General Autoglass nightmare

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General Autoglass nightmare

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For reasons beyond me, the rear quarter light decided to explode and shatter while the Mrs was driving.

I have fully comp, so ring my insurance company at 3pm.
"Press 1 for windscreen" directs my call straight to Autoglass.

"Hello, I wonder if my side windows are covered?"
Turns out, they are but with a £100 excess.

So I make an attempt to give my insurance and car details, including the reg number, but the girl on the phone isn't interested, just my card details for £100 payment.

"Payment for what, you haven't done anything yet. You fix, I pay, that's how it works, no?"

This turns out to be a new concept for the girl,
"Hmm, do the work first and then you pay? I suppose so, hold on I'll check...................... someone will be out tomorrow between 8 and 12, goodbye and thanks for phoning"

"Hold on love, don't you want to know what window, what car, registration number, where I live?"

"oh yes he he he"

After several attempts to phonetically spell every detail for myself, my car, my address, my insurance details.
L-lima
F- foxtrot
etc
This takes some time and she's having trouble with Zeros.
"Zero, naught, nothing, not O as in the letter that comes before P"

I think she got it, hard to tell, but the sun is coming up and I'm tired and the technician will be here in a minute!

This morning the technician turns up.
"Where's your car?"
"There, that one"
"That's not an Audi?
"Yeah, I know, it's a Fiat"
"I've come to fix an Audi, look booking for an Audi A4, I have an Audi window, hold on I'll check with the office"

20 minutes later, they've messed up and mixed up the registration number.

"I'm surprised at that, as the girl wasn't even going to take my car details or address, I had to force them on her! All she wanted was my card details?"

"Oh, you haven't paid yet, that's £100!"

"But you ain't done nothing, look it's still broken, once you fixy fix, me paye pay!"

"We haven't that window, hold on I'll check with the depot"

20 minutes later.
"No we need to order the window from Fiat, so can you pay us now?"

"Why?"

"You need to pay for the excess"

"Hold on, I'll check with my insurance company as if I paid yesterday like asked, I'd have bought a feckin Audi window!"

10 minutes later,
"My insurance says only to pay on completion of work, they have an agreement with you and it's in that agreement, you fix, me and the insurance company pay, it's written that way and I'm told you know too well it is"

"hold on, I'll phone the depot"

20 minutes later.
"No, you need to pay £100, you can talk to my manager"

45 minutes later
"Ask for £100 again before you have actually fixed it and I will punch you, your technician, then I will smash every window of your van and your depot"

3 minutes and 12 seconds later.
"Yes officer, I did say that, but they are trying to get me to pay for the window before they fix it, it's blackmail"

"The robbing bastards, you shouldn't have to pay before, but you shouldn't threaten them, come with us"

7 hours later
Got home from the police station, thankfully no charges, but I have got a voicemail from Autoglass, asking me to pay the excess before they'll book an appointment to fix the window.

10 minutes later, National Windscreens are outside, fixing the window.
5 minutes after that, he tells me
"we'll post the bill for the excess on Monday!"
 
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It's a living hell getting anything done now. I'm selling and buying a house, the solicitors are total c**p!

Really, fewer and fewer people have any grasp of their brief, and worse, they don't care.

Talk about a service economy, there isn't any service. I'm old enough to remember when there was a paper economy, and everything was done more quickly and efficiently than it is now, no joke!
 
A quick search on google will reveal some truly horrendous Autoglass experiences.

When LadyKitching was unfortunate enough to crack the windscreen on the Panda, I was somewhat disturbed to find that Autoglass were the only repairer approved by the insurance company.

Fearing the worst, I called Autoglass, booked it in to be done at a local branch, and filled an SD card with evidence of the car's pre-repair condition before dropping it off with much trepidation.

We arrived at the appointed time, received a friendly greeting followed by "I can start right away; it'll be about 2 1/2 hours before it's driveable. If you want to walk into town, I'll give you a call when it's ready to collect. I've already cleared it with your insurers; there's no need to pay anything now; just the excess once it's finished & you're happy with it."

We got a call at the appointed time; the car still looked immaculate; not a scratch anywhere, all the trim was still mint and securely attached, and the wipers were correctly positioned (not trivial on a Panda). And it's been fine since; not a hint of a leak or problem whatsoever.

So not everyone has a bad experience with Autoglass.

Suggestions:

1. Take the car to them; they have a much better environment for fixing it than your drive, or the side of the road.

2. Don't use the screen repair number that came with your insurance documents; book directly with Autoglass using the number on their website; this avoids all this prepayment nonsense.

3. Clean the car thoroughly just before you leave; that way, any damage will be obvious to both you and them.

4. Take pictures before leaving the car, just in case.
 
Bloody hell - see another thread for my having the front screen of my 4x4 TA replaced in Italy - I got a bit grumpy with AGEAS when I had to 'phone the local company myself 24 hours after I rang to start the process. Excess was 50 pounds, collected on completion of the job.
 
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