Just want to know if I am being treated fairly. Have 2 parts that I am trying to get credit for . 1 is stress crack and 1 is distorted . My wholesaler giving me a hard time. Its not like it used to be is what I was told. I buy a fair amoungt of glass from them with average of 5 defective parts a year. If they will not stand byu their product then why should I buy from them ? I already have to do the job over and I am losing out on labor and materials , atleast I would like to get credit for the crappy part.
Is this the new Industry standard or am I being Picked on ???

Depends, at the end of the day it comes down to the Branch manager and how they get hit in their pocket with the breakage / stress / etc.

I see blatant BS all the time at a distributor here in town sitting on the cleaning rack, conveniently there is always something, like the 4 inches at the bottom that the windshield did not stick to the glue, the tops where you can see the glue did not butt up to each other..

Hell today I seen a claimed stress crack with a huge pass side wiper gouge... now come on folks this is BS. And how long after you did the job did it stress crack. I have only ever had in the past 3 years ever had 1 true stress crack....

As far as the distortion, some you just can not see till they are in the vehicle, this is something I think is cut & dry...

I agree with you Larry. Its people that have taken advantage of them to cause them to do this. Lets face it , some people don't know how to put a windshield in right. But I took pics of the stress cracks on a carlex windshield lamination was seperating bottom driver side 3621fw. Sent pics in 3 months ago, glass still sitting at my shop. Poor Customer service . When i do get a bad review on Yelp which is highly rare it is almost always because of my supplier. Distorted, Truck running late or lost your paperwork deals

Amen to that, and in the customers defense (something I normally would not do) I think that they have heard so many BS excuses over the years, that when you present a customer with a legit excuse they dismiss it. Unfortunately we only had 2 distributors in town Mygrant who has the most bizarre stock of parts, and Service which generally has anything I want for way more money.

The worst is having to get a Dealer part and trusting that the dealer gets the part when they are supposed to and it gets to them , and then me in 1 piece.

If you have another distributor in town you can buy from that is same price I would cut them off and see if they ask why.

More wholesaler bashing...you guys are unbelievable-most suppliers will support your distorted glass claims if they can inspect it-sometimes its a finicky retail customer and sometimes its a distortion-glass is not perfect. On the stress side of this debate-you guys are 100% right-we have all..or most have taken advantage of the distributors-now they have tightened their belts because of the glass they had to eat because other distributors were passing out credits like Candy...well those days are gone-you all know of the Good work you do and some that don't install up to your or our standards...

Stess this.......

This would not be an issue if profit margins were not so low . On both ends Wholesale and retail. But who has to eat it when a windshield cracks because it was delivered with a tiny clam on the bottom edge. ??? Their drivers do not handle glass in the careful manner which they should. 2 days of training and your off on your own. Not bashing and wholesaler and I did not mention names. In a perfect world they would credit your account for a new glass, urethane, molding and labor. HA never will happen. My friend has a tint shop. If the tint bubbles, his supplier sends him new tint and pays his LABOR to redo the job. They stand by their film.

Memo To All:

**** Starting Monday ***

I will not be taking back any Stress Cracks, or "defective" windshields.
Those days are over.
Regards,
The Management.

I have an email, from a Distributor that they accidently sent me, I will not share it because I think that would be wrong to do. Lets just say that it is beyond interesting.

Gonna let y'all in on a little secret-----

Once upon a time, an auto glass retailer could drop a windshield on the floor and give it back to his wholesale supplier and tell him it was a “stress crack”. Because the foolish wholesaler needed to be competitive with other equally foolish wholesalers, he accepted the so-called “stress crack” and issued credit. But all the wholesalers really gave up was their profit, because at the top of the heap of morons were the manufacturers. The manufacturers ultimately ate the breakage by in turn giving credit to the wholesalers. Of course, the larger retailers who bought directly from manufacturers simply gave their so-called “stress cracks” directly to the manufacturers for prompt credit.

And then give or take twenty years ago, the manufacturers woke up and a 3% “defect allowance” was born. When the manufacturer billed the windshields, a 3% defective allowance credit was issued immediately and no “defects” were accepted back by the manufacturer. A smart wholesaler then realized that he could make an additional 3% by getting tougher with his customers who dropped glass on the floor, and everyone became more careful.

The joke was, when a 5% price increase came along a respectable time after the 3% defect allowance had become the norm, the manufacturers were therefore bailed out of the pain of the allowance and it was happy times for them thereafter.

If you are loyal and don't abuse us, I am willing to give the benefit of a doubt to my customers. But if you abuse the "privilege" the benefit disappears.

I recently had a customer say that my driver left a broken part in the drop box, which he of course swears was not broken when he left it. They are good about returns are usually have good resalable parts, so they got a credit.

Later they had a part that had up and down scratches, like what can happen when you pull a part from the middle of a full drop box. When I pointed out that was the most likely cause the customer volunteered to "eat it". Respect both ways :D

Respectfully I ask you to keep in mind that this translates into 5% of our labor costs and at least %25 of goodwill - marketing reputation etc.

People do abuse the stress factor. But you can't fake a distortion. When a w/s has to be replaced due to distortion it's the Distributor's responsability to credit you for it.

You can Absolutely fake a distortion! have you never seen it done?

Never heard of doing it that way, the scammers I seen back in the 90's did with a torch.. Back in the day when they had a leak they would do this to get credit..

I go into mygrant all the time and see stuff on the stand you can totally tell where the bead did not hit and conviently its a distrotion or a stress crack, they cracked it cause they have no R&I skills to fix the mess up

I cannot believe how many distorted parts I am getting these days- and it doesn't matter who the MFG is either. Quality is going right in the tank these days... I have 4 jobs to re-do right now all weird distortions that can only be seen when the glass is at the perfect angle that it sits while in the car. A saturn L series, Nissan titan, Ford Fusion and a New style silverado. Two PGW, one PLK and one XYG- only glass that was available at the time. Add these to the molding issues and mirror brackets, scratched and cracked in the box and there are some days that just plain stink.

If you have a legitimate defect and you have never made a habit of letting a supplier pay for your own mistakes then there is a very simple solution. Just quit buying from that supplier until they make good on their defect. Believe me if you stop calling them for a week it will get their attention quick ! You don't think for one minute that the suppliers are able to enforce this policy on the big players in this industry.

Not suppliers...they don't make the parts. The manufacturers shouldn't let most of the garbage get crated.

I'll only comment on the "Stress Crack". I can assure you that MOST stress cracks are a result of the following statement. Vehicles are being released and allowed to be driven before the adhesive used has met the manufacturer's Minimum Safe Drive Away Time.

Not allowing the adhesive to build up enough bond strength is first unsafe & 2nd it will result in excessive vibration, shifting, loose moldings & "stress cracks". The stress crack is usually reported by the consumer within a few days of the installion; why because when they got home after driving their unsafe car with the windshield sitting on a still wet bed of adhesive the car is parked overnight where the adhesive finally cures. If the adhesive cures with the car parked on an uneven surface or on a hill with the wheels turned to the curb the vehicle body will twist and your windshield will break or "STRESS CRACK" because as the twisted car body straightens out the next morning & now that the adhesive cured overnight the tension will eventually release through the windshield.

Ol'Timer is spot on....