hydroman wrote:I would be interested to know what went wrong with autoglass. I have a car with a cracked windscreen, awaiting a replacement but I haven't yet decided whether or not to get it replaced.
Here goes
Slightly OT, but I'm sure it won't distract everyone for too long.
First I would like to say that your mileage may well vary depending on which Autoglass depot you deal with. I have seen a couple of horror stories about them trying to use generic rubber trim etc in the past, and was fully expecting it to be a nightmare. It has been an epic, but for different reasons. I have
mostly been very pleased with the way the Crawley branch have dealt with it. A car with a normal trim round the windscreen (and a smaller screen) would be far simpler and probably no hassle at all.
My windscreen got a stress crack overnight on Christmas day. The first working day afterwards I phoned my insurance glass line. These tend to go straight through to Autoglass anyway and I am sure it makes no difference if you do it on your insurance with the usual £75 excess or pay them the full job (I expect that is an eye-watering amount). I said on the first phone call that I knew a generic trim would not work and it had to be Citroen trim - he was happy to note that down and made an appointment for the first week of Jan.
Within 5 mins I got a call back from the Crawley branch saying that it is a particularly difficult job and she had to put the most qualified/experienced fitter on the job, so needed to move the appointment as they were off that day. That made me more happy and confident with their ability.
The day came and they called to say the trim arrived from their warehouse, but it was only half there. The estate (the saloon is different but I'm not sure how) has the trim in 2 l-shaped parts, one for each side. They had received one side and not the other. He said they have ordered another one and re-booked for a day or so later.
That day he called again to say the same thing happened again. He had someone at their warehouse check all the boxes and apparently they had 7 boxes each with the left (or was it right) side trim, and none of the other side
He had ordered it from Citroen and would let me know when it arrived.
A few days later I got a call to say Citroen had told them it was on back order and had to come from France. Citroen had not given them an ETA. I that point I started to panic and pointed out that my MOT was due on 18th Feb and it would not pass.
After a couple of weeks they called to say they had the trim and booked an appointment. By this time it was nearly the end of Jan.
Up till this point the car was drivable. The crack was outside the drivers vision, but inside the swept area. Autoglass had advised me that it was fine to keep driving as long as it did not creep into my vision. I even got stopped in a Police/VOSA check and they didn't even notice it!
They came out and it took 2 of them to get the old screen out - then they started sucking their teeth at the amount of rust around the top of the aperture. They said they couldn't really put the new screen in with that much rust - it would just re-crack soon. Also, part of the grove the trim fits in was rusted away and the rest was full of rust, so the trim would never hold in place. They would have fitted it but said they could not cover it on their guarantee and strongly advised against fitting it without getting the rust sorted as it would just re-crack and the trim would just fly out. They did give me a big bit of card to put over the hole in case it rained before I had it moved.
The rust was bad, but not as bad as it was on an old BX I used to have years ago and they barely even commented on that when replacing a windscreen once
I am fairly sure the rust will be due to the fact that my sunroof has leaked for years despite my attempts to seal it, so the water would probably have been collecting in there.
Luckily the RAC were happy to transport the car from my office to my indy. It then took a week or so for the bodywork guy to fit it in, and took him a week or so to get it done - partly because he resprayed the whole roof as the lacquer had de-bonded and he had to grind the old stuff off by hand.
On Friday they were due to come out to my indy and fit the new screen, but called in the morning to say they had had a screen delivered for a Mini instead of an XM! They re-arranged for Saturday morning.
He came out on Sat and fitted the new screen - it took him nearly 2 hours just to fit the new screen and put everything back together! But he did seem to do a good job of it. I can't fault the workmanship - though have yet to get the car back on the road as its MOT has run out.
However, it is not over yet! When they took the old screen away, they still had the Tax disc and holder attached to it. I realised while the RAC chap was loading it on the back of the truck, and called the branch that day to tell them.
They were due to send it out with the fitter, but he did not have it. I called them today and they are searching for it - I'm waiting to hear back. I suspect they may have lost/binned it though
It runs out on 28th feb, so I can get the new disc as soon as the MOT is done today/tomorrow, but I am trying to find out if I can get away with showing that. Otherwise it is £7 and a trip to Brighton to get a replacement disc. All for a weeks driving. They do keep doing a VOSA/Police check on my way to work, so I don't want to risk it if that isn't legal.
So, is it worth it? To keep the car on the road - yes because it is my daily drive and I don't normally have a spare car. However, be ready for it not to be as smooth as it could be and it may take a while to get done. AND MAKE SURE YOU CHECK THE TAX DISK BEFORE THEY LEAVE!
