A Class windscreen

[fjmike]

A little while ago a bad chip appeared in my Pilote A Class windscreen, fearing it getting worse I contacted my insurance (Comfort) who told me to contact Autoglass. The Autoglass man arrived when booked and set about repairing said chip, he was worried that being close to the side of the screen and the chip having two small fracture lines that he may do more damage repairing it. After using his resin kit we could both see that the resin had not gone down the fractures so was not a complete repair. After much discussion it was agreed that a new screen was needed. I was a bit worried that as it was an A Class that it might take a long time to source a windscreen, the Autoglass guy assured me that a replacement glass would be here within a couple of weeks.I was amazed when we had a call from Autoglass after a week to say that my windscreen was at the depot when did I want it fitted. Two guys from Autoglass Specialised Unit arrived yesterday and fitted the windscreen and a very professional job they did too.

On the receipt I did notice some information that may help others:-

" If your planning a trip abroad our unique service can help. If you suffer damaged glass whilst on the continent call 00 800 0 3636360 and you will be connected to the Autoglass International Service Team in the UK, who will help you.the service is available in Austria,Belgium,Denmark,France,Germany,Greece,Holland, Ireland,Italy,Norway,Portugal,Spain,Switzerland,Croatia,Czech Republic,Estonia,Finland,Hungary,Lithuania,Luxembourg,Poland,Romania,Serbia,and Slovenia."

 

I do not have any connection with Autoglass other than being a satisfied customer

[PJay]

We had a stone hit our screen (Not A class) last week joining the motorway to get to Caen It did not get any bigger , thankfully, so the next day, I rang the insurers, and they passed me on to Auto Glass, Two hours later the man arrived at our house, wasn't sure if he could do it,, Any way he did do it, and a great job , he did too.Very impressed with both the service , from Autoglass and the insurance company

Amazing stuff they use , and no cost to us

[lennyhb]

According to Comfort Autoglass now have A Class screens made to order and their prices are very reasonable compared to the van manufacturers.

[Muswell]

I have had screens replaced on 2 vans by Autoglass and the service was excellent both times.

[RubyExsis]

lennyhb - 2013-10-25 6:47 PM

 

According to Comfort Autoglass now have A Class screens made to order and their prices are very reasonable compared to the van manufacturers.

 

Thanks for the info FJMIke...

and an even bigger thank you to LennyHB.

Reassuring to know - must be one of the biggest worries for 'A' class owners even if it is a rare event

Fred

[Frankkia]

A couple of years ago I had a crack appear in my windscreen on a Frankia “A” class.

 

Autoglass were called and they said as it was a crack of some 6” in length they would order a new screen and get back to me. Then the fun started.

I had to pester the Autoglass people to get the screen (took ages). I asked them to make sure that they had a new rubber surround as, from experience, I knew that, once removed, the old one would not fit back on.

 

Finally a guy turned up to do the job and made a total pigs ear of it – a) He didn't have a replacement rubber surround but said he could reuse the old one. b) He offered the glass up and it was clearly a misshape. He still fitted it saying that it would be ok. - It wasn't and there was a big gap at the top and it was out of position. He then put some cheap tape over the gap so it would be water tight until he could come back and do the job properly.

 

He said he would come back with a new rubber surround and that all would be well as the new screen would be pulled into position and that the slight difference in size would be taken up by the larger rubber profile. I wasn't too happy as I considered the none OEM glass to be inferior and not a good fit but they insisted all would be well. They also said that 2 men would come next time as it was too difficult for him on his own to make a good job.

 

After more waiting around and several calls to Autoglass they gave me a date for the “new” fitting. I said in that case make sure they come early as it was forecast to get windy and rain from 11am. - They turned up at 11am just as the heavens opened. The new guy said it couldn't be done in the drive anyway and should have been booked into their service centre at Doncaster – As he was going on holiday it couldn't be done for another week.

 

Another week went by during which time the tape round the top of the screen let in gallons of water so I had to mop up and replace it with better tape.

 

I drove the 'van to Doncaster in some trepidation as I thought the glass was well likely to drop out as it was only stuck where it touched - which wasn't much! My wife followed in the car as they had said they would need the 'van overnight.

 

The Doncaster guy said he was sure the non OEM glass could be fitted as he was very experienced. They then let the apprentice loose on taking the “old / new” glass out with a sharp tool – which he then used to make a gouge in the “A” pillar. Oops they said we will have someone repair that and you won't see the difference when you come to pick it up as we have a local paint specialist who can come here and sort it.

 

We went back the following day and the glass was in and a new much larger rubber seal fitted. The gouge had been repaired and looked like a gouge with a bit of non matching paint in it. I decided to take the 'van away and do the paint repair myself as I certainly couldn't make a worse job of it.

 

I got the 'van home and parked it on the drive – the following day the sun came out and the screen immediately cracked across one corner. It had been pulled in so tightly to take out the misshape that as soon as it warmed up the stresses it was under cracked it.

 

I rang Autoglass back and told them what had happened and they said they would send their specialist to take a look as they had never had a stress fracture before and thought I had broken it on the way home. The specialist turned out to be the guy from Doncaster who had done the job. He said he was sure it wouldn't be a stress fracture as in all his years he had never seen one. I said well you are about to see one. He examined the glass and said he would get a new glass on their insurance as it was a stress fracture.

 

By now I had had more than enough so I rang the area manager and told him that as I was going to Germany in a weeks time I would have the job done there by “Carglass” the German arm of Autoglass. And he should arrange it with the branch in Julich.

 

The difference in treatment in Germany was so vast that I couldn't believe it was the same company. The manager in Germany said we don not fit the cheap Belgian glass – we only fit OEM glass. The guys bent over backwards to make our stay as comfortable as possible and not only fitted the new screen perfectly but also refitted a windscreen antenna which the UK lot said they couldn't do. They let us stay overnight on their premises to make sure the adhesive had cured and gave us breakfast in the morning.

 

The UK lot charged our insurers £3,500 for their botch job which included cheap glass. I saw the bill for the German OEM glass – It was €2,500!

 

If I ever have another cracked windscreen I will head for Germany and call my insurers from there!

 

[fjmike]

Well Frankia you certainly had the sort of experience I was dreading and can only imagine how frustrating it must have been. One of the reasons that I posted was that the service that I received was superb and efficient. I am not trying to defend Autoglass in any way but perhaps they have had a take over or something as the guys who came to do my windscreen seemed very knowledgeable. I think that the specialist units must cover a wide area as one guy was from Somerset and the other was from Southampton.