This is a total of a 10.3% price increase over the past year!!! And it only means that PPG, Mygrant, Guardian, Carlite and all the others are not far behind. Though they might not be in collusion, it sure seems like price fixing to me!!!

How do you usually respond when there is a price increase?

Between the wholesale increases and NAGS benchmark DECREASES at the same time, it sure smells like collusion to me.

I think that everyone is organanized but us. The insurance companies are smart enough to read glassbytes and follow the first discount change. The wholesalers are smart enough to follow the first increase.

The independents are to busy talking bad about each other to do the same (myself included). What would happen if one installer made the annoucement? would everyone else follow suit? I am sure everyone from SGC to the one man van could use a bump.

Laim Mcteague from The Hartford Insurance group once told me " We'll stop taken bigger discounts when your industry say NO."

That was 5 to 7 years ago!!

You would think that someone like LYNX would fight for us to get an increase from their insurance companies.

The less independents, the weaker LYNX is as a network

AGN
That is a good question. When prices go down you will now be part of the Auto Glass downward spiral, You close your eyes and wish you had sold glass at a higher price. Like I told you a couple weeks ago, Mobile companies think it is easy to beat up brick and motar. Now that you took the "I can beat your price route" HOW ARE YOU GOING TO RAISE YOUR PRICE SO YOU DO NOT HAVE TO GIVE UP YOUR MONEY?

Lynx fight for us?

hmmm...

I'm trying hard to remember when I ever took the "i can beat your price route". As far as I can recall I never said that and I certainly don't do it in my daily business practices. My price is my price and I do very little haggling if any at all.

My question was a straight forward question to see what everyones response was to a price increase. Do you all sit around and ***** about it or do you raise your prices a couple of percentage points to compensate?

Lets not turn a straight forward, from the heart question into a bash AGN session.

Gentlemen,

Give me a break, LYNX is fighting to keep themselves employeed. Do not get me wrong I think that the guys / ladies there are very nice. But I think there job, and there money and there future come 1st. If you want to be protected from the evil insurance companies and the evil that you think lynx is, GET OUT. Would you live somewhere, where you got stabbed daily??? No of course you would not, if you cant take the beating get out of the business before you have an annurism(sp) or a heart attack. Anyone in the south carolina area that is looking to just get the heck out, well feel free to email me, cause Bachman Auto Glass is coming to town I'm making a list and slashing a price :) get out before I come in naughty and not nice :) (lol jk)

Bachman you crack me up.

SGC must love price increases. Has anyone noticed less wholesale accounts wanting to get involved with glass work? We have had a number of body shop and dealership say it's just not worth it and then call the TPA's.

I think that the price increases are a good thing.It's only good business practice.After giving it away to EVERYBODY,They must feel now is the time to start making a profit again.
Some of us said that it all started with them selling at all time lows(to anyone)we complained.Now they raise their prices and some complain.
Now the question is,How many of you ,WILL,raise your pricing?Or is your competition going to keep on making you do work for "NOTHING" by determining what pricing structure they come up with,or will you just keep on whinning and still try to out-do the competition by selling lower?
Will the t.p.a's follow this increase.I don't really care.Maybe they will give you a 1% increase(wow).Then again they just might lower your discounts to make up the difference of losses.
So i say hooray to the distributors for hopefully starting a new kind of trend.Profit making potential.

Bravo Vt.!!

That, in part at least, was the message I was trying to convey in my post. However, all I seem to have accomplished is once again getting called a "lowballer."

Oh well...I really don't care anyways. There is an obvious reason why some are successful in this business and others are just treading water.

Time to find a new wholesaler, they have been the only ones to raise them in the past. They are out of excuses, my question is: What is the reason for the increase? Last time it was fuel prices, even though they had a fuel surcharge. Fuel prices have only gone down over the past year yet they have increased prices 10% and their service has gotten worse. Anyone have the number to Mygrant or Dakotaland?

Ok we are fixed raised our cash customers by 5% and our wholesale customers by 4%. Woo Hoo we will be able to retire in about a million years.

Don't blame the wholesalers,Put the blame on your t.p.a's for keeping your margins low.At least someone has the gumption to do something ,Maybe for the better.If your t.p.a does not follow the lead,then i guess you might have something to complain about.

Now;why is it that glass cannot go up in price?

Price increases will not stick with a little guy leading the way.We need someone like Mr Lubner or Mr Levine to fire the first shot.

LOF has lost most of our business since the revaluation. We used to give them 85% of our business. Now we shop each and every part and more often then not they are to high!

We are currently developing a pricing structure. No more dictated prices. Every CUSTOMER (the actual car owner) will be paying cost+. We will be marking each part up a certain $$ amount, not a % over cost. We are telling customers the $$ amount their insurance will pay and charging customers the difference. So far we have not lost one job in the short 2 weeks we have started this procedure. Customers are saying "we will pay. We only want you doing the work. We have tried the others and had nothing but problems." Maybe all our hard work continued training, and terrific service is paying off.

ALL insurance invoices will have an additional small administrative charge to cover the costs associated with submitting the claim on the insured's behalf, along with waiting for payment (10 to 60 days).

ALL fleets will be treated likewise. Payment at "time of service" will be cheaper than "on account" invoices. Two FLEET levels based on volume (number of invoices and average invoice $$amount) which will be reviewed each year and adjusted if a fleet meets the criteria for the larger discount structure.

NAGS does not work anymore. NET ITEMS are hurting every one of us on the retail side, even Safelite, (they quoted a $700 NET ITEM for $269 plus moulding, just last week. We told the customer to go Safelite and get a written copy of what they were billing his insurance company, as their website said $269.00)

We believe the only true and fair way, for ALL PARTIES involved, is to invoice based on OUR costs of doing business (parts, labor, administrative, etc.).

Now Pilkington is raising prices, others manufacturers and distributors are sure to follow. Up until now, too many glass shop owners, including ours, continue to take it in the backside, being squeezed by outside forces and to fearful to take back control of their businesses. But I hopeful that is all changing, and in a big way. PPG Prostars and Select shops continue to pay fuel surcharges despite their contractual obligations to buy most of their glass from PPG, yet the “guy in the truck” can show up at a warehouse and NEVER pay that fee. Nice way to treat your “volume” customers PPG.

Stay busy everyone and fight for hard work!!

I have not heard of another price increase from any of the vendors. At least not yet.
It could be because the Belron stores were one of Pilkington's biggest customers. Now that Belron has SGC glass, they won't need to buy so much Pilkington. We get to make up that loss! JMHO

CCC.

Will you be releasing the program for all the world too see it sounds interesting.

We need something new, I would settle for passing on the additional costs until CCAG saves the day

agn to answer your first question.
pay the bill they still beat the **** outta mygrant for me.
in a couple of weeks the sales rep will come by the shop buy the guys pizza and write me a misc credit
i love my bricks it gives us a place to eat in the shade.

d-boy "it sure smells like collusion to me."

what does that smell like?

Maybe PPG will beat Mygrant I don't know. I'm not unhappy with my current suppliers by any means.

As far as the price increases go we have to do what every other industry does...pass them on to the end user.

"As far as the price increases go we have to do what every other industry does...pass them on to the end user."

I totally agree AGN.

CCC.

You fire the first shot, post it on bytes and I will follow...

We need to unify

Running that idea (glassbytes) by the owners now.

Obviously there will be a roll out period as well as a sales effort to give customers, fleets, and agents and/or insurance companies notice of the new procedures and costing structures.

This thread is beginning to get really interesting!!

I would'nt mind the increase so much if they would start our route back up. They have to go right past our shop every day to make out of town deliveries but still refuse delivery . We are to close they say ,but yet they drive down our street 3 times a day to go to the guy that is only 12 miles west of me .Makes no dang since, think of all that money they could make.

What half-brained monkey runs that distributorship AHAG? I could understand them saying you had to wait until they were already going that way, but no deliver at all? Thats just stupid.

My distributors will meet me on a job if I get out there and have a wrong shield.

I don't recall a price increase in the last 6 months of 6.8%. Am I wrong? I thought the last increase was about 3%.

Glasshog there were two 3.5% increases in 2006. You should find them on the Glassbytes archive

Early last year, LOF and the others had a price increase of 3%. Later in 2006, they went up 3.5%. Now a third price increase at 3.5%. Totals over 10% compounded.