Attention all you techs. using inferior resins!

[clearquest]

Safelite has the BEST resins! Everyone else has inferior resins! Blah blah blah blah!

What a crock of ****!!!!!!!!

[chipfix]

Well maybe they do have the best resins, supposedly they have come out with a new formula.
http://www.glassbytes.com/newsSafelite20110727.htm

It is probably all marketing hype but belron/safelite undeniably have more resources to formulate
and test a resin specifically for windshield repair than any of the companies that we choose to
purchase our resins from.

I am also curious about their "primer solution"
C&P:
Primer solution: A primer solution is first used to remove impurities and to clean out auto glass damage to prepare for resin. Safelite's newly enhanced primer process is a superior product. Using a good primer enhances the cosmetic appeal of a repair and can help minimize the visibility of the damage. Self repair kits may not contain a top-quality primer.
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Are they flushing out the chip with some kind of alcohol or is it just a fancy way of saying they wipe over the chip with some glass cleaner?

[benswindshieldrepair]

Superior resin or not, most of the Safelite repairs I've encountered are less than impressive. In fact, many that I've seen appear to be at risk of failing and cracking out.

[lz1276]

Seen one today that SL did. It was a bullseye, poorly filled (if any), and of course it was directly in the driver's view.

[sunshine wr]

Having a superior resin doesn't mean anything if it's not injected correctly !

[clearquest]

With a warranty like theirs, why would they care if it cracks out? Will they refund the customers money? NO. They will only credit you towards a new (overpriced) windshield. Someone I know got a quote from them for a 1 chip windshield repair without insurance coverage.........$109.95 was the quote! Yes, I said $109.95 for a 1 chip windshield repair. So they not only don't care if it fails...they also want to charge you out the *** for a repair if you aren't an insuarnce customer.

[DryStar]

OK guys just relax. You can't argue with the fact that they've dominated windshield repair advertising for some years now. For some of you it's helped and others it hasn't. In my area it hasn't.

What really bothers me is I've never seen anything stated from any of our major resin suppliers contesting their claims. Maybe they cant because they don't have test results to prove other. I don't know but somebody needs to step up.

[clearquest]

I agree. If other suppliers/manufacturers want to compete they better jump on the quality control train and make it clear that they aren't gonna let safelite walk all over them.

[Brent Deines]

Compete? Does this mean that because of an advertisement you will now be buying all of your resin from Safelite or are you going to go to work for them? Do you also decide which hamburger you prefer by the commercials they produce, or do you actually like to taste them for yourself before making that decision? I think these ads are stirring up far more controversy amongst windshield repair technicians than they are amongst prospective customers in need of a windshield repair.

The ads are very carefully worded. To say a resin is "best" is simply a matter of opinion. I believe Delta Kits resins are the best and I would hope most of my competitors feel the same about the products they sell. To say the "strongest" is a relative term. Does that mean highest tensile strength? If that is the case that may not make for a good resin at all because it could be very brittle. The chemistry is not as simple as many think, which is why there are so many different kinds of resin available and not all of us agree on what is "best". It's the combination of flexibility, elongation, tensile strength, shore hardness, weatherability, and many other variables that make a resin product stand out from the rest. We could easily formulate a resin that has many times the tensile strength of our current resin, but that would not make it better for repairing windshields.

Testing is also much more complicated than most believe. There are many different ways of testing viscosity, tensile strength, etc., so if you send a resin product, any resin product, to 10 different labs you are likely to get different results from each one. Even having the same independent labs test resin products for us in the past has produced different results because the standard testing method (ASTM) was changed or a different method was used altogether. Who does the testing and under what conditions can also produce different results. Even in the same lab and using the same methods there are variables to consider.

The biggest problem I see with resin testing is that it's nearly impossible to monitor. How hard would it be for someone to take a competitors resin and water it down before sending it to the lab for testing? For that matter they could put anything in the bottle they want and submit it for testing. I could take take a bottle of Safelite resin and pour it into a Delta Kits bottle and send it to an independent lab for testing for crying out loud! That's why I'm against ROLAGS testing resins. There's simply no cost effective way to keep everyone honest so the deck is stacked against those who are unfortunately we all know there are those that cannot be trusted in this industry. You can also do pretty much anything you want with a good video camera these days as well so unless you think the Dinosaurs in Jurassic Park were real you have to question everything you seen in an advertisement as well.

To fight Belron and their vast monitory resources over a few silly advertisements would simply be foolish in my opinion. Law suits of this nature are frivolous at best and the company with the deepest pockets will surely come out on top. Do I like these commercials? No, but I do admire the creativity and compliment Safelite on the quality of their productions. The fact that we are all talking about them is testimony to the fact that they are doing their job in reaching the masses.

But listen folks, every paint company says they have the best paint and every car company says they produce the best cars. Companies produce carefully worded creative advertisements to make people believe those claims, yet people still buy Chevy's, Fords, Toyotas and Hondas. I don't see this as being any different. You know if you are using a quality resin and you know if you do quality work. Keep doing that and your customers will keep coming to you. By the same token, you know if you are using crap resin and the quality of your work is crap. If that is the case you have reason for concern but it's not too late to clean up your reputation by purchasing quality products and learning to do quality work.

Over the years I've done my best to bring quality resin products to the market and our track record is pretty darn good, but like so many of you who have already posted on this topic have stated, the quality of the resin is meaningless if the technician does not know how to do a proper windshield repair. I'll let the quality of my work stand on its own and I'm quite sure the majority of my customers will attest to the quality of the resins they purchase from Delta Kits.

Glass shops have been facing this kind of challenge and far worse for years. This is really nothing new to many of us. Because of their size Safelite/Belron has a huge marketing advantage over us little guys but in my opinion there's no point in getting too bent out of shape over something we simply cannot control. If my competitors disagree with me on this then by all means, take on the 800lb gorilla. As for Delta Kits, we've been on the quality control bandwagon for a very long time so we'll just keep doing our best to produce quality products for our customers.

[candyman]

Iam still getting a few jobs because of their ads. I have seen in the past few months some of their repairs. I watched a tech actually crush and break out glass in the damaged area then fill it with the big injector. A hugh blimish remained on a few while others looked pretty good. Some of the techs do the same as I was trained to, while others do it there way. I did one job a few weeks back for them because the customer was not satisfied with the last repair they did for her. The customer was satisfied with my repair and was shocked to learn that I was sent by the same company she had informed her insurance company she didnt want. I trust my supplier and guidance that I get from them. The ads are impressive, but you dont always get what you see. Could it be editing that makes the difference !!!