I'm going to keep this factual, and try not to let my emotions guide my review. I'll never use the 1672 Clinton Street location in Buffalo, NY again, but I feel compelled to 'pay it forward', and perhaps save someone else the aggravation that I experienced.
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On Friday, October 28th, I submitted an online claim with my insurer for front windshield repair on my 2021 Volkswagen Golf. I wasn't in any accident, and I could only surmise that the damage came from rocks hitting my windshield during a recent drive on the highway. The insurer responded that they partner with Safelite, and suggested any one of 3 or 4 locations in my general area. I may have been able to go somewhere else, but I had heard of Safelite and, in my mind, they'll be as good as any random place that I would pick, short of getting a good referral.
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On the Safelite website, I picked a location that was approx. 25 minutes by car, which is perfectly fine. I selected the next day, October 28th, and saw there was one appointment slot open, at 4 PM, so I made the appointment. Around 11:00 the next morning, Safelite contacted me, asking if I'd like a 3 PM or 1 PM appointment that day, as there had been last-minute openings. I accepted the 1 PM offer, and got there at 12:45. When I arrived, I was told that the technician would return at 1 PM, as he was on his lunch break, so I decided to walk around the area, and perhaps find a place to hang out while the work was being done.
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I was several blocks away when, at around 1:15, I received a call that they did not have the correct windshield for my car, so I walked back, and rescheduled the appointment. The soonest I could get was Tuesday at 2 PM, so I took that.
I was moderately annoyed by this, because I interrupted something that I was doing, and had a 50-min round trip, only to find that they didn't have the necessary windshield. Not horrible, but sloppy. On Tuesday, I before going there, I called to confirm that the appropriate windshield was in stock - suffice to say, I wasn't going to do this twice (or beyond).
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Here's where it gets bizarre...they told me the work was done, gave me the key, and I was off...or so I thought. Within a few seconds of starting the car, I saw an error message - "Fault: Vehicle Lighting" - with a black & white image of a light bulb, and a yellow triangle with a yellow exclamation mark inside. I've seen that yellow triangle for other issues, but I had never seen the message about the lighting, whether in this VW or even a few previous VW Golf/Rabbit that I've leased; I was seeing this for the first time. After a few seconds, that msg went away, but the yellow triangle/exclamation mark remained. I shut the car, restarted, and saw the same message. So I went inside to find the technician, to show him what I was seeing.
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At first, he fiddled with overhead lights, suggesting that the problem may reside there. No, it's not the overhead lights, but I humored him by trying every combination, whether in front or over the back seat. Then he saw a yellow image that happens to refer to my Tire Pressure Monitoring System, and thought that might be relevant. That yellow image is always lit, from what I can only assume is an issue with a sensor associated with one tire - basically, something I would need to correct at the dealer. As it happens, it always says that the tire pressure is low, but that's not true. An inconvenience for me, but it's always on, so I know it's not the cause of the latest issue. Meanwhile, I was looking through my Golf manual, but couldn't find documentation on that particular error message. The manager, seemingly exasperated, bluntly said that all they did was replace the windshield, so he has no idea why this error was appearing. All I could do was maintain that, for the 18 months that I've driven this car this message never appeared...until that appointment. It sounds strange even to myself, but someone must've hit something that caused this, because the probability that this error message on the dashboard was mere coincidence has to be infinitesimally low. In any case, I quickly realized that I wasn't going to resolve the problem at Safelite, and I drove away.
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Today, November 7th, I brought my car to the VW dealer (having made the appointment last week), and dropped it off (I wanted to stay, but they told me that, with the diagnostics and possible necessary service, they couldn't guarantee that it would be finished today anyway). The service department wasn't even sure if such repair came under the warranty, although I don't see why it wouldn't. Anyway, now I await the dealer's call on my car. This is just ridiculously aggravating. I know that repairs come up, but all I wanted was a new windshield, without new things breaking. read more
