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[pscocoa]

Had my Phaeton washed by a proper hand car wash on a hot day. Came to collect and they point out windscreen cracked when they put on cold water. Showed me cctv and I could not see them hit it in any way.

Anyhow they have offered to pay my windscreen excess of £80 and windscreen finally done today by National Windscreens as they had to use original VW part (heated, green tint, rain sensor etc) so has taken over a week to get sorted.

I think this is decent of car wash and when talking to insurers they say there must have been a crack to begin with for it to go in these circumstances. Not sure whether to take the £80 or not as I think guy managing operation is worried about keeping his job. I might just write this off in part and ask him to do a full valet or something so it costs them little.

[STEMO]

I agree, Phil. It's one of life's quirks. He offered to pay at, possibly, the expense of his job, so you feel sorry for him and consider him a good egg. If he had refused to pay and said it must have been cracked to start with and it could cost him his job, you'd have said 'Cheeky bastid, pay up, I don't give a toss about your job'. 

[pscocoa]

That just about sums it up. Over the past 7 years almost of having this car I have heard stones etc hit the windscreen on several occasions and surprised that no damage occurred before. Nevertheless to come back to the car with a sizeable crack developing is a bit of a shock especially 220 miles from home. Drove it back down here no problem - crack may have gone slightly larger.

[zirk]

The way I look at is, wasn't broken when you took it in, now broken when it comes out. so there responsibility. If it was me I would be asking them to cover the full cost of getting the windscreen replaced.

Any decent Car Wash / Valet place should have Public Liability Insurance, so its up to him whether he wants to pay 80 quid from his own pocket, Till, Tips, etc or claim through Insurance and pay the increased Premium next year.

[amazonian]

Persomaly I would stand the £80 myself.
I have never heard of a screen cracking in this way before and would be very surprised if it could happen.
If pscocoa saw the CCTV he will know how much water they actually put on the windscreen but whatever the amount I just cant see it happening somehow.
I used to own a large conveyer car wash doing up to 500 cars a day, and even in the hottest weather the first thing they all got was a blast of cold water all over from a jet wash, and god knows how many of those cars had a cracked screen before they came in, but we never had a single problem!
Also most car handbooks have a little section on cleaning ones car but I have never seen a warning regarding cold water on a hot screen.

  
 

[Sir Tigger KC]

Happened to me a few years ago on an old Merc C250 I had as a workhorse.  A hot sunny day and the car was sat in it all day, while builders nearby were creating skip loads of dust everywhere, which caked my car.  When I chucked a bucket of cold water over the screen to clear it, it went CRAAAAAAAAACK!!    'dangle berries'!