Windshield Repair Forum

I hope the NWRA has a large pot of money, because you are sure going to need it to get WSR recognised properly as a stand alone business. I can only comment for over here but what you are going through now we went through 20 years ago and they won. When you phone an insurance company dedicated glass help line you get one of 3 companies answer the phone, guess what they are replacement companies, you may also be suprised to know they hold onto the work very tightly. Now is that steering or not.

The quality of work carried out by UK replacement companies is generally very poor, not one to my knwoledge carries any tools for drying out nor do they understand or use any type of UV protection, I would suggest that repair for most replacement companies is the bait to get replacement. I would even go as far as to suggest that repair is too costly to do for a lot of replacement companies, they have way to much in the way of overheads etc.

Best of luck you are going to need it.

I have been receiving quite a few e-mails asking why I would allow Mike Boyle to post on the windshield repair forum. It has been implied that I have lost my mind, that I have sold out, or that I have compromised my morals by doing so. I have been trying to answer everyone's concerns privately, as I am not sure I can address the issues publicly without offending someone, but I have decided I owe it to forum members to try.

It's no secret to anyone who reads this forum that I do not appreciate many of Mr. Boyle's business practices, however I have always tried to make this forum about providing information to the professional windshield repair technician, and have tried for years to get the NWRA to answer questions that many of you have raised on the windshield repair forum. Therefore when Mr. Boyle contacted me to ask permission to join the forum as the president of the NWRA I put my personal feelings aside and allowed him to do so.

When registering as the NWRA President Mr. Boyle did not try to sneak on under an assumed name, but made his identity very clear, and as I said above, requested permission before confirming his intent to register. He also volunteered to abstain from promoting or discussing GlasWeld and Glass Mechanix products on the windshield repair forum, and gave me his word that he would only post factual and verifiable NWRA information. In other words, in this case Mr. Boyle has followed the forum rules, so as long as he keeps his word he is a welcome member of the windshield repair forum, as are several other Delta Kits competitors.

Regardless of your opinion of the NWRA, or of Mr. Boyle, I think this gives forum members a very unique opportunity to ask questions, express your opinions, and to air your concerns about the NWRA. If Mr. Boyle can convince the majority of you that the NWRA is a legitimate organization with your best interests in mind, and convince you to join the NWRA, the organization will see more growth and have more power than ever before in history. This is your chance to communicate directly with the president of the NWRA and do so publicly.

I would encourage you to tell Mr. Boyle exactly what you, the true voice of windshield repair professionals around the world, need from the NWRA in order to earn your support. If this proves to be successful I hope a representative from the NGA's NWRC will also join the windshield repair forum to explain why you should support their efforts.

I will still be happy to answer your concerns about this individually if necessary, but hopefully this will help clear a few things up. As long as only factual information is presented I see this as an unprecedented opportunity for the NWRA as well as for the members of the windshield repair forum. I look forward to spirited but mutually respectful dialog.

Brent, Thanks for being very professional in this matter. It is true that there is power in numbers. I see everyday on this forum that many people disagree in many different ways. We are all still trying to make a living in this business. We complain about the 'steering' and other problems that affect and compromise this business so we need to stick together. We need someone doing the 'lobbying' for us. For the guys that don't like the NWRA, start another organization that you think represents the business well. The bottom line is you need numbers to get anywhere, look at congress.

Looking forward to hearing more about the ANSI standad and to the Webinars. Best of luck in your new position.

If a guy has no ethics in the way he runs his business why would you think he would all of the sudden be reborn in his position as head of the NWRA? I certainly wouldn't want him representing me.How one runs his business tells a lot about them as a person and makes it hard to follow them.
I went to a lecture a few years ago by Lois Farrakhan although he had some really good ideas and made a lot of sense you couldn't take him serious when you look at the things he has done and said in the past George Wallace is another example of this regardless of what they say I cant believe them and to me Mr Boyle falls into this category he may paint a good picture but his actions elsewhere tell me what he really is so I wont be participating in the NWRA as long as he is involved Just my personal opinion if that somehow upsets someone so be it. Wolf in sheep's clothing is still a wolf

Mike:

First of all, good luck on your new position. Secondly, I think you will have your hands full with the position at hand regarding the issues that face all of us in the WR industry. I agree that we all need to pull together to trudge through the muck that is lying before us. I for one, appreciate the efforts made to pull people together to fight the giants that attempt to squash our businesses each day. Regardless of some of the sentiment posted, I believe that emotions should not play a role in business or business decisions. I respect Brent and hope that everyone else can put aside the emotions and come together under a united front for the sake of the industry. In saying that, as with Brent, everyone on the forum, and others in this industry, I hope Mike too can make a positive difference for all of us!

Regards.

OPEN LETTER
First, I appologise for this extraordinary lengthly reply. I do not want to become too personal, and my reply should not be seen as an attack in any way, but, in my opinion, some of us do become too sensitive, personal and emotional and that are exactly the type of comments that leads us nowhere. It just reinforces us being devided and being devided is not what you want with the business as it is today and with the directions it is going step by step on a daily basis. This is a free world, indeed, and you are all fully entitled having your say, but if we would all be only looking back to what has happened in the past, we get nowhere. Some of you have made your points very clearly, there is no need to reinforce it over and over again. There can be so much more benefit in being possitive and in giving this good thing a fair chance.

Let me tell you this little story....just so you understand where I come from with our business, our company lost over $ multiple millions -but hey, we moved on. As a former owner and president of GW in the Netherlands and Belgium (it is franchise there), I have some unresolved issues with GW, both legal and financial but even I am supporting the current president. Being loyal to your current supplier (being not GW) here on the forum is one thing, but let’s avoid the all negative opposite –it leads nowhere. In fact it is killing, all it does is helping the big players in our industry. We all simply need to seperate our personal issues, whatever they may be, from what the NWRA can potentially do for us. With your support we all make change possible with the NWRA being our representatives.

Do not get overly emotional my fellow repairers, after all this is business. We should not think in categories, or place certain people in a certain categorie (as if they would be inferior –partly or even all round). I just don’t buy that. When it comes to the NWRA, we all better forget the **** we’ve been trough with each other and work and act together in order to make this industry a better place. The market is huge, unfortunately there are some negative forces out there (the big players) that use false and unfair methods. Do not be misunderstood, this got NOTHING to do with the all American dream (where one man starts small and creates a big thing). It got nothing to do with proper business either, instead it is all about big egos, being unfair and greedy and that is, to most of us (including me) just not a proper thing to do.

I support this NWRA president, simply because we need to change many things and there is too much work that needs to be done before we can enjoy the results. All I am saying is that there should be no place for hate or mistrust. I do have a strong believe that we all need to be as cooperative as possible in order to make great things happen –if we want to survive and stay in this business. There really is a wealth of knowledge present within the NWRA, and that knowledge is growing and needs to be managed and used properly. Let’s all support them and allow them to represent our businesses –somebody got to do that!
Be honest with yourself, as an individual there is no way that you will be able to do this work yourself –let alone that no insurance company would be willing to see many individuals, they like to talk and negotiate with representatives for good reasons.

I guess we all have our opinions as to how Mike Boyle currently runs the GW business, but hey, guess what, he is the president, and if you do not like the place, just because of the man, just don’t buy there. But please do not let your personal emotional feelings allow to rule over your rational business decisions. After all, the NWRA’s role is very important to all of us in the business. There is absolutely no need to fear or mistrust the NWRA processes, everything they do is public and transparent –at least for the members.
It is totally different to the way the board members run their respective businesses.

Like Screenman said, we (in Europe) have been gone through all this !#%@ ten years ago, and we have hughly failed, we (in the EU) guarantee you that YOU ARE GOING TO LOSE if you do not unite or support the NWRA. Mark my words. Also; we have discussed this matter earlier on this very forum, some four years ago. Unfortunately...hardly anybody wanted to listen back then. And unfortunately....it appears that the subject is still a too complicated and emotional matter for many of us. Allow me to ask you guys, what on earth is $150 membership fee, if you ‘have the opportunity’ to support something really good. And, indeed, by supporting you can rest assured that at least some people are ‘fighting’ for the future of your business.
All that for the price of just three (or less) repairs! What are we talking about?

Some of us do have a strong opinion on as to how the NWRA functioned (or not) in the past. Others like to look back at recent moves made in our industry and appear to rub salt in open wounds. Make no mistake, loyalty can be a good thing, and things indeed could have be done in a different fashion, but the party that was really battered and treated unfair recently in that ‘’does it meassure up’’ promo thing was Delta Kits.
Yet Brent showed, as the DK owner and moderator of this fine board, once more, his kindness and allowed the president of the said company to post a topic. Mike Boyle did not do that as the GW president, but as the NWRA president. The fact that Brent allowed him to do so is not only kind, it also shows greatness and professialism. Also; Brent (and DK with him) are long time supporters of the NWRA and Brent did just the right thing in my opinion. We are all in the very same boat, and that boat is rocking seriously. Unfortunately, many of us do not see, or want to see, the bigger picture. But, again, the boat is rocking and rocking boats can sink. We should not keep on playing the old records, instead we must move on. I am glad that the NWRA is about to change, in fact it was about time for some movement in our direction. Looking at the current NWRA board, we already see the first possitive changes....; there are more genuine repair related guys serving in this board as ever before.

I for myself have been working in this business for fifteen years. And eversince many things have changed –none are for the better! We should not look what devides us, we should solely look at what binds us together. Both are easy and obvious. That thing is Windshield Repair –not replacements. Don’t we all want the industry to be a better place, and don’t we all want something done about the hated steering? I have been active on this forum for some six years and the NWRA has been discussed before. Yet, in my opinion there is just one thing, and one thing only, that can really work in our advantage. And that one thing is a strong body that’s going to work for the local WSR businesses. No matter how you look at it, you do need a representative body, a body that stands up to do something positive. A body that may deal with many of the problems we are all facing. That body could very well be the NWRA, indeed the only association in the world in our trade. In my opinion the NWRA needs and deserves anybody’s support. Why not joining them and give this all new approach a fair shot?

Maybe it would be a good thing if all manufacturerers came up with a joint statement and a strong endorsement to join the NWRA, just to overcome the various ‘loyalty’ issues. I know and appreciate that many manufacturers did so in the past, but it would be a good thing to do it again for the sake of our trade. I for myself do not see any problem in doing so. Come on manufacturers, show your possitive attitude, be an example to your customers by just jointly advice them to support the NWRA’s needed expansion.

In our industry there are only a few big, international, companies. The biggest player, Belron (Safelite etc.) its shares are traded at the Brussels (Belgium) stockmarket. They have incredible funds available, a huge global presence, strong relationships with insurers and a fabulous cash flow. No matter how your windshield repair business is doing, no matter how big or small your independent business is, today it is more time than ever to unite and at least support the representative body the NWRA is.

Indeed, this post is not written for the big players, they will be just fine and do not need any support from us, the smaller operators. In fact, they would like to see, not just our local operations but also our organization (NWRA) to fail. Big time. We, as the mid size and small operations should do anything within our reasonable power to support ‘’our’’ NWRA.
‘’We’’ are many thousands of small individual local owned and managed businesses in the US alone.

Our industry is made up of thousands of not properly –or not at all- organized individual local businesses.
We are facing huge problems (unfortunately some don’t want to see the problems) and we are up against extremely strong forces that work against repairs. That has been the situation for a number of years, I know, but you are so wrong to think that the problems will go away, just by being optimistic. Or being negative on fora. Or just wait for things to happen. Not acting promptly makes you a sitting duck.

Again, this is a very long reply and I do appologise for that. It would be a good thing if we, as repairers, would act jointly in a possitive manner. It therefore is my advice to join the NWRA, it is your very best option next to wait for things to happen and ultimately most likely going out of business because you have to at one point –and wouldn’t that be a shame!

Well said Frank..

Okay Blind Squirrel, you're point is taken, I really do regret the fact that you won't join (again). As mentioned before, this is a free world. Glad that you indeed recognize the problems we're facing in our industry and the important tasks the NWRA potentially could execute for all of us.

He picked me before, not publically though, but as mentioned in my long open letter (two posts ago), this is a rational business decision and I am still willing to support the NWRA under this president. Just because I feel that we all need to deal with the ever increasing problems. Mike Boyle cannot do all that much by himself, he is part of a team -which we normally call board. I will be closing my comments on this on the board if you do not mind but I remain to be willing to discuss matters with you via the PM option.