I went to a tint shop local to me and they tinted my car all around including the back glass. They said if I wanted it in one whole piece of tint they were going to charge me extra to which I agreed. Since researching beforehand, I ask to confirm that they have the large tint roll that can do the job and they said yes. After picking up my car it was tinted in two pieces with a seam and bubbles all along the seam. They agreed to order the right roll of tint and re do the job. At this point they removed the tint and stated they needed more time to complete so come back. I then noticed today that the defroster lines are completely destroyed. Way worse then I have seen on any other posts (see the images attached). Do I have the tint shop pay for the window replacement? Do I get it repaired? If anyone has had a similar situation please let me know what the outcome was.
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Tint shop destroyed back window defroster lines
- Thread starter Charliegriffin
- Start date
PianoAl
Active Member
Dang that's bad. I had similar tinting story where tint place said they would do 1 piece for back/roof but only ended up doing 50% of the back and not the roof. Brought it back and they said they would fix it, their solution was to put another piece for the roof which had horrible overlap. Took it back the 3rd time and they finally did 1 single piece, but I didn't have time to check it as I was leaving town. I really hope they didn't mess up the defroster lines like OPs.
Does the defroster work still?
Does the defroster work still?
I didn't test it out with frost or fog but when I had it on for an extend amount of time I felt no heat to the touch.
It looks that way and the worst part is I just got a crack in my front windshield from a rock.Time for a new piece of glass.
I have a feeling they are going to fight me on paying for the replacement. I don't think it could be repaired.
Soul Surfer
Cancervivor, tech geek & musician
With respect. That looks like a hack and slash job. I would be doubtful that your defrost works properly, at best. If it were me, I would threaten to sue them and have the rear window replaced and refund the amount or face the legal consequences. They may have insurance to cover this, but I think you need new glass in the back and a better tint company.
These things can sometime be a "roll of e dice" at the best of times. We always have to be careful to see how many Teslas they've worked on and of course, their street cred.
These things can sometime be a "roll of e dice" at the best of times. We always have to be careful to see how many Teslas they've worked on and of course, their street cred.
Yep, the defrost lines are damaged beyond repair.
The only remedy is a new piece of rear glass, and it's not cheap (will run into 4 figures).
There is no reliable way to repair it.
The willingness of the shop to cover the cost of replacing the entire rear piece of glass will correlate to the owner's integrity and reputation. Since they neglected to inform you about the damage, I would expect at least some push back.
Give it a shot anyway.
Good luck.
Sorry to see this, I would assume that you're not working with the greatest of shops based on the other information in the thread. I would probably first try and solve it with the shop, if there is any denial or push back at all I would stop and tell them they can either fix it or you will be consulting an attorney and I would go try and get some help from a legal expert at that point. This is extremely unacceptable and any shop with even a slight backbone would/should own up and make it right.
do people think the damage was due to simple removal of the adhesion of the original tint, or was there some extra mechanical action that the installers applied?
im thinking of doing temporary home-tint job. its only meant for a long road trip this summer with my backward-facing infant. so doesnt need to be perfect, but i dont want to ruin the defrost when i remove it later.
im thinking of doing temporary home-tint job. its only meant for a long road trip this summer with my backward-facing infant. so doesnt need to be perfect, but i dont want to ruin the defrost when i remove it later.
Both are possible, but it's most likely from using a scraper to remove the tint. I don't know if you've ever tried to remove tint before, but it is not a pleasant experience once it's dry.
If you're going to do the job yourself, there are other things out there, more like cling film, and there are shades you can put in the windows that are like a mesh - I would recommend either doing one of those to make it removable, or going to a professional tint shop if you're not confident you'll do a great job.
document everything. Do you have a picture very recently where the window was fine (so they can't claim you did a DIY hack job that failed). I'd even start a recording on your phone and confront them about it hoping they admit it.....then maneuver the conversation to say you'll have tesla or another shop to get a quote for repair/replacement. If they refuse then yeah I'd get an attorney...it wouldn't be worth my time spent finding an attorney and dealing with it rather than just paying, but the principle would make me do it!
Please let me know how this all plays out. I'm about to complain to my tint shop and demand they replace it
SyncTwogether
Member
Okay so I finally have an update. The short version is the tint shop did finally payed me for the black glass to be replaced after I got it done at a Tesla service center.
The long version is here if you're interested. Originally when I confronted the tint shop about the defroster damage, which I made sure to do it in person, he was trying to convince me that it still worked. To which he tried to test it with water but it was hard to tell if it was working or not (later on a foggy day I saw only the bottom two lines were working out of all of them). After finally agreeing that the defroster was definitely not working, he said he would use his glass guy to repair it, but he later said just use tesla to fix it.
After calling two of my local service centers they both said they don't replace glass and to use safelight. It was not until I went in person for an unrelated service appointment that they said oh I don't know who told you we don't replace glass and continued to say NEVER use safelight as they have seen cars come from there with broken cameras and defrosters.
I had to wait for the glass to come in stock at the service center and they replaced the glass in only a half of a day! It took a lot of phone calls to the tint shop to get a reimbursed but I eventually picked up a check from them.
I will not be tinting my back window again and just staying with the sides tinted. If really you want the back window tinted I suggest you use a shop that has done a lot of model 3s in the past.
Glad you got this fixed. My tinter ripped off half of mine and if trying to get me to get Tesla to pay for it by claiming "defect"
What was the cost for replacement?
It came out to $715.46 including tax to replace the back window which was I though would be more being that its a large piece of custom glass. The install also took less then a day which was nice.
Though I don't think you'll have much luck claiming it as a defect. I would just try to approach the tint shop nicely and get at least some of the money for it from them.
Mxa121
Member
Sorry to hear about this. I just had my car tinted yesterday and they damaged the metal trim in THREE places. Also the install job was at best a 6/10. Had to argue with them for an hour over it. Got the tint covered but still have to deal with the scratches.
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