free window screen repair is this a scam

Quentin

Pay them by cheque - a cleared cheque is accepted as a receipt.

You have an invoice you can send to your insurers should they not send you a receipt. Mark it "paid by cheque no.xxxxxx", and send it in.

VLT14

I too have the same letter, but in my case I still have the invoice which I signed on the day of the repair on which there is no agreed price.

I would strongly advise anyone who receives this letter is to contact Trading Standards as a matter of urgency BEFORE taking any action and take advice from them, the more people who contact Trading Standards the more seriously this will be taken, as its becoming clear that this is a clever scam.

Cumbrian_Male

Why is everyone complaining it's a scam?

If you have glass cover on your policy and your insurer only deals with RAC or Auto Glass, then it's your responsibility to understand the terms of your contract.

If you then contract someone else to effect a repair, your insurer won't pay and you will get the bill.

anewman

Cumbrian_Male wrote: »

Why is everyone complaining it's a scam?

If you have glass cover on your policy and your insurer only deals with RAC or Auto Glass, then it's your responsibility to understand the terms of your contract.

If you then contract someone else to effect a repair, your insurer won't pay and you will get the bill.

I think the problem is they claim it is "free" and then send a bill through the post. No one yet has suggested this company has attempted to collect insurance details, confirm that they have windscreen cover, or that they would be invoiced by post at a later date..

Cumbrian_Male

Caveat Emptor and all that

zippyzippy_2

Hi everyone. Just thought I'd clear a few things up regarding repairing windscreens. I have been repairing windscreens for about 5 years now and run a successful business on the south coast. I consider myself very competent in what I do and have many large fleet contracts as well as insurance work. If you get a chip on your windscreen and have a comprehensive insurance policy you can usually have the chip repaired for free without affecting your NCB or incurring an excess(A couple of insurance companies have started charging a small excess within the past year for repairs). It is not a scam and is beneficial to the insurance company as it saves them the cost of a windscreen in the long run if repaired properly. Of course the repair company gets paid by the insurer but to the customer it is free. I mention the words "repair properly" because unfortunately the majority of repairs carried out in this country are of a shocking standard and I'll tell you why. Most insurance companies so called recommended windscreen repairers are the two big national windscreen replacement firms (we all know who), and here lies the problem. If you could earn 50-60 pounds for a repair or 200-600+ pounds for a replacement then which would you choose especially if you made the screens in the first place? The result is a slap dash repair in the hope that the customer is not happy and eventually wants a new screen which of course the company is happy to oblige even if it has to waiver the excess. This results in even more money from the insurer as they are paying out for the repair and also the cost of the screen. This to me is blatent fraud by the windscreen companies especially as they have the cheek to run a national radio advertising campaign and its only a matter of time until someone from an insurance company sees sense and realises that a company that supplies windscreens and also pretends to do repairs dont mix. People trust a large brand name and so think that they are getting a quality service. This is far from the truth as I see on a regular basis people asking me to redo a so called repair which has been carried out by one of the big 2 windscreen firms. I pride myself in doing a quality job and have many repeat customers who are more than happy to recommend me. I will always try to repair even the most difficult jobs as I have nothing to lose by trying as I dont supply windscreens. In the unlikely case that I can't repair then I dont charge. My advise to anyone with a chip on thair screen is to use a repair only company if you want a quality job. Of course there are always a few bad eggs out there such as Jenny mentioned as the start of this thread. The company in question "Clear Vision" is well known for shoddy work, fly pitching with no permission on car parks and is probably out of business by now. Its companies like this that are giving the windscreen repair business a bad name. There is no excuse for a bad repair and bad training and poor work ethics as mentioned earlier are to blame. Unfortunalely someone needs to let the insurance companies know how bad their so called recommended repairers are carrying out this work as I'm sure they would not be paying them if they knew the truth.
Hope this gives you all a bit more of an insight.

LandyAndy

Some months ago I approached one of these repairers, outside Homebase in Salisbury, because I have a stone chip in my windscreen. He assured me that the damage would fail the MOT. I went to my local MOT station and they took one look at it and said it would not fail and, indeed, last week it passed.

zippyzippy_2

The MOT guidelines regarding damage in the windscreen are anything larger than 10mm in the A-Zone(in front of the drivers vision) or larger than 20mm anywhere else before it should fail an MOT. In my experience this greatly differs depending on the tester. I have had people wanting me to repair a chip which had failed the MOT which is well below the guidelines and on the other hand have seen chips that should have failed that people tell me have sailed through without a mention.
p.s. I see you are in Fordingbridge Andy. Only about 7 miles from me. Was the company on Salisbury Glas Weld by any chance?

zippyzippy_2

Just so you can see what I've been talking about regarding replacement companies doing repairs, here's an interesting site that puts things into perspective (and no its not mine).

http://www.glassdoctors.co.uk/27.html

Road_Hog

zippyzippy wrote: »

Just so you can see what I've been talking about regarding replacement companies doing repairs, here's an interesting site that puts things into perspective (and no its not mine).

http://www.glassdoctors.co.uk/27.html

Zippy, I have a chip on my windscreen (have had for past six months, about half the size of the small finger nail) which is very small, isn't getting any bigger and is down towards the driver's windscreen wiper.

Who would you recommend, I know you are careful not to name the two big comapnies that you believe are rogues, but who would you recommend, I'm in the Warwickshire, so too far to go and see you.