Here we go,

Hummer H1 is at one of your body shop accounts. Customer of vehicle supply's R&L heated windshields to the body shop at $1200 each. Having the experience of about doing 50 H1's, you install and one stress cracks a week later just sitting at the body shop.

Now the body shop wants you to pay for the new one and install it for free. Do you do it? Or do you try to explain to them what if the customer supplied you paint and the paint flaked off, do you repaint the car for free?

If it is an important customer who sends you a lot of work, do it for free but remind them it is a one time deal thanks to their repeat business.

We assume no risk when installing customer supplied materials. If we had provided the glass, we would be replacing the stress broken piece of glass. You have no control over the materials. It helps if you communicate your policy prior to doing the install.

That is my policy. All bases were covered before hand. As for the account, it's not the greatest. Not very loyal.

No Guarantees for customer supplied parts period. I had a customer call me last week, He had both Peterbilt windshields and wanted to know how much I would charge to install them, I told him, Sorry But I am going to pass. He sounded shocked with a long drawn out Okay. Ask the Body shop if the owner of the vehicle in question wanted to supply his own Paint.... I bet he would of got a swift NO!!!! I have bent some rules for very loyal accounts for sure, One other thing is When I break a part I always ask if my vendor can give me a break (LOL) on the price.... They almost always do.... Because I am LOYAL!!!
I guarantee you I have accounts where I would eat this however, lesson learned to cover yourself next time.

You supply the part you accept all responsibility for any problems. I will do all I can to install your part properly but if it has problems it's your dime. If I sell you the part it's my dime. It used to be this way when the distributors were making loads of money and you doubled you cost on the glass. Now it's chump change.

I am of the same mindset . You also do not know what they did to it after you left. However with that being said on all customer supplied parts we have a statement that prints on the work order stating that there is no warranty on any parts supplied by customer / no warranty on anything. We generally only do a small handful of customer supplied parts a year, mainly because we run them off.

LOL...Its like bring your own steak or eggs to a diner and ask them to cook it for you.... BYOB places are one thing. But not BYOG ......

What a stupid question. My god you just can't make this stupid crap up. How can anyone guarantee some one Else's parts? I can stand behind an install, not to leak, but I will never ever guarantee your parts,,,,, EVER! this is just stupid. You best go back to flippin burgers, you do not belong in the auto glass industry! please go away!

Interesting.... the first response in this string is from Gary. He obviously knows very little about the industry he works for.

We will never warrantee a customers supplied part new or used, If it breaks going in or stress cracks a week later. no warrantee, we have it clearly stated on our work orders and customer receipts. You said they are not the best account and not loyal, Tell them to find a new glass shop to do there install's.

Plus you should be charging enough to cover yourself in case you do break a part for a good, and loyal account, that you would at least break even if you had to buy a part..

Ditto. We never warranty a customer supplied part. Ever.

say get another one and I won't charge you labor on that one. Every once in awhile remind your accounts about installing their glass r & r breakage scratches involved in doing r & r's and when you have something that is of high dollar amount always remind them before you touch it. unlike the iga I would never eat that part.

Really,

Did you even understand the scenario, or even comprehend it ? (Any day, any day, my fly by night'er MB friend)
You probably cant even comprehend the last sentence I put together for you. You have to be young ?



Glass Express,

That is being done today. I guess he had time to sleep on it and figured I was right. Wait,I'm always right :)


As for Gary,

I see nothing wrong with what he said. I've had to make that decision also, in my time. The scope of the account sometimes has to come into play. In his case, I would have no problem purchasing a glass from my distributor and replacing it. I can add up on other jobs to make up for the amount of the new glass that's costing me money. It's easier to make up a couple hundred bucks than a thousand.

I have been a body tech and a painter for 25+ years and gotout of the buis to do auto glass, I will tell you that I DO NOT do body shops period. when I was a body tech I worked in a number of high end body shops, and it was the standard to blame anything on the glass guys.. if there was an issue . blame it on them. if the window was good when the glass guys left and broke what did he say a MONTH later? now they want the glass guys to pay for it? yeah heard that before. lets look deeper, what on earth takes a MONTH to get done in a body shop? answer- nothing this is NOT a good shop. this is most likely a "milk every dollar out of it " shop. when you have a car sitting around a shop like that stuff happens.. so rather than them pay for it... the glass guy did it... to predictable.. the thing was probably sitting there with stuff stacked all over it, because nothing sits in a body shop for a month with out turning into a shelf so if you guys will replace anything anyone complains about lol give me your number so I can refer all my weird customers over to ya..

Update:

All taken care of.
They supplied new glass and I installed at no cost .
Guess sleeping on my argument worked.

Doug:
I've owned a glass business for 35 years and your question made perfect sense to me.. I thought that's what a forum is for. My dad always taught me the only stupid question is the one you don't ask. I'm not saying I agree with his philosophy 100% (I'v heard some pretty stupid questions)but I found it helpful to see what other shops policy is in this situation. Thanks!

Personally, I think the appropriate thing to do is do is double check your work. I have seen many stress cracks that were the fault of the installer. Leaving a metal burr, squashing glass to the pinch weld, metal clips touching the side of the glass etc... If there is any doubt in your mind, even 1% I would eat it. Don't base your decision to cover it or not based on the cost.You need to take the cost out of the equation.

Oh, there's another good one. Lmao

hey can-am what part or zero responsibility for customer s glass don't you get I don't care if I trip and fall I'll sorry about that gimmie another one, not quite that extreme but almost.

the glass is one thing but the paint flaking off? lol

Body shops with regards to R&I are the biggest waste of time and resources, let the hacks like backman and the back of the truck idiots deal with them. I am in business for people that are not so needy, and such liars.

R * I is like holding your dates hand, when at the end of the day you know what your really after right? The replacement work you want to put in the new stuff and get paid!

JBL

a possible cause of the stress crack is the seal that goes around the ws on the h1. we have found that the seal causes the w/s to go in really snug. to snug compared to previous seals supplied by amg. we had a tech break on installing it. fortunalty it was a non heated. we took the time to see what caused it and it was the seal. our solution: trim the seal. there are a couple of groves/lips that exted from the seal all the way around. shave them off. problem solved and no issues.

as a bit of advice amg no longer supplies the heated w/s. actually they only have passanger side ws and can be used as a driver, just apply the mirror bravket. there is an aftermarket company supplying these now.