The great windscreen wiper rip off

[Frank and Brenda]

A few weeks ago I sold my bike,  sad to see it go and I'll miss it but we are clocking up too many km on the Triton and it won't last as long as we hope to be caravaning if we didn't curb the mileage so we had to buy another car

We ended up buying a VE Commodore on factory gas with very low mileage (83000km) from a friend,   at a great price

It need new wiper blades so while Brenda was at spotlight one day I called in to AUTOBARN next door and asked for wiper blades for the VE Commodore they checked the chart and I was given a set of replacement units
I nearly passed out at the checkout when I was told it was $93 😯

Yesterday I was about to throw out the old windscreen wipers but thought I'd pull them apart to see why there are so expensive
There is Nothing makes them so!
In fact just one small clip pushed in with my thumb nail and the plastic tip of the whole unit comes off and you can slide the blade out, to say I'm really p!$$ed is an understatement, I'll go back into the shop when I'm down that way next and ask to speak to the manager (not that it'll make much difference) and tell him what I think of his staff
Then I'll go to another shop and buy 2 blades to fit into the units and have spares

[Old Techo]

Frank,

For years I have been buying refills. Usually not vehicle specific but a generic that you cut to length and slide in.

I get them from the local auto shop, like Auto One.

[dieseltojo]

Yep me too just get refills. I reckon in the old days the blades lasted longer but even the cheap refill when on special do the job. 

In fact my ford ute although around 12 years old still works fine as far as the actual wiper holder goes.

I always put a little amount of metho into the water tank it helps a lot for the first few wipes. The metho also gets the grease of the blades...

[jr]

Reading the first part of your post Frank, I thought surely there would be a generic refill especially for a Holden but did not realise you were not aware of refills.

I got trapped with my Landcruiser wiper blade just measured one side and went and purchased a set that length then when fitting found one side was a different length to the other side and naturally I purchased to\he short side so could not cut one down.


JR

[Old Techo]

Asymmetry seems to be the wiper trend these days JR.

[spaceland]

Dec 14, 2023 8:15:56 GMT 10 jr said:

I got trapped with my Landcruiser wiper blade just measured one side and went and purchased a set that length then when fitting found one side was a different length to the other side and naturally I purchased to\he short side so could not cut one down.

With the Kia and the Navara, I find it's the width of the blade that differs.

Any way, $93 sounds reasonable for complete wiper blades. It's just that the refill blades are so much cheaper, that is why I have not let the service mechanics do the replacements. They always go for the cheaper option. If the rubbers look anyway deteriorated, I always replace them before delivering a vehicle for its service.

Frank, I think you are being too cranky with Autobarn something you should have been aware of.

[warrenk]

You probably received what you asked for.  If you asked for refills, you would have received refills. 

[Frank and Brenda]

Spaceland how should I have been "aware of" the rip off when I asked for wiper blades when I meant wiper blades for complete fittings, I've never been given no option and I've never bought a wiper for a newer car,  the Triton only has wiper blade replacements not complete units
A good salesperson would say these complete units of just the blades? 
Actually a good salesperson would sell the customer what they asked for,  not what makes the company more money! 
That's what I'll be talking to the manager about and will never set foot in that place again

[jock]

Here's a better story...recently got a service done by a recommended repair shop on my Suzuki SX4...Apart from the gobsmacked $160.00 p.h. labour charge, they fitted a new set of windscreen rubbers (It didn't need any as I had replaced them only a couple of months previously)....A few days later it rained and I used the wipers..seemed to be O.K. but when I hopped into the car a few dry days later I discovered a big circular scuff scratch on the glass...I found that the metal strip inside the new rubber had slipped out, got bent when it connected with the other wiper and etched itself into the glass.

I immediately drove down to the mech. workshop demanding a new windscreen etc. etc. and to cut a long story short they, eventually agreed and I had to take the car back down whilst they replaced the screen some days later. The interesting thing is that they found the rubbers faulty in that the little chinese factory workers had not bedded the retaining clips properly..What's more they had 2 big cartons of them in stock and they'd estimated that they'd supplied and fitted about 20 previous customer cars with the faulty units....They had to do a big recall but I never heard if they had to replace other windscreens.

Jock