Windshield Replacement - Safelite Cant Get it Right

I went through my insurance to get a my windshield replaced due to merging onto a highway behind a truck that was firing a hailstorm of rocks that managed to chip my windshield in more than one place. Safelite came out to fill them and in the process of polishing the glass, put a crack in the windshield. A few days later they came back and replaced it. Problem is they installed a horrible piece of glass. The windshield sat above the roof line by almost 1/4 inch, there was a distortion on the bottom foot of the windshield that would make you sick just thinking about driving with it, and I could almost put my hand between the windshield and the trim between the rain sensor and the headliner. Not only was there a gap, but the trim wasn't even fully attached and you could see the clips hanging out. The whistle the new windshield made on the highway was enough to make me want to jump out of the car just to get away from it.

Here is a photo of the gap between the trim and the windshield. Its an awful photo but its all I have.



Fast forward a few days and I'm at the closest Safelite shop to get yet another windshield installed. Figured they could do a better job at the shop than in the parking lot at my office. I was the last appointment of the day and they didnt finish until 30 minutes past closing time. The guy handed me the keys, said I was all set and walked inside to close up. I looked inside the car and once again, there was a gap between the trim and the clips were visible and there is still an unacceptable distortion in the bottom of the windshield.

I waited outside in the cold for almost a half hour trying to get their attention inside the shop to ask them about it. They saw I was there and looked to be done cleaning up but I can only assume they were waiting for me to leave. Eventually I gave up and drove home. I called the customer service number and they set me up with an appointment on Friday for another replacement and the rep on the phone said he made a note for the shop to be sure they used a windshield from a different manufacturer since he figured it was a bad batch of glass from the same place.

Is there any way to be sure that the glass is good before they replace it for the third time in less than 2 weeks?

Get a Volkswagen windshield. Lots of the aftermarket ones fit poorly on a lot of cars.

oilhammer said:

Get a Volkswagen windshield. Lots of the aftermarket ones fit poorly on a lot of cars.

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VW doesn't make their own windshields. Get the OE Manufacturer for VW, which is revealed by the DOT code.

checked an alltrack at my work's parking lot, which resulted in DOT46, which with help of google, the manufacturer is CRISTALES INASTILLABLES DE MEXICO S.A

I never said they made their own windshields.

But the dealer can get them from the people that do.

But if someone wants to travel to a factory in Mexico and stand outside and ask them if they can buy one windshield, they are certainly welcome to try!

I'm pretty sure that oilhammer knows that VW doesn't make their own glass. There are, however, several OEM glass manufacturers. Safelite is crap.

1854sailor said:

I'm pretty sure that oilhammer knows that VW doesn't make their own glass. There are, however, several OEM glass manufacturers. Safelite is crap.

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VW does use Saint Gobain and Pilkington, but they are likely not the OEM for the Mexican-assembled MK7's.

After my 10th or more conversation with Safelite this week, I was able to get them to agree to install an OE windshield. Also set up the replacement with another shop since the one that has been doing the work clearly cant get it done right.

If I could get this done with anyone but Safelite I would but I cant do that unless I could afford to go out of pocket. After talking with my insurance company, because I started with Safelite and this is all considered warranty work, I'll have to stick it out till the end or insurance wont cover it.

As a PSA to anyone who needs a replacement windshield in the future, try to get an OE windshield from the start. Clearly the odds aren't in your favor of getting an aftermarket one that fits properly.

While I don't have experience with Safelite, I do have experience with a local glass place that installed "OEM quality" windshield on the '10 jetta (no sensors).

In making the claim I asked about OEM vs "OEM quality" and they stated they've had very good results with their brand and no need to have the insurance pay the extra.

I went with their brand and expected to be disappointed, but was very happy with the glass and their work.

While Safelite may have the advertising budget, I'll trust my repairs to the local chain that can't afford to do the job multiple times, so they do it correctly the first time.

This was at Granite State Glass, not sure if they are down by you, another larger one is Portland Glass.

Our shop has dealt with Safelite for years (decades, actually), in both the sublet work portion (have them come to put windshields in our customers' cars) as well as having them as our customers (we service a lot of their vehicles).

They are cheap. That is why the insurance companies like them, and why so many insurance companies as well as so many fleet management companies like them. They are the least common denominator. The offer the lowest cost, because they are so huge, and they have a lot of their own product.

They also have brand recognition, lots of locations, lots of commercials, etc.

However, they are not always the best. It is hit or miss with their installers, as again being the cheapest means they are not necessarily getting the best quality employees because they are not paying them very much. Of the probably 1000 times I have seen them here, I bet I have only seen the same guy more than once maybe a dozen times. Which also tells me they have a very high turnover rate.

So, like McDonald's (giant brand, lots of locations, cheap) they can get the job done, but maybe not with the best results. McDonald's can "fill you up", but it is poor nutritional food, made by low wage people and you have a good chance of getting food poisoning.

For non-fleet, non-insurance work, our shop has an individual guy (who has been doing this since the 1960s) come in. Great guy, great work, reliable, professional, reasonably priced. He has no commercials, no fancy uniform, and he has a plain white Chevrolet Express van. That is the guy who has installed all of my own windshields too. And he has no problem if I get an OEM one from Volkswagen (in fact, he LIKES them, because he KNOWS they fit perfect).

My dad was able to get his insurance company recently to agree to a genuine Honda windshield in his Element, he just agreed to pay the $40 difference, which I thought was pretty good.

By the way, we have had LOTS of Safelite come backs over the years. Both from poor install (leaks, wind noise, broken trim, etc.) and from poor quality product (waves in the glass, distortion, wrong size shading, blocked VIN tags because the opening was not in the correct spot, etc.).

The 3rd and final windshield was installed on Saturday. This time they did install an OE one. The difference in fit and even how it looks in general is night and day compared to the aftermarket ones they had used previously. There are no gaps between the glass and trim, and the transition between the windshield and roof line is as it should be.

Before they installed it, I was asked to go out to the shop to look at two windshields before they did any work. They didnt mention if the windshields were OE or not at first. The first one looked to have even more distortion than the one that was on my car waiting to be replaced. When I pointed it out they mentioned it was not OE glass but claimed that the supplier they used was different than the shop that did the replacements previously and were hoping their aftermarket windshields were better. The second one was perfect and turned out to the the OE one. Turns out they still didnt want to eat the extra cost, so they were hoping I wouldn't notice how bad the 3rd aftermarket windshield was.

oilhammer said:

For non-fleet, non-insurance work, our shop has an individual guy (who has been doing this since the 1960s) come in. Great guy, great work, reliable, professional, reasonably priced. He has no commercials, no fancy uniform, and he has a plain white Chevrolet Express van. That is the guy who has installed all of my own windshields too. And he has no problem if I get an OEM one from Volkswagen (in fact, he LIKES them, because he KNOWS they fit perfect).

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After having glass replacement chains screw up repeatedly I also use an independent installer. He does file insurance claims. And in MA glass is a zero deductible so I have no out of pocket on replacements. He uses OE suppliers (Sekurit for the older cars) and does an excellent job. He was even kind enough to inspect my B4's glass and windshield surround when it was at the body shop this Spring, because I was going to have him pull and perhaps replace the glass if there was any rust visible. He said the glass, body, and install were fine, no need to mess with it. And he didn't charge me for inspection. Of course he's replaced about 6 windshields and rear windows for me in the last couple years, so that may have helped.

In 2012 had the windshield replaced once on my 2010 JSW TDI after taking a major rock hit in the Marlboro MA area on 495. I have heard similar stories about Safelite and others and wanted only OEM glass. Aftermarket glass was not an option at all. I went to JN Phillips in Framingham MA and they did excellent work. The replacement windshield is OEM and made by Saint Gobain. The new windshield was 100% identical to the factory original windshield minus the VW logo etched on it where the other information is etched. Aside from no VW logo etched on the windshield, you couldn't tell that the windshield had been replaced.

I recommend JN Phillips Auto Glass.
https://www.jnphillips.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI59Cr6-DN1wIV3rjACh3sJw6aEAAYASAAEgI-z_D_BwE

Good luck.

As oilhammer says, your perception of a chain will depend on who does the install. I had JN Phillips replace IBW's windshield 4 times one Summer because the replacements kept cracking. Of course they didn't care because they'd just file another claim. Negligence without a victim. Finally I switched companies and have had the current windshield in the car for enough years that I'd wish it would crack so I could get one with less sanblasting.

6 months after getting my 2011 TDI, i got a rock thrown at it from a semi and cracked the windshield. the price for safelite and one from the vw dealer was close in price. ended up going to the dealer for replacement (they had a guy come in to install it). with coupon it was about $500 (iirc). no windshield deductible in CA, so i paid out of pocket. i try not to drive behind those gravel carrying semis any more.

If you're in Eastern Mass. and you want a perfect windshield installation with high quality Pilkington glass, call Solid Auto Glass in Sterling, 978-933-1740.

Pedro, the owner, is a perfectionist and will do a spectacular job at a very competitive price.[FONT=&quot]

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demagxc said:

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As for the fit of the mirror bracket, my OEM doesn't sit 100% flush, not as bad as yours but def not flush. Granted it looks like the black area of the galss is a little bigger in mine so it may not be a noticeable.

Kinda hard to have the glass bend down to fill this contour.

740GLE said:

As for the fit of the mirror bracket, my OEM doesn't sit 100% flush, not as bad as yours but def not flush. Granted it looks like the black area of the galss is a little bigger in mine so it may not be a noticeable.

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I wish I had a photo of the fit on the original windshield but the OE windshield that they eventually replaced this one with sits "flush". Granted it isn't sitting directly on top with the plastic making contact with the glass, but is only 1/8" gap at most and is unnoticeable at any angle (most importantly from the driver's seat. I will try to remember to upload a new photo at some point for comparison.

740GLE said:

Kinda hard to have the glass bend down to fill this contour.

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If the windshield was designed with a specific contour and the trim was designed to fit it, I would expect the fit to be very close (if the glass was manufactured correctly). If the tolerances on both the glass and trim are off in opposite directions I could see there being a noticeable gap from the factory. I wouldn't think it would be as bad as the photo I posted, and at the very least everything would be connected and there would be no visible clips.

safelite glass is terrible, always has been.