Windshield replacement

[Jayman9207]

Well.............I stay off of IH35 for a friggan reason but yesterday I had to run somewhere real quick and sure enough I got nailed with a damn rock and I watched my windshield go from a 2-3" crack to about a 9-10" crack driving home yesterday. This sucks!! The chip starts right at the top of the windshield right where the seal is and runs down towards the middle of the driver side. I have to get it done right away because the lovely Texas forcast looks like 100+ for the next few days.

Can anyone recommend someone here in Central Texas that does an awesome job and will come to me???

[UT06]

That sucks.

[lamikela1]

Not sure if there's a Binswanger glass in your area but I had one changed on my '95 a while back and they did an excellent job. That was here in the Houston area. They come to whereever you are. In my case they came to the office and did the repair in the parking garage. Good price too. It was less than $200 installed and it was a perfect match with the factory glass.

[Jayman9207]

Yeah we do.............a couple of people I work with mentioned them. Thanks.

[Turtleboy]

check to see if your insurance company will replace it. Got mine replaced with OEM glass for $50

[Jayman9207]

Well I used my insurance's "glass hotline" to select and set up my windshield replacement through the local Binswanger. It is not OEM glass it is PPG but I looks exactly like the OEM glass. They came out on Thursday to replace it while I was at work. Total cost $377 with my out of pocket cost of $200 (insurance deductible). It looks like they did a great job on the replacement of the windshield (I am no pro but it looks pretty good). Unfortunately they also did a number on my dash. I guess when they were trying to scrape off what was left of the gasket the installer ended up tearing up about a 9 inch section of my dash!!

I did not notice it until I got in my truck to go home. When the installer was done I was paying close attention to the windshield and did not look at anything else. After a few phone calls with my insurance company and Binswanger it looks like they are going to replace the whole piece (they friggan better!!) and pay for my dealer to install it. The replacement dash piece is $430 and I think the dealer's shop rate is $85 / hour. They were talking about "patching" it first but there it no way in hell I am going to let them do that!! I haven't even made my fourth payment yet!! I won't know anything official until Monday though. Here are some pics of the damage.



I love this truck!! I have no complaints and have not had any problems after 4500+ miles (knock on wood)!! The only problems I seem to have are the ones that village idiots seem to create for me!! I can only hope that this kind of luck doesn't continue otherwise I am going to have to look forward to fixing other people's stupid mistakes over the next few years.

[Turtleboy]

wow, that sucks about your dash, glad they are going to replace it. My insurance company allowed Toyota OEM glass for the first 6 months of 12000 miles. Let us know how the dash comes out.

[Jayman9207]

Well they never called me on Monday like they said they were going to so I called them. The first call I was put on hold for 21 1/2 minutes before I hung up and called back. After finally talking to the installation manager he told me to "just do what ever I want to fix it" and he wanted me to go to the dealer and get an estimate (I guess they are too lazy to set everything up themselves???). He definitely sounded pissed on the phone and he brought up the patching thing again. I had to remind him that my insurance agent even said there is no way in hell that a new truck is getting “patched”.

I have to go in next week for my first scheduled maintenance so I was going to try and get it done then. The new dash piece will take 7-10 days to get in and it costs $430. Since they are dragging their feet it doesn't look like they are going to even order it until I go in for my maintenance I probably won’t be able to get it done for a couple more weeks. I am going to try and find out more now that I have an estimate. The dealer’s initial estimate is $1,200!! The job is supposed to take about 6 ½ hours and they have to take my whole dash apart. All in all this really sucks!!

[UT06]

Oh man, really sorry to hear that. I do know where I will NOT take my truck if I have glass issues.

[Angus_NB]

I take it Binswanger has never apologized for the damage? Companies like this don't seem to understand that not returning calls and trying to avoid their mistakes is more memorable than the damage in the first place. In the end they are going to pay for the dash. So if they had responded with an apology and told you to get the dash repaired at their expense you would have been praising Binswanger for their good service.
Bad publicity or good publicity, either one costs $1200.00, in this case, and bad travels farther and faster.

[Hans Moleman]

Originally Posted by Jayman9207

I have to go in next week for my first scheduled maintenance so I was going to try and get it done then. The new dash piece will take 7-10 days to get in and it costs $430. Since they are dragging their feet it doesn't look like they are going to even order it until I go in for my maintenance I probably won’t be able to get it done for a couple more weeks. I am going to try and find out more now that I have an estimate. The dealer’s initial estimate is $1,200!! The job is supposed to take about 6 ½ hours and they have to take my whole dash apart. All in all this really sucks!!

Yep it is a big job replacing the dash. My air bag cover was defective and it was part of the whole dash, therefore the dealer had to replace the whole dash. It took about 2 days for them to do. I don't know the cost because it was under warranty

[Jayman9207]

Originally Posted by Angus_NB

I take it Binswanger has never apologized for the damage? Companies like this don't seem to understand that not returning calls and trying to avoid their mistakes is more memorable than the damage in the first place. In the end they are going to pay for the dash. So if they had responded with an apology and told you to get the dash repaired at their expense you would have been praising Binswanger for their good service.
Bad publicity or good publicity, either one costs $1200.00, in this case, and bad travels farther and faster.

I have yet to get any kind of sincere one from any of them. It wasn't until I got my insurance agent involved until they took replacing the dash seriously. The service manager at my dealership called me after talking with Binswanger's installation manager today and they were trying to cut some of the costs down and tried to not buy any of the miscellaneous parts that would be required for the dash replacement (i.e. clips, fastners, etc...). They wanted to reuse everything. I guess I really won't know for sure until it is all done with.

The only thing I have to say is that I should not have to be doing all of this leg work!! They should have told me right away about the dash. I am the one that has had to repeatedly call them back, I am the one that needed to call the dealer to get the part number, I am the one that needed to go to the dealer to get the estimates worked up, and I am the one that will have to schedule everything and do without my truck for two days. In my books they should have done all of that and done it as quickly as they could have once they found out about the damage to my dash. The funny thing is that I have five other co-workers that want to get their windshield replaced as well and were waiting to see who I went with. Guess who they are not going with now!!!

[silversport]

yep, that sucks. I feel for you. They should have owned up to the fuck up in the first place. That's way more appalling than not returning your calls and making you do all the leg work. Push for all new parts. Some of those reused fasteners may cause rattles over time. I guess in the end, you have to take what you can get. I hope it all works out.

[Angus_NB]

The dealer probably won't reuse anything. If it starts rattling they (the Toyota dealer) are the ones that would end up redoing the job.