windshield repair question. is this a scam?

I don't know, but I know before my uncle retired and closed down his gas station, he would have to run those frickers off all the time. They would go up to cars, try to find any little knick on the windshield and tell people "we can fix this for you, for free. Are you interested? All we need is your insurance card".

that's what the guy at the place said on the phone.

I just never heard of them giving a credit off of my deductible.

Saving $100 sounds good though.

For me it was. Said they only took cash. 75 dollars. Talked him down to 50. Filled the crack and it looked okay. Two weeks later its cracking and even even larger. He looked like he used the money for crack

I haven't had a windshield replaced in a few years, bit I find that they jack the price up a good bit when filing it on your insurance...I would usually tell them I wanted to pay cash and they would come down to a point that was below what the deductible would have been.

This is true. It's called the boomerang rock effect. It was the topic of my science fair project in middle school. I'm very proud of the third place ribbon that I won. Sometimes, if I really like a girl, I'll show her that ribbon on a second date.

Windshields were going for 175 installed wherever you were the last I needed one.

As far as company offering you an incentive, $100, I really don't know. I've heard of that, not sure it's really considered ethical among auto glass industry. Make sure they aren't charging insurance company for OEM glass and installing aftermarket glass instead. Your title says repair but post talks about replacement btw, big difference

Windshield repair is not a scam, it's definitely worth it. Now, "windshield bullies" that follow people around at car washes and gas stations, stay away from them. Find someone that has been in business awhile. Auto glass business is highly unregulated and there is rampant fraud, poorly trained, etc in this industry. You damn sure need to be careful. Usually, if someone has been around for a few years and has a good rep, obviously he can be trusted.

As far as other post, we do ramp up charges on insurance jobs. Mostly just b/c we lose a portion of the cut to TPAs on insurance work, plus we don't get paid for several weeks and it's more paperwork involved.

That last one that hit me was two lanes over, I saw it flying up and bam. It was a big one.

I do try not to get too close to them, but most dump truck drivers pull right in front of you and speed over the limit and go in the left lane.

I know this is the third thread I started mentioning the broken windshields, the last two were mostly me ranting about dump trucks and their stupid "stay back 200 feet" stickers, when really they need to make sure they aren't covered in foreign materials before getting on the highway.

Hell four in five years sounds like BS? This is the second time I am changing a windshield in 2016, just got this one put in in February.
Also I put 25-35k city miles on the truck a year.

many years ago i worked at a glass company for a brief time.

the markup on windshields is freaking astronomical (like 300% in some instances).

so a glass company can give you a $100 discount on your deductible and still turn a decent profit on that glass.

there are several mom and pop type glass companies around who are willing to deal a little on your deductible to get your business.
the extra work they get by doing that means a lot more to their bottom line than it does the big chain companies.

The company that offered that is probably just slow so they are discounting your deductible to get you in the door. As others have said insurance is charged more for a windshield than a cash customer is.

Insurance companies pay off something called a nags rate. They actually tell you what you can charge them(like 60% off list plus a labor/hour rate.)Some are better than others and some vehicles have way higher lists price than what the glass costs. So on your windshield they may charge an amount over cost to you, but maybe the insurance actually let them charge like $500 total which means they'll make the $250 from the insurance and $150 from you.