Do you require a hard copy quote from other retailers?

I know there's a long version, but could someone steer (no pun intended) me in the right direction of why pricing is what it is in our industry today? Perhaps discussion here would be helpful.

Sometimes I will require a written quote. It all depends on what company they received a quote from. There are some companies out there that you just don't even compete with due to the quality of their glass and workmanship!

i don't price match, we charge what we need to profit. the only additional discounts we give is for multiple vehicles and cash, real greenbacks, no checks or c.c's

I give a fair price for the job to be done. no negotiation. A cheaper job is exactly that.

Derek, no-one has answered your question of why pricing is what it is in our industry,,,,,, Yes there is the long version, but here is the short one,,, too many shops can't get work on thier own anymore and rely so heavily on the networks that control them and the pricing. But it is shops, cheap cash markets, tpa's & ins co's that dictate what they will pay and too many keep accepting the low ball pricing from fear of losing market share. And oh yea, the big national shops (sgc, Dt, etc), that give away the farm thinking they will make it up in volume,,,, slow death & chapter 11!!! hmmm

The plague of the industry: Tailgaters.

They have no real overhead and sell junk glass that they just lick & stick. No legitimate independent that's doing quality installs with quality glass and taking care of his employees can compete with that on a pricing basis.

Safelite, D/T, etc.: They are what they are and aren't going away any time soon. Belron is the new factor in the mix. Only time will tell with them. They will eventually brand the independents that they're buying up and, as a national force, have a significant impact on pricing.

Obviously, companies that bend thier own glass (Safelite) can sell it much cheaper and still maintain respectable margins. That's a fact of life that will not change. Safelite, as much as I loathe thier sales tactics and thier general quality of workmanship, is a competitor that I must simply ignore as I can't compete with thier set pricing. I simply concede that business. Until I start bending glass or buying multiple truckloads of chinese junk, I'm not in the same league on a cost per job basis.

Those whose business models are based soley on price will die sooner or later (hopefully sooner). As independent shop owners we must either educate consumers to understand the difference between lick & stick tailgaters and legitimate shops doing quality work or suffer a slow painful death.

We have a lot of tailgaters around North Texas but for the most part the quality of the glass is the same with most of the companies here because everyone buys from the same distributors. Not all tailgaters are bad. Most auto glass companies got started that way and made a good living doing it.
Some of you may have noticed that SGC is gone almost completely mobile in Oklahoma ( they do between 5-10 cars in the warehouse per week with only two in house
techs.)

As far as China glass being crap well most of your O.E. manufatures are having glass made in china. Look at XYG 5-10 yrs ago you couldnt pay me to install XYG or Northstar but since late 2003 when they signed on with GM to provide O.E. glass on almost all new 06 -07 models I think PPG and the other guys better start producing a better product.

No we dont price match

"Not all tailgaters are bad. Most auto glass companies got started that way..."

Yes. You're absolutely right, AH. There are some good tailgaters out there. Guys who got sick of working for shops that ran them ragged everyday with a dozen installs and no regard for quality. I salute those guys; especially the one's who speak English!

Part of the blame goes to the distributors too. There was a time when your discount was based on quantity buying. The price structure was 1-5 windshields, 6-10 windshields, and buying a pallet. Now anyone gets the one low price on single windshields. This allows tailgates to buy as low as a high volume shops. There was a time if you didn’t have a location you couldn’t buy wholesale. The distributors played a large part in price erosion

We don't price match, our cash prices are a lot higher than the bottom feeders.

I'd like to charge even more, but there is a limit to how much higher you can be than the competition out there. But I'd say we are about 50% higher priced for your average windshield vs. the bottom feeders.

i am doing an 06 yukon xl tomorrow, it is at a dealer i do work for and it has all the factory glass, none of it xyg or northstar, my 06 chevy truck also has no glass in it other than gaurdian,did you just make that up to make yourself feel better about using fyg? saturday i am doing an 06 monte carlo i will check the glass on it too but odds are it isn't fyg. if it is we can all save money buying oem glass.

i see you said xyg, got confused get a lot of fyg from ppg that i send back, but still unless xyg bought gaurdian,then my point still stands.

Freightliner business class M2,(dw 1494)o.e.m.,crinamex
order one thru the dealer and you get fyg,at dealer price.
Most of the time that i get asked for a written quote is so that my competitors can see what i charge for every line item.I do not break down the pricing.I simply say "1 w/s installed for x amount of dollars,includes everything for a complete installation".

bqa- XYG is an OEM distributor for GM .Check out a new Malibu wagon some new vettes and the chevy colbalt also look at the new HR and AVIO .Eldorado Chevrolet in McKinney ,TX has all these vehicles sitting on the showroom floor (brand new) all have XYG glass .I've also walked through the XYG plants and seen them making the glass for GM. IF you would like more info you can call my good friend Garry Lee Dunagan @ Northstar in Kansas and he can also verify everything I said in this post.(XYG makes glass for Northstar)

my wife drives an 05 malibu maxx if thats what you mean by malibu wagon, it has pilkington glass the the yukon i did had gaurdian in it, i have seen aveo's with xyg but that car is made in old daewoo plants where ever they are from. korea i think. but as for most of gm vehicles i haven't seen it at either of the two gm dealers i do work for but i will walk the lot today and check, could be wrong i doubt it.

It may depend on what plant the car is made in but the point was that XYG is now considered an OEM manufacturer and chevy is one of XYG's main suppliers on SOME models . The vehicles in the previous posts are just the ones that I had seen with my own eyes and like I said call Gary Lee @ Northstar ask him.

I have not yet seen any XYG in GM vehicles either.

My question would be, do these XYG's installed by GM carry the GM logo, as GM has been doing on many vehicles of late?

Then, if so, the next question would be if the glass supplied by XYG to the 'aftermarket' is the same as the glass supplied to GM at the OEM level. Remember when PPG ended up with its foot in its mouth over the Chinese anti-dumping case, having to admit that the glass was not the same, even though the reps had been telling us for decades that it was?

If XYG is supplying to GM at the OEM level, is the glass at the AM level the same? From a liability standpoint, it seems to me that's an important question.

Another "Good for the Goose, Good For the Gander" example. If the Chinese can fault PPG (and dismiss dumping issues/tariffs/investigations) for this issue, then should they not be held to the same standard?

All I want to do is be able to stand in court, should the need ever arise, and prove that I returned the car to OEM specs in regards to the safety systems, or at least as close as humanly possible, not just met 36 year old FMVSS rules that don't even apply to the aftermarket.

OK, I also want to be able to sleep at night and know (not just think) that I've done the above for my customers.

OK again, I also want to be able to make a decent living doing it.

And I'd like supersized fries and a drink with this.

I've seen a few with the GM logo but most are installed by gm and have the XYG brand logo instead of GM and as far as everything else XYG has two plants and all the glass rolls off the same machines . Unless they changed production procedures but its been about 9 months since I was @ the plant in Canada so who knows . I'm not a paralegal anymore so I cant help you on the legal side.

Anyone ever seen a FYG OEM FW2064 they are SWEET!! They got the honda logo on them and they fit like a glove.. So how can people say FYG is not OEM?

Check out a new GTO. Last one I looked at had all FYG in it.