autoglass, directline and headaches

[kaktus]

TLDR:

Direct Line won't pay for original windscreen replacement - despite me informing them that my car manufacturer will not honour any warranty claims that arise as a result of non-OE glass replacement and will also not honour any warranty claims relating to the driving assistance features screwing up as a result of the non-OE glass (camera at front behind windscreen). Car manufacturer has offered to "ok" the glass replacement if autoglass provides the full specification and manufacturer before it is installed.

Autoglass won't provide the manufacturer or specification, for what seems like a pretty obvious reason (it's probably trash quality) despite me asking more than 20 times and over a period of two weeks.

Direct line don't give a toss as they won't cover anything related to the OE and I'm getting nowhere with autoglass who literally refuse to provide the above information.

Any suggestions on where to go from here?

 

[Bear]

That’s odd most of the insurance companies I’ve been with will go with a non approved glass replacement but you have to pay a larger excess. What does your policy say?

 

[kaktus]

That’s odd most of the insurance companies I’ve been with will go with a non approved glass replacement but you have to pay a larger excess. What does your policy say?

policy only covers non-original equipment. Something I missed when taking it out and they conveniently forgot to mention when they were touting windscreen replacement as part of the quote

 

[muon]

That’s odd most of the insurance companies I’ve been with will go with a non approved glass replacement but you have to pay a larger excess. What does your policy say?

It's not just a larger excess. Most insurance companies say what the maximum they will pay is.

For example a quick google shows for Aviva

https://www.aviva.co.uk/faq/answer/motor/3116/

When using a non-approved glass repairer, there is a limit of £185.

All insurers I've seen have a limit. They only allow it if their approved repairer (autoglass in the OPs case) cannot perform the repair.

It's because of this low cost (they've negotiated with Autoglass etc.) it usually doesn't affect your No Claims Bonus.

 

[gc123]

one of the reasons i got out of the game was working for silvershield for 10 years and then went solo for 10 between autowindscreens undercutting prices and autoglass stitching up insurance work it was un profitable)
i bet if you have the dealer fit it they will sub the fitting out to a window company. we did loads of dealer fits. had it on my own car once p407 pan roof cracked only dealer supply over a 1000pounds at the time insurance speciried dealer , low and behold i got a call 2 days later asking for me to fit a pan roof at dealer ...my car lol .

im afraid when in your situation ive had customers just suck it up and pay dealer . did have one who took it to court and after about 12 months won but i think it was a specific technicallity which no doubt has been closed.

worst we had was a fleet customer who we fitted glass for about 5 years was next door to our unit , we were invoicing his insurance..same as yours direct line ... invoices were about 150 pounds with vat (merc vans) and we got the vat from customer and only a flat 75 pounds from insurance. they put in the policy and we tryed to argue we were cheaper than autoglass by a country mile but they would not budge , we ended up just swallowing the extra about 35 to 40 screens but work was work so it is what it is.

sorry about the rant just hope you get a outcome

 

[gc123]

on a footnote now im semi retired i always try to find a independent but more than not its autoglass that the insurance . i always specify they come to me we have a large workshop and i always remove the glass my self and prime everything up seen to many paint coverups and trim damaged. still took them 3 attempts to get my mondeo a new trim even when i had a note from the original fitter saying he damaged it , gr right pain in the ass.

 

[muon]

Here is another.

https://www.admiral.com/magazine/guides/motor/windscreen-cover-your-questions-answered

• If you don’t use our approved repairer, the maximum we can pay out is £50

 

[gc123]

Here is another.

https://www.admiral.com/magazine/guides/motor/windscreen-cover-your-questions-answered

yeap tying it all up

 

[Swifty55]

What car/manufacturer?

I thought autoglass used glass to OEM standards?

Never had an issue with my warranty on assistance camera when I had my screen replaced - and that was Vauxhall.

 

[[TW]Fox]

I have never had a non oem marked windscreen fitted that I have been happy with. They always seem inferior - usually a crappy tint instead of the proper graduated one and perhaps it's purely coincidental but they always seem to chip again much quicker than the factory screen.

Fortunately my car still has it's factory screen. I bet that it's eventual replacement should I get a chip won't last the 5 years this one has.

 

[robj20]

I thought 99% of all windscreens were made by either Pilkington or Saint Gobain so your getting good stuff no matter what.
Yes the tint and what not could be slightly different but I doubt your getting anything vastly different. It all had to be made to the same standards.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

The rumour from within insurance when I worked there was that most of the non OEM screens were in fact OEM screens that failed on one metric, so a slight ripple or discolouration or something like that

 

[[TW]Fox]

I thought 99% of all windscreens were made by either Pilkington or Saint Gobain so your getting good stuff no matter what.

My last one was a 'Nordglass'.

 

[paradigm]

The last time I had to have a replacement screen was back in 2011 on my 2007 (57) A6. I had asked autoglass (not my insurers) for OE marked glass as I’d already read a plethora of posts regarding issues with automatic lights/wipers on poor quality glass, but my plea went ignored and they turned up with a cack quality screen (poor sunband at the top, awful distortion at the edges), and low and behold the auto wipers and lights didn’t work properly when the guy tested them at the end of the fitting. Autoglass then replaced the screen with OE the following week.

Could have saved at least two people’s time and hassle, as well as the cost of the first screen, by just bringing OE glass the first time around.

 

[Gaygle]

I last had a windscreen fitted to my car a few months ago. They fitted a Fuyao one, which supply loads of the manufacturers from factory. Didn't have a problem with it, fitted perfectly, all the electronics worked perfectly and looked identical to the BMW one which they removed.

 

[AtreuS]

I had the glass crack on my mk 3.5 Focus ST and the insurance used auto-glass. First screen was a pilkingtons and was a bad fit... the cameras and auto lane control wouldn't calibrate at the end so he came back with another a week later.... same result.

In the end they ordered a Real ford screen and fitted that, and STILL couldn't calibrate the cameras.

In the end they sent me to a local Ford dealer who re-calibrated it in about 30mins.... the lad said auto-glass don't have the right computer stuff to re-calibrate them, that's why the first 2 screens failed!

Least i got a real Ford screen out of it.

 

[bainbridge]

The last replacement I had was was pilkington and had more ripples than a viennetta. Fitter was a nice bloke though, did a thorough job.

 

[Dandle]

Admiral paid for genuine glass on my X3 as it was within 3 years old. Autoglass had three goes at fitting the screen and cocked it up every time. They didn't use the sound deadening foam your supposed to replace on the bottom of the screen on any of the fits and couldn't get the screen lined up in the body correctly (the seals looked terrible). I even ended up with a rattle behind my dashboard on the last attempt.
In the end Autoglass agreed to pay BMW to fit the screen and they took two attempts to get it right.

 

[Iamzod]

I've had the same issue with Direct Line & Autoglass last year on my ST220, initially fitted a "Shatterprufe" screen. The heating elements in it were really visible compared to the OE screen & the auto wipers seemed to not work in fine rain.

A few weeks after fitting a 2 inch wide strip right in the drivers view had the elements fail rendering the heated screen pretty pointless.

They fitted another Shatterprufe screen, same issues again with failed elements allover it within weeks.

Then they fitted a Pilkington, full of ripples & failed elements again after a few weeks, they tried blaming the car electrics & had me drive to Sheffield to have them tested, no issues could be found.

I think the car then had another 3 Shatterprufe screens fitted, one of which had dead elements from the off.

I then started kicking off with Direct Line & asked for compensation for the hassle as i'd bought the policy on the basis that it had windscreen cover, they weren't providing me with the cover as what was being fitted was substandard junk, I told them if they weren't willing to provide the cover i'd just buy one myself from Ford for what i think was just under £800 & use the legal cover to claim against them or go through small claims. Bit of backwards & forwards they agreed to fit a Ford screen which I inspected before the fitter laid his hands on my car & guess what, another Shatterprufe screen! Told him to take it away, following week they came back with a genuine Ford windscreen.

Funnily enough, the Auto wipers now work correctly & a year later I have no failed heating elements, the junk they were fitting lasted up to a max of 3 weeks before failure.

 

[[TW]Fox]

I don't even want to join this race to the bottom to save a few quid on car insurance. I'd happily pay more for insurance but receive OEM glass if I needed it. But virtually nobody seems to offer that.