Safelite using wiper upsell to boost profit margin?

[eljefino]

Safelite must make good money.

My Prius Prime took a rock. I have a $2k deductible so had to pay out of pocket.

$350 for the windshield, $150 for installation, $500 to recalibrate the collision camera. They got me in and out in 2 hours, which is pleasing, except for paying all that labor.

 

[proveitwithdata]

I wonder if a decent quality wiper. I had to spend $20/wiper at Walmart for decent one and regretted not just have install pair for $50 parts/labor.

What kind of wiper are you buying, and does Rock auto not deliver?

 

[2010Civic]

No way I'm replacing my oem Honda wipers with whatever garbage they're selling. $10 buys a new pair of inserts which wipe amazing for several years.

 

[Bighorn2500]

Yeah my wife actually called me when they replaced her windshield, I told her to say no thanks. We can get some new ones at Wally World for about half of what they quoted.

 

[MattPersman]

60 isn’t awful for wiper blades these days. Not sure what kind they are using. I think I paid around 50 over the counter out of town at a VW dealer for mine. The generic ones sit far too high IMO compared to the OE on the car I will order them from an online dealer with some other items next time to soften the blow

 

[MattPersman]

Also many times your manufacturer dealer will have a good glass person that does it at the dealer for much less than Safelite. No one else has tv commercials like safelite. That costs lots of money

 

[CKN]

Also many times your manufacturer dealer will have a good glass person that does it at the dealer for much less than Safelite. No one else has tv commercials like safelite. That costs lots of money

The vast majority of dealers use automotive glass installers (such as ) for this. Its treated the same way as small scratches or tears in the leather interiors-they call those guys that come out and fix those imperfections. It's far cheaper than their own shop rates. The Ford dealer here is $250.00 an hour. Each department in a large dealer is their own profit center.

Safelite's revenue in 2022 was over A BILLION DOLLARS.

quote-
Subaru wants you to get Eyesight recalibrated so you'll need to do that at the dealer although I have heard some Safelight places have the kit to do this. It's not cheap so check if covered by windshield repair / deductible.

For what it's worth, when I had my windshield replaced with OEM glass at the dealer they called Safelite in to do the actual work.

 

[HowAboutThis]

Discount tire is upselling wiper blades also.

In their defense, they are decent quality Trico and not horribly overpriced, from what I've been quoted. I think it was like $16 per blade.

 

[D60]

I guess I'm glad I run old trucks and not fancy Hondas or VWs

I buy the cheapest I can get and replace as needed. To me, to pay $60 for a pair of wipers is insanity. $20 absolute max ($10 ea)

My newest is my '19 JL and to worry about how high wipers sit on a near-vertical windshield is, um, amusing.

 

[mjk1967]

My son-in-law recently had a new windshield installed in his 18 Civic. When the technician installed the new windshield, he then switched to his sales side. He told my son-in-law that unless he had the technician install new wiper blades for $60, the old blades could scratch the new windshield and void the lifetime warranty. However, to soften the blow, a person can stop in at any Safelite location in six months and they will install a new pair of wiper blades for free.

Yeah, that happened to me a couple of years ago, when I had my windshield replaced. Wasn't a hard sell, I just said 'no thanks'.
Same thing happened at my tire rotation at DT recently.....

 

[svtrit]

I told them my wipers were already new, which they were. No issue raised.

 

[M1Accord]

Sounds like the usual corporate upsell word track. This was surprising to you?

I hate these filthy animal. A local chain fail my car inspection recent with a $1490 pre-tax repair estimste. I bougjt much higher quality parts myself for $184 shipped from Rock Auto and my mechanic charged $130 to replace all brake pads and rotors. I gave the mechanic $140 so that came out to be $324 instead of what could be well over $1500 for inferior parts that would wear out in under 2 years. And they would have me on record ss easy target next times.

 

[hrv]

I told them my wipers were already new, which they were. No issue raised.

Yup... Simple just sa y no thank you my wipers are fine....thats it...

 

[RooflessVW]

I was offered the $60 replacement blades and installation when I made my appointment. I politely declined. It was never brought up again.

I asked for the blades and a can of cleaner and he just gave them to me lol.

 

[bdcardinal]

The vast majority of dealers use automotive glass installers (such as ) for this. Its treated the same way as small scratches or tears in the leather interiors-they call those guys that come out and fix those imperfections. It's far cheaper than their own shop rates. The Ford dealer here is $250.00 an hour. Each department in a large dealer is their own profit center.

Yup, we use an awesome little family owned business that does glass installs for us and is very reasonable. My mom is in a charity group at her church and one of the things they help people with is car repair. She usually bounces any car related questions off of me as far as shops to go to. She was blown away with the shop and how good and nice they were, just not in the best part of town.

 

[nomas]

I guess I'm glad I run old trucks and not fancy Hondas or VWs

I buy the cheapest I can get and replace as needed. To me, to pay $60 for a pair of wipers is insanity. $20 absolute max ($10 ea)

I went to Walmart recently to get some blades for my wife's car . There was nothing even close to $10 .

 

[zzyzzx]

Are you folks happy with Safelite's work?

NO!!!

 

[zzyzzx]

60 isn’t awful for wiper blades these days.

Then you don't know how to shop. Ollie's sells wiper blades for less than $4 each.

 

[hrv]

NO!!!

I am. Have used them in the past with no issues on glass replacement...

 

[Owen Lucas]

Most body shops I have been to use a local guy that is consistent and experienced. The issue with Safe Lite is that you might get a newbie learning on your vehicle. I've seen broken cowl trim and too much urethane used before. I have used safelight for insurance reasons though but asked to scheduled their best tech and explained I QC cars for a living. No issues but you have to set the expectations. I don't remember any verbal disclaimer about wipers and warranty denials though.