnt the right place in this forum, but if there is anyone over there who has got one and willing to sell for a reasonable price, im interested!).
Wow, looking at the time, its almost 2:00am here, i think i will stop writing for now. Pretty tired by now and the kids will be up and jumping on the bed early tomorrowmorning again im afraid!
Take care!

[new guy]

Welcome to the windshield repair forum!

[screenman]

Welcome to the forum, your english is superb. I hope you succeed from now on in. You should or could have a look at the Delta sytem as you have a supplier in Germany or of course over here also, try the Magnibond resin it works well in our climate. If I can be of any help at all just ask Delta for my phone number.

[chips1144]

Welcome Gerard, You explained your situation Well, what a rough time you've had.
If I was in your shoes (Clogs), Id be booking a ticket to the UK and driving to Lincolnshire to see Graham, I think this might be the opportunity you've been looking for, sometimes things happen for a reason, The Trip could be a business write off, take the G.F too, what do you have to loose?
Good Luck to you no matter which direction you take.

[Kgobin]

Welcome to the windshield repair forum Gerard. We are glad to have you here and hopefully we can be of some assistance to you. There is a lot beneficial information on the forum, and I would suggest that you contact our distributor KLK-Glass in Germany.

[GlasWeldTech]

Welcome aboard Gerardk1960. There are very few used GlasWeld items around.

[ChipperFixer]

Gerardk1960 Go to the American Ebay, put a product watch on Delta or GlasWeld products. I bought a ProVac system the other day at 1/4 the new price. You can buy inferior windshield products there anytime, so just be patient and the good stuff will show up. Good luck and welcome aboard!

[Gerardk1960]

Want to thank all you guys for the warm welcome and your kind words here!
Your suggestions for help are appreciated very much!
@new guy: thanks!
@Screenman: thanks for the compliment about my English! woww...you said it is superb? feel very flattered! Now imagine what my Dutch must be like! :biggrin: In case i need something like resin in the near future i will most definitely have a look at Delta System (for now i still have enough and can get more from a colleague over here, but its always good to know there are more places i can get it from). Thanks!
@chips1144: it had been a pretty rough time indeed! You suggested booking a trip with the g.f. to Lincolnshire to see Graham? A trip to the U.K. would be great as i love the country and the people, so i will go look for my wooden shoes now! :eusa_danc But, ehhh..who is Graham and what do you think he could do for me? (please forgive me my probably stupid questions...im still new here and didnt have much time to spend here so far :icon_redf )
@Kgobin: thanks! Its great to see there are so many people here willing to help each other! Of course that goes the other way around as well: if i can be of any help to any of you please let me know!
@GlasWeldTech: now thats a name that sounds familiar to me! I have been a GlasWeld-technician myself (that was when i started with windshield repairments)! I will most definitely look for a good used ProVac in the near future. Right now i will have to take it easy financially but hopefully that will change soon after having started the new company!
@ChipperFixer: sounds like you had a great deal there on e-bay and you probably got yourself the last glasweld-item available...i just did a search there for ProVac and all they came up with was Prozac (could be a good alternative after searching and searching with no positive result! LOL). Thanks for the suggestion anyway and i will look there more often from now on! Inferior windshield stuff is most definitely not what im looking for as i find it very important to do a good job and have satisfied customers. Luckily there is no hurry in finding new tools as i do have a small ProVac again! Perhaps i could give it a try on the Dutch e-bay as well..though i doubt being able to find stuff like that there...

[Gerardk1960]

The past couple of days i have been quite busy...the new business of course is what kept me so busy. First of all i had to think of a good name for it. After a couple of ideas all of a sudden i thought to have found a good one: *StarRepair* (cause thats afterall what we are doing). The slogan i use with it will be: "Ruitreparatie op lokatie" ("windshield repairments on location"). I already went to the chamber of commerce (?) to register the new name and contacted a company to take care of businesscards, etc. They would design a logo i can use in future. Today they delivered the invoice-books (dont know if thats the right word in English...its for filling in the information that you send to the insurance-companies). The businesscards and the magnetic plates to put on the Van will probably follow next week. Im really pleased that everything went so fast as that means i can start this monday and make the cash dance again! :eusa_danc

[Brent Deines]

@chips1144: it had been a pretty rough time indeed! You suggested booking a trip with the g.f. to Lincolnshire to see Graham? A trip to the U.K. would be great as i love the country and the people, so i will go look for my wooden shoes now! :eusa_danc But, ehhh..who is Graham and what do you think he could do for me?

In addition to his contributions here, and his recent Windshield Repair Technician of the Year award, Graham Watson, or screenman on the windshield repair forum, sells windshield repair products and provides excellent training in the UK. As for what he can do for you, I'll leave that to the two of you, but I do think you would enjoy any time spent with him.

While there are some deals to be had on e-Bay, you really need to be careful. Far too often we get calls from people who purchase a windshield repair system that has been misrepresented, and by the time they get it upgraded they pay more for it than if they had bought a new one, or at least a refurbished one from a manufacturer who offers a money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. We've heard some real horror stories the past couple of years.