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  • Report:  #96475

Complaint Review: Four Star Auto Glass - Little Ferry New Jersey

Reported By:
- Jersey City, New Jersey,
Submitted:
Updated:

Four Star Auto Glass
Route 46 Little Ferry Circle Little Ferry, 07643 New Jersey, U.S.A.
Phone:
201-440-5511
Web:
N/A
Categories:
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good? What's this?
I had to get the rear windshield of my sedan replaced after someone vandalized it in the second week of July, 2003. I called up various places, and Four Star Auto Glass in Little Ferry, New Jersey, gave me the best estimate: $125 for both labor and parts, which included putting in a used rear windshield in with no guarantee that the rear defroster would work upon completion. I took the car in and had it done. I drove home that day and everything seemed fine.

A couple of days later, it rained and I noticed that water was seeping in between the glass of the rear windshield and the rubber gasket. I did a careful inspection and saw that the area between the rubber gasket and glass wasn't exactly airtight; there were many spaces where the gasket and glass didn't seem to be bonded correctly or where there wasn't much polyurethane put in.

I took the car in a couple of days later (it rained day after day and I had to wait for a sunny day to bring the car back) and asked for the manager. The manager (or someone calling himself as such) went to inspect the windshield and told me something to the effect of, "Oh, your rubber gasket is old and dry and doesn't seem to be sticking to the polyurethane too well. We get this all the time! You should have gotten a new gasket." Well, maybe if the person who did the job noticed this, I would have asked for that! Maybe someone there should have suggested it so that I wouldn't waste my time!! Or, maybe the person didn't put the enough polyurethane or they put it in incorrectly!

In any case, the manager offers to add in some more polyurethane "for free, no charge" to see if that is what will fix the problem, but if it doesn't. I would have to pay more money so that they would remove the windshield and put in a new gasket, then put in the windshield again! Unbelievable!

After they put in more polyurethane in the spaces (another lousy job, I might add), I took the car home and a couple of days later, it rained again and I found that Mr. Manager didn't fix my problem! I was stuck buying tube after tube of silicone from the local auto store and adding coat after coat of the silicone; I then had to wait a few days for rain to see if the leak stopped, put in more silicone since there was still a leak, repeated these steps over and over, until finally, the rear windshield stopped leaking!

Do NOT go to this auto glass place! (They also have three places in New York: the Bronx, Yonkers, and Portchester.) They do lousy work! Sure, I only paid $130-something dollars to Four Star Auto Glass, but for $170, I could have gone to another place I called and they would have put in a NEW windshield and probably would have done a better job installing the glass! At least the rear defroster works! Thanks for wasting my time and taking my money, Four Star Auto Glass!

Michael

Jersey City, New Jersey
U.S.A.


1 Updates & Rebuttals

Keith M

Bronx,
New York,
U.S.A.
A Sincere Apology

#2UPDATE Employee

Thu, October 16, 2008

Michael, One of my employees was on the Internet yesterday and found the report you filed in 2003 regarding our company. I am thankful that he found the posting because to my understanding there had never been a customer who experienced problems that went unresolved as I believe is the fact in your case. I think that you are correct to say it is "unbelievable" that we would charge additional labor to install a new rubber gasket. It is however common to have trouble with rubber gasket "type" installations. The proper seal of such an installation is more involved than the newer "urethane adhesive" based installations. However, even without replacing the gasket we would have been able to properly fix your installation. Under no circumstances though should silicone based sealers have been used to solve the issue you had. The use of silicone on the vehicle creates many more undesirable problems. Because you returned once, were treated improperly (my opinion), and never pursued the correction (to which I believe you were entitled), it would appear that you have a resonable issue with my company. I would have preferred to have had the opportunity to help you that would have been possible had you followed the warranty procedure that appears on the back of every invoice we produce. Make no mistake, we would have done everything in our power to remedy the situation with your leaking back window. I am very sorry about your experience. It is a bit unfair to charge the entire company the way you have without having given us a second opportunity to help you. We repair/replace a GREAT number of windows on a daily basis throughout the company. Like every other company we experience problems along the way. Having the problem is understandable, not addressing the problem is not. I do understand though that when you returned you could have been better attended to. Again, at this late date, I apologize. If this message reaches you, and you respond, I will personally recieve that response. Keith M. Four Star Auto Glass Corp. (HQ) 935 Bronx River Ave Bronx, NY 10473

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