AGR Reports
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COMPANY NEWS
Coast to Coast Contractor Charged with
Damaging Windshields
A Florida woman employed as part of Coast to Coast Auto Glass’s third-party independent sales force was arrested in September for charges relating to her work. The Hernando County Sheriff’s department charged Jenna Parslow with committing criminal mischief to two vehicles and for possession of drug paraphernalia, according to the complaint filed against her.

According to the complaint filed against Parslow, a witness allegedly observed Parslow standing near two particular vehicles, a 2008 Nissan and a 1996 Honda on September 29; the witness alleges that Parslow “pulled her hand away from the area of the [vehicle’s] windshield, which was damaged.”

“The defendant then approached the owners of both vehicles and offered to have their windshields repaired at no cost to them,” reads the arrest report.

Both vehicles are alleged to have been parked in the same parking lot, approximately 50 feet apart, for 10 minutes, and the witness claims Parslow was the only person to have been near either vehicle. The vehicle owners “both attested [the damage] was not there when they parked their vehicles 10 minutes earlier,” according to the report.

Officer Julio Tagliani, who filed the arrest report, says that both vehicles had chips approximately ¼ inch in diameter; the Nissan had two chips of this size.

“All three chips were identical in shape and size, and were consistent with being struck by a sharp object,” adds Tagliani.

Parslow advised the sheriff’s department she makes $45 for every windshield she refers to Coast to Coast, but denies damaging the windshields, according to the report.

Tagliani also searched Parslow’s purse, and allegedly discovered a “glass smoking pipe with marijuana residue.”

Coast to Coast spokesperson Jigna Patel advised AGRR magazine/glassBYTEs.com™ that Parslow was part of the company’s third-party sales force.

“We utilize a third-party sales force on an independent contractor basis,” said Patel. “The individual involved in the Tampa, Fla., matter is a member of that independent, third-party sales force, and not an employee of Coast to Coast.”

She added, “… Pending resolution of this matter, Ms. Parslow is no longer providing sales or any other services on behalf of Coast to Coast.”

Patel also advised the actions police allege Parslow committed are against the company’s code of ethics.

“Coast to Coast Auto Glass does not and will not tolerate unethical, fraudulent or illegal conduct by any of its sales representatives or other vendors,” Patel said. “This is against our company’s philosophy and core principles, and is contrary to the code of ethics that we require of any person providing sales services on our behalf.”

At press time, a hearing was scheduled for October 28.

ABRA Acquires Colorado Repair Center
ABRA Auto Body & Glass recently acquired a repair center in Pueblo West, Colo. This facility, formerly known as Advanced Paint & Body, brings the total number of ABRA repair centers to 97 in eleven states.

The facility had been owned and operated by Jerry and Dawn McCarthy since 1987. It consists of 27,800 square feet and now will be known as ABRA-Pueblo West.

ABRA also announced the appointment of Keith O’Daniel as general manager. He will be responsible for leading the repair center and implementing ABRA’s operating system. He brings to ABRA-Pueblo West 40 years of collision industry experience, including five years as a general manager for ABRA in Minnesota.

With the addition of Pueblo West ABRA now operates 18 repair centers in Colorado.

ABRA also recently awarded a franchise in Sioux Falls, S.D., to Randy Nehring.

Nehring is also the owner of Saturn of Sioux Falls, Cadillac of Sioux Falls, and Sioux Falls Ford.

The 10,000-square-foot repair center employs Elmer Baker as its general manager.

PRICING NEWS
New NAGS Calculator Shows Price Decrease
The Fall 2009 National Auto Glass Specifications International (NAGS) Calculator, which took effect in mid-September, shows a .85 percent decrease for the weighted average for the top 100 parts since the Spring release. For the top 20 most popular parts, there was an average decrease of 0.5 percent since last September.

The largest decrease shown among the top 20 most popular parts was for the DW01256GBNN—which dropped 2.7 percent, from $249.30 to $242.55 since last September. (In May, this same part had seen the biggest increase from a year earlier—it had increased $18.90 over the previous year.)

Only four of the 20 most popular parts saw increases in the Fall 2009 Calculator over the previous year. The greatest of these was for the DW01265GBNN, which increased from $247.90 in September 2008 to $262.40 in September 2009—a 5.8 percent rise.

For the top 500 parts, there was a weighted average decrease of -1.35 percent, and for the top 1,500 parts, there was a weighted average decrease of 1.52 percent.

To view the changes for all of the top 20 parts, please visit www.glassBYTEs.com™.

BRIEFLY
Equalizer Industries has become the exclusive U.S. distributor for BTB Tools of Australia ... Pilkington Group Ltd. recently acquired a new license from Research Frontiers Inc. to offer the company’s SPD-Spmart automotive end-products globally … A.N. Designs Inc. recently donated 15 windshield replacement tool kits to the I-CAR Education Foundation ... Glass America recently launched a re-designed website in celebration of its 10th anniversary. The site is located at www.GlassUSA.com.

AGRR
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