A friend arrived up late last night in her 54-reg Toyota Avensis hatchback. Nice car, but she wasn't pleased about the broken rear windscreen.
For various reasons (NCB etc), she didn't want to claim on insurance. So we called out a well-known windscreen company, who are repairing it as we speak -- at a cost of £620, which was reduced from £700 because she's an RAC member.
This seems horrendously expensive for less than 1sq metre of glass, with a few heating filaments in it. Is that the going rate, or has she been ripped off?
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Did she check her insurance policy to see if the windscreen was covered without loss of no claims? Front screens are, and I am sure that applies to all windows. If so, then she would have to pay no more than £40 - £50 towards the cost of the replacement.
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Beat me to it Tom - also, even if it weren't covered in the same way as a front windscreen is, would she necessarily have lost all her NCB? Given the amount involved she may have been a bit rash.
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Some of these windscreen companies simply quote what they can get away with.
I had to have a new rear screen put in a lightly-damaged car I'd repaired (put a new rear 1/4-panel on it). Rang a *very* well known screen company and was quoted an absurd price. I let it be known that I was 'in the trade' and told the guy to stop being stupid because I wasn't a punter. Got a mumbled apology and given a price about 1/3 the original quote!
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I've also got a feeling that the radio aerial is also inbedded in the rear screen
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The estimate is lower than the one I obtained from Autoglass for the rear window of my MB, which has delaminated slightly, but I'm going to live with that. I don't understand the prices either. I know the MB-dealer retail cost of the component (presumably, Autoglass would get it at a wholesale price), but why should it take what I reckon to be 8--10 hours labour? Isn't it:
* Strip out the seal.
* Kick out the glass.
* Install new glass, taking care over connections.
* Apply new seal.
Job done.
Perhaps someone in the biz can throw some light on it as a general issue.
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i work at a bodyshop...we do some ourselves and use a window company to do others
ive never seen the window man take longer than 1 hr..30mins is typical
thye just charge what they can(cant blame em) 99%of car insurance wont affect ncb etc for having a new window
he recently mentioned a vectra windscreen was many hundreds of pounds retail and that he pays £30 the rest is profit
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have they said 8 - 10 hours labour that does seem excessive or have they said it will take 8-10 hours before you can drive it away as i know some cars have to allow the screen to set as it is a structural component and is basically glued into place and takes time to set...cheers...keo
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Keo
The 8-10 hours labour is my estimate of the time roughly equivalent to the total price minus the component price. I think I'll now ask the excellent bodyshop that did a very reasonably priced job for me recently.
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I'm with Zurich (recommended by my broker) and they will cover any glass with a £50 excess and without loss of NCB. Worth looking at when renewal comes up.
I know because my car was broken into last week: Audi locks are hard to defeat so they smash the taligate glass instead. They took my firm's data projector - hard to sell on surely and they are unlikely to give a presentation. Gives a new meaning to the saying 'thick as thieves'.
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Data projectors are very easy to sell on for a few hundred pounds - the ones I bought at work cost nearly £2k+VAT and would easily fetch £500 on ebay.
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I had a windscreen replaced a few months ago. The full price was well over £400, but because my insurance doesn't cover windscreens, the repairer quoted me something like a 60% discount.
Could this be a racket? Could the repairers be ripping off the insurance companies, who don't care because they're ripping of us motorists?
Cheers, Sofa Spud
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Many thanks for all the replies. My friend is going to claim off her insurers once she gets home and has the paperwork to hand (so that she can check that her NCB is definitely safe). But it does seem that someone is making a tidy profit here!
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Not quite motoring but in similar vein.
I recently stopped purchasing drugs from the vet for our elderly dog which were costing around £30-£35 a month, after discovering they were between four and eight times cheaper from an online animal pharmacy based in Scotland.
Most of the cost used to be covered by insurance as it is ongoing treatment but, when the dog reached the age of 14, the monthly premium went up from £19+ to £32 plus a month (was £7+ a month when we first got the dog five years ago), while the excess went up from £40 to £90.
We also decided to change vets after being reluctantly provided with the first prescription to send to the Scottish outlet, which was £14. The new vet only charges £4 for the prescription and also has a lower consultancy/examination fee.
Without animal owners having insurance cover I'm convinced that the vets would have to charge more realistic prices rather than make an easy buck. What's more I'm paying retail prices, unlike vets, to obtain the drugs...:-)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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"after discovering they were between four and eight times cheaper from an online animal pharmacy based in Scotland"
Stuartli,
Could you please send me details? My email's in my profile.
Thanks,
V
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Could this be a racket? Could the repairers be ripping off the insurance companies, who don't care because they're ripping of us motorists?
Do you really think so? Surely they wouldn't do that?
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"Could this be a racket? Could the repairers be ripping off the insurance companies, who don't care because they're ripping off us motorists? "
I doubt it. The insurers aren't fools and don't spend a penny they don't have to. They will have rock bottom price negotiated with the windscreen guys. As an additional benefit to the insurer, the more the windscreen chappies quote you, the happier you are that your "friends" at the insurers are paying it.
V
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Data projectors are very easy to sell on for a few hundred pounds - the ones I bought at work cost nearly £2k+VAT and would easily fetch £500 on ebay.
With a suitable r-g-b connector you have projected widescreen tv for the price of a brick through someone's car window.
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ND "Data projectors are very easy to sell on"
Very interesting as someone used to say on Dean & Martin Show - but what has this got to do with the price of fish I ask??
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I love the idea of a Dean and Martin show, but in the interests of historical accuracy I have to point out it was the Rowan and Martin show, not a slightly drunk crooner!
The phrase was usually said by Arte Johnson.
Goodnight Dick.
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Yep, works well with playstation too - a six foot screen is much better than 8 players gathered around a 21" TV.
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for the price of a brick through someone's car window.
I took the girlfriend to the high street the other night to do some xmas shopping. i asked her what she wanted and she pointed out a nice leather coat, so I threw a house brick through the window, and got it for her.
A while later, as we were passing the jewellers she said that she wouldn't mind a cartier watch.
"Do you think I'm made of bricks?" I asked.
Roy Chubby Brown, I thank you!
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It is usual practice to notify insurers prior to getting screens replaced, not afterwards, as most insurance companies have nominated windscreen replacement companies and I would suspect that they get discounts for doing so. They might not be too happy if they think that your friend has paid over the odds for the replacement screen.
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