Windshield Repair Forum

Well guys, things were very slow here and I decided if you can't beat them then join them!!!

I was hired as a Technician Manager, which I was overseeing 48 mobile techs in the market both replacement and repair.

I must say, I was overwhelmed by the lack of Customer Service and Qualiy workmanship and equally surprised about several items:

These guys are charging $75 to as high as $125 for a WINDSHIELD REPAIR???? WHAT???? And in this market they are doing over 70 of them a day!!

They use a Glass Medic kit, little compressor type machine, which I must say does some of the worst repairs I have ever seen!

They never drill!! They never use a moisture evaporator!! They never use heat!!

They put a primer on at the beginning of all repairs, then attach a vacuum, and claim this is removing the moisture.

Doing ride alongs with Repair Medics, 60% of the repairs I seen, did not change at all!

I was quite vocal about it. Perhaps why I am no longer there......aside from me not being nurturing enough for them.

I do know that in the company video which featured Thomas Feeney, at our Kick Off 2012 meeting, they are worried, very worried about this pending lawsuit. I think they may know this is going to be their demise. However, he did state that this would be in the legal system, until eternity, so not to worry.

So now, since I did not fit in with Safelite as a whole, or agree with my General Manager frequently, I am no longer there. Not to mention, I was doing two jobs, and only making one salary. My last six weeks there, although salaried, I tracked my hours and put in over 374 hours in that amount of time.

Wow, was I missing self employment!

Safelite is pretty fired up about this recent ALLSTATE acquisition as well.

My question to you all, is this:

How is business?

Are you all doing well?

I had to take down my site, ads, decals off truck, everything in order to work for them, so in essence I am starting all over again.....

I was not making big money to begin with, but if getting back into this , which I am considering, I know at this point I am going to be charging more for my service, considering Safelite was getting $75 minimum for their repairs.

Shoot that is $35 more than what I was charging!!

Any of your input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Thank you for confirming what has been going on over here for years with them. By the way the primer is acetone.

screenman wrote:Thank you for confirming what has been going on over here for years with them. By the way the primer is acetone.

Don't know what it was for sure, but what I do know is this:

Did not help the repairs look any prettier!!

Greetings Smithy,
Thanks for the update on what "Safelite" has been up to. I've heard they charge those confiscatory prices for windshield repairs, and the fact that you were employed by them gives 1st hand credence to the grapevine buzz. It's amazing how much of the "lions share" of the market they have on handling the insurance claims, yet the windshield repairs they do are a disaster. My technicians spend a fair amount of their time chasing down these botch job repairs in vehicles that have been sold by automobile dealers that we service. Time after time a vehicle gets sold and the salesman tells whoever bought the car...."Don't worry about the stone chip in the windshield we'll get A-1 Windshield & Vinyl Repair to repair it for you. So we follow through and go out there and many times it an old Safelite mess. So we have to explain to the customer that the windshield has already been repaired, there nothing we can do about it.....blah blah blah. It's a big waste of time for us, but is "par for the course" in servicing big car dealers.

In terms of "how is business?" Well in the 1st 3 months of this year (2012) We are off to the best year ever. The roads in Vermont are decrepit, with pieces of debris everywhere and consequently land in most peoples windshields. There's no shortage of windshields needing repair up here. We hope the "beat goes on".

Take care for now!

A1repair

What lawsuit are you referring to?

Auto Glass Rescue wrote:What lawsuit are you referring to?

Perhaps I should rephrase. There is currently legislation or upcoming legislations that will drastically affect their business model and unfair business practices.

I guess it won't be a lawsuit until it passes.....Then they will start the suit to appeal the legislation, that will make things more fair.

In the 2010 there was a bill before the Arizona legislature that intended to prevent this type of conflict of interest but Safelite's lobbyists went in and made sure that language was removed from the bill before it was passed, thus, removing most of the teeth.
There have been several other states with similiar legislation over the past few years with practically the same result in each case. Belron/Safelite has very deep pockets and can have lobbyists handle these little problems.
Hell, even if any of these real antisteering bills passed, they are noticeably lacking any enforcement arms. Any relief sought for violations would only be available through litigation and that takes very deep pockets.
Remember Diamond Triumph vs Safelite?

UPDATE I have just gone to "Glassbytes" and read some interesting news about an amendment to that Arizona legislation and Safelite's irrational reaction to it.

Chiparoo wrote:In the 2010 there was a bill before the Arizona legislature that intended to prevent this type of conflict of interest but Safelite's lobbyists went in and made sure that language was removed from the bill before it was passed, thus, removing most of the teeth.
There have been several other states with similiar legislation over the past few years with practically the same result in each case. Belron/Safelite has very deep pockets and can have lobbyists handle these little problems.
Hell, even if any of these real antisteering bills passed, they are noticeably lacking any enforcement arms. Any relief sought for violations would only be available through litigation and that takes very deep pockets.
Remember Diamond Triumph vs Safelite?

Well deep pockets indeed. They claim to have made over 100 million sheer profit in 2011. Would have been more than that, but on the books they spent 150 million on warranty claims! 70000 of that in my market alone.

But the facts are facts. Doing ride alongs with replacement techs here locally, they are scheduled so many jobs per day, that they CANNOT follow the proper dry times on their activator, primer etc. It is concerning to see what was going on and how in an automobile accident, how it could adversely affect drivers or passengers.

Of course me being all about policy I stepped on some toes apparently taking it up the ladder, about how can you give someone 10 to 12 replacement jobs in a day and expect them to follow these critical steps......especially including drive times into the equation.

This ruffled some feathers.

Well deep pockets indeed. They claim to have made over 100 million sheer profit in 2011. Would have been more than that, but on the books they spent 150 million on warranty claims! 70000 of that in my market alone.

But the facts are facts. Doing ride alongs with replacement techs here locally, they are scheduled so many jobs per day, that they CANNOT follow the proper dry times on their activator, primer etc. It is concerning to see what was going on and how in an automobile accident, how it could adversely affect drivers or passengers.

Of course me being all about policy I stepped on some toes apparently taking it up the ladder, about how can you give someone 10 to 12 replacement jobs in a day and expect them to follow these critical steps......especially including drive times into the equation.

This ruffled some feathers.
Jeff Smith-Owner
A + Windshield Repair
SMITHY
Member

Posts: 115
Joined: 02 May 2011 07:26


You should have called Dateline before you quit.