Safelite Glass Repair
Complaint 313200 Details

I love USAA because your customer service is the best! You have taken great care of me and my family and my adult children now use you as their trusted insurer/banker. Today, I called about a simple 10 minute windshield chip fix. I was referred by USAA to a 3rd party provider: Safelite around 2:30 pm. I went through the approval process and was given a referral no: 527913. The agent, Lydia, asked my zip code and tried to steer us toward one of their client businesses on Howard Lane - waaay far from 78701 in Austin. They could not get me in for 3 days. I did not want the chip problem to become a new windshield replacement. As a result, I asked if I could choose my own service provider based on distance and timeliness. Lydia said yes. I called 8 businesses...only one could come to us today. Nick with SOCO windshield repair said he would charge $60 and be here in 45 mins. His online reviews are excellent. He arrived. We called Safelite with our referral code and told them we needed a billing code and they told us to wait at least 2 hours to complete the 10 min window fix because we had been randomly selected for an inspection. Funnily enough, Nick the tech (also a USAA client) had been randomly selected 2 days prior with another USAA client - a lawyer - who got very upset with the delay apparently. These random inspections seem suspicious to me....particularly targeted at independent entrepreneurs who are not under contract with Safelite - and the whole experience felt like Safelite was being a big bully. I asked to speak to the rep, John Hunter, In Phoenix, AZ - he could do nothing - it was cast in stone that we would be waiting for minimally 2 hours (in 5 pm Austin traffic) for an inspection/inspector? to appraise our situation. I told him that was not good enough and asked to speak to his superior: Jameson Monson, who parroted the same words. Frustrated, my husband said he would go cash a check and we would just pay the $60 - the aggravation isn't worth it. While he was gone, I called USAA and reached a lovely cust. service rep (Lisa Harsch?) who called Safelite and immediately the whole situation changed. Suddenly, it was all ok ...the inspection was no longer needed and we could prepare the billing ...
However, the need to jump through all those hoops and the resulting frustration with what should be a very simple procedure is ridiculous and needs to be addressed. This apparently happens a LOT. I have been researching for about 10 minutes online and Safelite is quite aggressive with these practices and I choose to believe that USAA would not condone this type of activity with their clients. Small indep. business have a hard time in this country and we need to be supporting them, not undermining them through questionable tactics like this. I did after the fact, follow the chain of command with Safelite to report this silliness: with Ramona at 6:00 pm, then her supervisor, John Davis and then his supervisor, Tabitha - all in Ohio I believe. I asked them to follow up in an email with me. I would like USAA to know that Safelite has questionable business practices and if you get enough complaints, perhaps you will address them with Safelite or reconsider your business arrangement with them. This process took 3.5 hours and cost $60...a huge waste of energy and resources...for a tiny sum and what should not be rocket science to process this little issue. I appreciate your time and consideration.

For further info:
http://www.usglassmag.com/AGRR/Backissues/2011/MayJune/InspectionRejection_Feature.htm