Still As Life

I got a chip in my windscreen driving down to Lismore on Friday, and unfortunately, it started to crack so I needed to get it fixed before it got too bad and the whole windscreen needed replacing.

So Monday, I gave Windscreen’s O’Brien (O’Brien Glass) a call before I headed back up to Brisbane.

I called the number listed on their website for the Underwood premises, since that is the closest to me but it went to a call centre. The guy that I spoke to was very helpful and even called me back so that I wouldn’t have to pay the call charges. He determined over the phone that it could indeed be fixed without needing to replace the whole windscreen.

He went on to give me the prices, $129 for them to send a van out and do it wherever suited me best, or $109 for me to go in and get it done there. He told me it would take approximatly half an hour to fix.

I decided I would go in to get it done, afterall, $20 is $20 and the Underwood store is only a 10 minute drive from my place if the traffic is good.

So he setup a three-way call with the Underwood store and we organised an appointment for 1:30pm. And that was that, all in the space of about 15 minutes.

I got there at 1:33pm and I was served immediately. They checked that the crack was repairable, warned me that the repair process could make it appear to have cracked more, but that it will be safe and pass registration. My car was then taken straight in to have work begun on it. I was told that it would be half an hour to 40 minutes and that there is a customer waiting room if I wanted to wait there.

I decided I would go for a walk and get some lunch. That only took me 20 minutes though and they were still working when I got back, so I went and had a look at the waiting room.

It was setup quite nice, you could see the bays where they were working on cars so you could watch them work on your car. There were all the usual magazines, drink machine and big screen TV, but what surprised me was the free internet for customers!

There were two computers setup in the waiting room with signs above them reading “Free internet for O’Brien’s customers. Please, help yourself”.

The computers were setup minimally, all the user could access was Internet Explorer, but still, it’s a pretty good idea.

So I spent 10 minute’s or so on the net in the waiting room. Lot’s of things were blocked, such as Twitter, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and my uni email, however, there were lot’s of things that weren’t. My own email server’s were all accessible, I could make notes on my blog and log in to Google Analytics, so overall, functionality wasn’t severely limited, just enough to be a little bit annoying.

Pretty much right on 2:00, I noticed that my car was being taken back outside so I went to the front counter, and they were just entering it into the system. They didn’t need my phone number, name or address because this had been organised on the phone earlier. I just had to pay, it was $109 as I had been quoted on the phone.

The receipt came in it’s own little book style thing to help look after it since it comes with a warranty on the repair that lasts for the life of the windscreen. In other words, if the crack re-appears, then they will deduct the cost of the repair from the cost to replace the windscreen.

So, it was finished in pretty much right on half an hour and I am very impressed with the level of customer service that I received, and the crack in my windscreen is now barely visible! So much so that my camera can’t even focus on it properly.

I highly recommend them, they may seem a bit expensive, but their service is excellent!

Just my luck, I managed to get a stone fly up and hit the other side yesterday, but it hasn’t cracked thank goodness.

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