Safelight Repair Safelight Break!
Took our 2025 Kia Sportage in back in October 2025 for a windshield repair, which turned into a full replacement. We had no idea that the Forward Collision Assist camera was improperly calibrated afterward — there was no warning light, no indication anything was wrong. It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago, about eight months later, that my wife was involved in a minor, no-damage bump at an intersection, which is when we started testing the FCA system and discovered it wasn't working at all.
We took the car straight to the Kia dealer, who confirmed the camera had been misaligned during the windshield replacement back in October. They told us to contact Safelite directly. When I went into this location in person, I was told the camera was only for lane assist, not FCA — then, when I pushed back, they suddenly admitted the two systems actually work together. They offered to "recalibrate" it for $495, despite the fact that proper calibration should have been part of the original windshield replacement eight months earlier.
I called Safelite corporate, who arranged for a technician to go to the dealership (literally down the street from this location) to resolve it. A service appointment was confirmed for Monday between noon and 6pm, so we left the car at the dealer for four more days waiting on it. The Kia service rider, Chris, stayed at the dealership the entire day specifically to meet with the Safelite tech. No one ever showed up. This morning, someone from this location finally called, admitted the appointment had been scheduled but that they simply never made the trip, and told us to bring the car to them instead. I explained we weren't going to move the vehicle from the dealer for safety reasons, since a functioning collision assist system matters, and that if this wasn't resolved within a reasonable timeframe I'd have no choice but to file a small claims action to recover the cost of the recalibration and any other expenses tied to their error. At that point the rep got belligerent, talked over me for several sentences without letting me get a word in, and hung up.
At this point, this isn't just an inconvenience to my wife and me — it cost the dealership a full day of their service rider's time for an appointment Safelite never bothered to keep. The disconnect between this franchise location and Safelite corporate is significant — it feels like dealing with two entirely different companies. I run a service business in Augusta with 31 years in operation, and I would never let a customer, or another business, be treated this way: misled about basic facts, bounced between departments, given a no-show appointment, and then hung up on for simply stating my rights.
I chose Safelite specifically because of their reputation with embedded vehicle technology — I'd previously used independent shops without issue. Based on this experience, I can't recommend this location. A safety-critical camera went uncalibrated for eight months with zero warning to us, and when we finally caught it, the fix was confusion, contradiction, a wasted day for the dealership, and a tech who escalated to hostility rather than just doing her job.