What's the catch?

[laserblazer]

These windscreen people who set up in the supermarket carparks and fix the cracks for free, there must be a catch? I can only think that they tell a good percentage that they cannot fix it with the araldite and they'll need a new windscreen.

[synaesthesia]

Most of them would be bonafide - at least round here it's always RAC and Autoglass that do it. They refer back to your insurance. It's always "free*" too - some muppet insurance people like Direct Fine charge an excess for windscreen repairs.

[elsiegee40]

We used one once and they claimed that they couldn't claim the money through our insurer , so we'd have to pay. It cost us £20 and was fine.

Next time we contacted our insurer first and they sent someone to the house who did it for free.

[synaesthesia]

Rule of thumb is that it's not repairable if the chip or the cracks from the chip spread out further than the diameter of a 5 pence piece. That does seem to differ a little between the people though. My old car was massively susceptible to chips and cracks and had it repaired about 8 times. A couple of those were easily the size of a 50p piece and Autoglass still managed to do a fine, near-unnoticable repair. (this was pre-arranged via my insurance company rather than a supermarket car park, although that shouldn't make any difference)

One bloke was so eager to prove his worth he was trying all sorts of tricks with mirrors and a lighter to get one large repair to take. Best repair I've seen, and great to watch! I love watching good workmen do their thing.