A LaCarte Glass

It is time to go for a drive to do some business, the weather is fine, the sun is shining and the temperature is pleasant. When I jumped into my van, I am shocked as I settle into the driver's seat and look out the windshield, I notice a large crack in my windshield which wasn't there yesterday. Oh, well, I guess I shall have to see about getting it fixed, and soon.
I thought about this situation and tried to see who would be available to fix my glass, I had heard that a person could get a repair job done which would save the price of a new glass so that was the way I was going to try. I knew that there was a place in Chaput Hughes that did auto glass repairs and replacements but I didn't think it was still in operation any more. This one was called Apple Auto Glass and was a chain of branches across the country, but I was sure that they were no longer in business so I had to put the brain in action again. This whole deal about getting rid of a crack in my glass is getting to be a bit of a pain, now what was I to do? Oh, by the way, I believe that the operator of Apple Auto Glass had started up an auto glass business on his own in a different name. If your employer takes your job away by closing down the chain of businesses, then why can't a person start up their own business in their own name, after all I have heard and seen this done many times over. I believe that this is good business practise and good economics for the area he is in (in this case Kirkland Lake,Ontario).
I drove up to A La Carte Glass, behind the Canadian Tire Store on the north side of Government











Rd W and entered his business. A young man met me at the counter and was very polite and pleasant as he told me that the boss was out for a few minutes and would be back shortly. He took down my name and phone number and promised that his boss would phone me when he got back. As it happened, I was away for awhile from home and just thinking about going home at the pre-appointed time of the return phone call so I decided to call around to the glass shop again, after all it was almost on my way home and I wanted to meet this gentleman. I went into the shop and Mr. John LaCarte met me at the entrance to his office and recognized me. We started to chat about my problem, first of all asking about the incident, how it happened, if I had noticed any evidence of glass problems such as a stone chip, etc. Then he gave me a quotation for the work, which I felt was quite reasonable and fair. We made arrangements to follow up with the actual removal and replacement the following Wednesday, giving me enough time to get other jobs done and time for them to order and receive the proper glass for my van. I went home a very happy man.
I followed up on the arranged day for the work to be done and was told that because of the snow storms, the delivery would be late in the day on Wednesday. John suggested that he would do the job on the Thursday seeing it would be a little late for that day, I felt Thursday was not good for me as I needed the van for a good portion of the day and the next day was a holiday,
Good Friday. We both settled on the following Monday morning late and that is when I headed to A LaCarte Glass for a new windshield. I arrived at 10:30 Am, a little early, but it doesn't hurt to get there early so they can have a little extra time if needed and I didn't need the van that much on Monday. John's father, Terry, drove home with me and took the van back to the shop for me. At about 2:45 PM Terry came back with the van, sporting a new windshield and looking nice and clean. Now I have a new windshield, a clean van and a happy camper. I can only say that I will strongly recommend anyone to go to them for auto work.
By the way, glass repairs are not the only thing that this shop does, they do cleaning interiors, auto trim and various other jobs that vehicles need throughout their lifetime. I even asked John about the rubber weatherstripping for older vehicles to see if he could source these for a person. I have a personal reason for asking him this as my wife and I own a 1971 Ford camper, which I am restoring and enjoying at the same time. Our camper could take some new weatherstripping for the windows in the front doors are shrunk and create a lot of noise when you drive down the road in summer. John told me that there is no trouble getting this material even though it is for a van that is 38 years old. Hurray for us, we can expect to drive in a little more peace in the future and maybe a little warmer in the cool weather as well.
Well, so much for our saga of the cracked windshield, it is replaced and looks shiny new. By the way, John told me that if I had caught it at the time that it was just a chip, then he could have done a process to stop it from spreading and requiring a whole glass. Darn, I didn't even see the chip until the crack was there. Next time I had better pay more attention if I think I might have been hit with a flying stone on the road.
Carry on guys!!!
Wilf Blakey