Here's another perspective. PPG and Pilkington are about my only 2 distributors. I am in a rural area and do not have the ability or luxury to go pick up what I need. Both dist. are 80-100 miles away. We shop between both, and work with both, as they work with us. We CANNOT be in bus without them. I for 1 have no problem if they need to raise a small % to keep me in GLASS. What I won't do, is accept BS pricing from tpa's and or ins co's that want to low ball everything. I for 1 do not believe the problem is with the distributors who KNOW they need to raise the price to stay in the game and pay thier people. The problem I have is way too many shops are accepting discounting that should NOT BE HAPPENING! I say,, those who want to complain about the distributors that basically FEED us should maybe LOOK IN THE MIRROR! Is it their fault they need to raise prices to stay profitable????HMMMMM I think it lies on the shoulders of,,,, US,,, THE GLASS SHOPS TO RAISE OUR PRICES TO STAY PROFITABLE! Quit relying on tpa's to bring you work.I know maybe these are easy words,,, but,,, nothing will change until ENOUGH shops say NO NO NO NO NO. I really don't think the problems lie in how we buy our product,,, it's in how we are getting reimbursed for our product,,,, and SERVICES!!!!!!!IN A NUT SHELL,,,, ( and yes I know we all have a bit different circumstances, But,,, those who discount from a deflated price(nags), and charge lower than 45-70 per shop hour( dictated by nags ) or accept FLAT pricing of any sort,,,,, THERE IS THE PROBLEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's it for me,, there in lies the problem!!!!!!!!!! Keep doing what you are,,,, it WILL GET WORSE. It's a bitter pill to swallow but FACT. It will not change until enough say NO MORE! One more fact, are we all buying glass for less than we did say 2, 3 4 ,5 years ago? It doesn't matter how low we can push our distributors,,,,, it will only come around when we stop DISCOUNTING!!!!

I would like to second the motion on the floor.

Every couple of years our market has a high influx of glass installers that hit the market, and start running around to all of the local auto dealers and hack their way to lower and lower prices, the funny part is the only ones that notice are the shops that depend on car dealers to stay in business. The second place the new hacks hit, is the local body shops, and again they run around hacking each other to bits. Then in a year or so, POOF they are gone.

Now the insurance companys have taken notice of the fact that a lot of glass guys are willing to give the work away. Well guess what guys, they are now taking advantage of the give-a-way program that a lot of shops have implemented.

Who was the guy that thought mobile service was a good idea? I bet he wishes that would have never been the born, a nice idea that has outlasted it's usefullness.

My shop does not depend on insuance, body shops, or car dealers. the last insurance replacement we did was last April, and we dont do body shops or car dealers at all. Phone book flippers are a waste of time unless we need to fill in a blank spot in the schedule. We charge a quality price for a quality job.

Sometime it would be kind of fun to tell the insurance companys you dont have time for their junk work, especially when your market has a hail storm.

One day maybe we will figure out that being in competiton is nice, but when we all ban together and not accept low money for our work, and wont accept high prices for our supplies, there could be a profit we all wont have to whine about. The glass meetings I have been to remind me of my 5yo Granddaughter. "They are silly Grandma".

I apologize to the spell check gods, I install glass instead, it pays better :)

Joe Kellman I think takes credit for that and I believe he may have started the first network. He once said that everyone would work for him one day. Sold U.S. Autoglass to Safelite years ago.