Safelite Auto Glass Large Dishonest Company, Your Insurance Policy Allows you to choose the company you prefer, don't choose Safelite!! Ripoff Columbus Ohio

True story - can't make this stuff up - only in America. First you have to understand that MANY aspects of the car insurance biz is a racket of one kind or another - caveat emptor - the ignorant and uninformed WILL be taken advantage of - especially by this company. Safelite is the "preferred" auto glass replacement vendor for most of the biggest insurance companies. Not because they are the best, because they charge the lowest price to the ins. companies. In addition, they set the repair rates (hrs of labor reguired), they often supply the glass and handle the billing - a virtual monopoly in some states.

You have the right to choose the auto glass company you want to fix your car. However, when you call into your companies' 800 phone number, if it says, press #3 if you have a glass claim with no other damage - guess where your call gets routed to? Yes, Safelite - but they won't tell you that. So now you say, I want to use another company, they just snicker, because they will be setting the labor rate, supply the glass to the independent shop and handle the billing. Now you say what's wrong with this?

Safelite "fixed" my car, but in the process of "fixing" my car they scratched the paint where the windshield sets in and they never primed the paint after scratching it - so after a few months the rust started forming all around the windshield. In most newer cars the windshield is structural - Safelite made my car nearly worthless through their negligence. Even the insurance companies' adjusters said I was F***ed by Safelite and they had seen similar defective replacements done by Safelite - they said they wished the company did not use them, but for all the reasons mentioned above, their hands were tied. After weeks of threatening both my insurance company and Safelite I got my car fixed. When their own people looked at the car, they claimed it was the car manufacturers design that caused it. I have had cars from same company since 1978 and I had never seen one rust. The dealer had only seen a couple in 20 years and all were caused by negligent auto glass installs. A letter from the dealer and a couple of body shops and alot of time and I finally got Safelite to pay me. STAY AWAY FROM SAFELITE, it is your right to use whomever you choose! Some attorney general from some state should investigate these guys. In my opinion, not only are they bad at the work they do, but their multilevel business relationship with the insurance companies just smells. Let's hear from an independent auto glass replacement shop and report whether all of this is true and how it effects their biz.

Laurence
Columbus, Ohio
U.S.A.