Last winter I struck a bird in our Hurricane motorhome. The windshield cracked and popped out leaving a gap in the side. We managed to get the glass back in and finished our trip from western Kansas.
We initially looked for a used glass and located one in southern Missouri and planned to purchase it. We were trying to avoid a insurance claim. We removed the glass and prepared it to take with us to compare. It turned out the company didn't have the used glass so we decided to turn it into insurance. That's when the nightmare with this company began.
The motorhome could not be driven with the glass out so the insurance company recommended Guardian Glass as the broker to supply new windshield and Guardian contracted with these people to do the install. They bid the job to come to my motorhome and do the install. They called and wanted me to bring it in to their facility which at that point was impossible.
I got a call from someone named Mike who came out to survey the job. He arrived and proceeded to tell me that he normally turns down these jobs. OK, so I asked if that's what he was going to do. He said no and then informed that their vans are too small to transport the glass so if they got cracked in transporting it would be my responsibility. He told me they could get to it the following week. A week goes by and I call only to be told this guy had been fired and that another installer would be coming. I asked when and they said the following week after all their other jobs were completed. So, I wasn't a priority to them. I believe this job was around $4k to come and do the install.
The following week on a Wednesday one guy shows up to do the install and said his partner would be there shortly with the new glass. About 30 minutes later his partner arrived with the glass and that was around 4pm and they close at 5 pm. His partner was a small petite female that couldn't help handling the heavy glass. He told me that they didn't have time to do the install and would return the following week. Again, after they finished other jobs.
So the following week after two more calls they arrive around 1:30 pm to do the install. There was an obvious attitude and again they told me they should be doing this at their shop. Again I reminded them they bid the job on site and are getting paid for it.
We had the motorhome in a enclosed shop for them and had a scissor lift at their disposal.
The install was messy, they used duct tape to hold up the weatherstrip when they installed the new glass. That tape glue stuck to the finish of the motorhome and was a mess to remove. It was obvious they were in a hurry and wanted out of there. The told me they were finished and were leaving by 4 pm. I looked at the glass and it wasn't in all the way. It stuck out about 1/4" or more on the driver side. I asked them about it and they told me it would pop in when I drove it. They wrote no warranty on the ticket and left. They told me clean up was on me. They didn't have time. This was back in early June.
Fast forward to today. The windshield did pop back out and I am dealing with Guardian the broker in this deal to get something done. I have a different glass company coming to do the job correctly. This company came out and asked if they had supported the roof on this motorhome when they did the install. I said no. I told him that those two showed up with an attitude and just slapped it in and left. He told me he will return with 4-5 installers and do the job right. Hopefully that is so.
I have done quite a bit of research since this happened. Everyone that does these jobs say that it takes 5 people to properly install these large windshields and that's what Premier glass had bid the job for.
No matter what happens this week I would never use these hacks again. In fact I am not sure if I have any legal standing to do anything since it was being paid by insurance but I plan to investigate it. So far I have not been able to use my motorhome and half the summer has passed already.
What I got was Larry and Darrell (not sure where the other Darrell was) for installers and they totally were unprofessional and botched the job along with leaving a mess to clean up. In fact they didn't have the proper lock tool for the lock strip and used a metal awl to install it. They left pock marks and scrape marks. It was a crappy job and they didn't complete it. This has been an ongoing ordeal since early April and it is July 11 and still not properly completed. read more