SUN-GARD

Anyone been contacted by Bill Stewart yet? Just read an article in the "Window Film" magazine that it's official. They are up and running. Just wondering if anyone has seen the "NEW" Sun-Gard material. If any old Sun-Gard customers are back with them?

It was stressed that absolutely no warranty issue from "old" Sun-Gard will be honored.

anyway...any comments. Very interested to hear pros and cons of this topic.

if they are not going to warranty the previous Sun- GARD film, then change the name.

The company name hass changed, intellectual property names stay the same... that is what the new owners payed for.

and isnt the rep still Captn bill on here

Yes he is. I wrote a blog about that article in WFM.

Thats what i remembered

Here's my two cents.

The new Sun Gard may not have any legal responsibility toward consumers or the former Sun Gard dealers. Nevertheless there is a moral responsibility particularly for this warranty issue since it will influence their brand reputation as well as dealer recruiting possibilities. Certainly there is a cost accrual that would be the burden of the new company BUT in their usage of the Sun Gard trademarks (as someone just pointed out) they should consider taking on the good with the bad.

Obviously they have considered all the pros and cons of absorbing this exposure and came down on the side of not honoring the former company's warranty. My question is what cost they suffer by not doing so in terms of tangible good will and lost potential opportunity of recruitment of new and former FTI dealers?

Bottom line?

They might consider various creative methods for a win-win.

Perhaps some shared burden of cost for the FTI warranty like seeding sample films in lieu of issuing credits?

If not- -the sour taste of the former Sun Gard will linger.

Go figure. NOW THAT'S A QUALITY START TO A QUALITY PRODUCT

exactly, we have had 4 of our previous sungard tint jobs come back, and of course we paid for the redos for the customer, but we didn't redo with "new" Sungard. We redid them with LuLu. What a bunch of idiots. Yes, let me buy more of your product that you won't stand behind in the next couple of years too...then your name and my name will be %&$# together....what is funny is that for the most part I would have never turned in the warranty because of the pain in the arse of it all, but it is the principle of the thing, not to mention I like to have my name associated with quality and great service, sungard seems to not care about either. And about the name change, we would have known it was them...

That's a great idea V4V. Hoepfully Bill sees these messages and comes up with some sort of plan. As a former FTI user, I would seriously consider using them again. However, if they think only of themselves...reality will set in and realize the investment into the name Sun-Gard was a bad investment.

They should've just called it differently. With the "Green Movement" happening around the world, anyone with that much resource will become successful in this industry.

IMO...2 to 3 years from now, we will all benefit from the worlds education of thinking "Green". Let's all spread this word, "THINK GREEN"

As for the new Sun-Gard...V4V has provided you and excellent idea, I would strongly suggest at the very least bring it to the table of the decision makers and toss it around. You may find that it's simply an investment for the people that do actually provide success.

Bill can correct me if I'm wrong on this one...

Here's what you guys aren't seeing. FTI did not do business exclusively in the US market. I believe that the US market is the only market that had warrantied films. The bulk of their business is oversees and without warranties the liability is not there but the demand still is.

A new company (Novomatrix) comes in and looks at the situation. To them it is advantageous to keep the intellectual property, ie. Sun Gard, not solely because of the US market but because of the larger oversees market that they (FTI) sold too.

New owners will retool the film line because it needs it badly, their oversees customers are in place (cashflow), now all they have to introduce the new films to the US market and see who is willing to jump on board. The old stuff will not be made anymore, that is why they discounted all of the old inventory assuming that dealers would buy up stock to cover any warranty work. The only thing that remains is the brand name, equipment, and some former employees, everything else is new...

I'm not making excuses for anyone and I'm not agreeing with the way things went down, this is just the way I understand it. I could be wrong though...

My question on that one is why would anyone want to put on a film that was being put together from whatever crap they could get a hold of at the end to replace film that has failed so that they will only have to re-do it again in a couple more years??? Give us some of this NEW film that we can put on and it would be good enough.....

Bill told me early on that he would be willing to work with old sungard dealers for warranty if they were willing to come back to sungard......so if you are willing to switch back to the film named sungard then contact Bill and see what he will work out....

Does anyone know Bill's contact number.

He is capt bill on here if you would like to pm him and get that info

Can you really not believe that? Just look at some of the brands people swear by. It's just put together from whatever they can get since they don't make it themselves.

i got the same phone call from the new sungard. "we might be able to help with your warranty's on a case by case basis if you keep buying our film." i wouldnt touch there film if you gave it to me. if there export market was so profitable why did the go belly up in the first place. ill tell you why, a few years ago they hired a new CEO who ran them into the ground by cutting costs via quality control, and at the same time raised prices 30%. that included there export market. now, even the export market wont touch there over priced garbage. imo they should have started new and not use the suncrap brand or logo. also, i heard they fired all there old reps and even wanted the to return there laptops with all there contacts on them after they took there retirement plans. effinaholes.

exactly...

AMEN Brotha!!!




VC your posts are so informative. That makes sense.




But then I read this one and it makes sense too.

I wont be getting involved with em

nope neither wil I...

they have been selling film for sometime now at least 2 months or more.

why in the world would'nt the rest of the world get warranties ?

Because only in America do people think everything lasts forever and if it doesn't we're entitled to getting it replaced for free.

If I had it my way it would be 2yr standard thermal breakage and 2yr film warranty. If they have a written glass warranty then match term for term on thermal break/seal failure... We've blown this whole thing so out of proportion it is insane...

I can drop 2-3K on a computer and all I get is a 1yr warranty. How many millions of people buy computers and are fine with it?

THAT'S WHAT I AM TRYING TO EXPLAIN HERE SINCE I AM ON BOARD.
LIFETIME - nice trick for ZIPPO lighters - not for window films............
I will add how many people are satisfied their life all things they buy?
May be wrong English but hope You will understand

V Climber, you are right with your assessment of the FTI/Solamatrix situation. LilDetails, you are also correct on how I plan to handle the warranty concerns.

If anyone would like to contact me directly to discuss the new films or if you have a warranty situation you can email me at bstewart@solamatrix.com or call 1.800.777.1770 ext 2112.

Bill Stewart
Solamatrix

Good to know your back bill.

Hopefully now we can all put the "old" S-G behind us and move forward with the "new". I just hope Solamatrix realizes that you all must make some sacrifices to gain the respect back from those that were left in the cold.

I must stress though, It was a tough learning lesson that was taught by FTI. A lesson that will not be forgotten, but will be forgiven as time goes by.

Capt bill, are you guys going to participate in SEMA 2008?

Hi all! just a quick note from Europe. We've always had factory warranty with our Sun-Gard and Glass-Gard films. I do wonder, too, the statement about rest of the world not having factory based warranties.
Some of our customers have used the new films from Sun-Gard and some say nothing has changed, some have liked the new ones more. I personally have not noticed any change in the 'new' films. We've gotten old films for almost the entire spring and my God it'd be interesting if we have to cover all the warranties by ourselves, if we end up with many warranty problems... The article was very englightening in many senses...

tummentaja, are you saying that you guys in Europe alsways had the backing from FTI Sun-Gard and continued to be backed by Solamatrix Sun-Gard? Is this true? At least that's what I getting from your post.

And I thought US homegrown companies wouldn't do such a thing.

This is getting very interesting.

Well I'm sure the American attitude might be bleeding over into western Europe. But certainly not Eastern Europe, Asia, and India.

Yes, Solamatrix will be participating in SEMA, in a big way.

Hey there Bill. I was gonna post the ATL #, but you already chimed in. For now, I am sticking with SunGard (at least for auto), if only out of loyalty to one of the greatest men I have ever had the pleasure to meet, ITD founder Joe O'brien. I don't know how he'd feel about these developments, but I don't believe the events leading up to the SunGard demise occurred until after his passing.
That St.Pete facility is state of the art, and CAPABLE of doing anything anyone else can do. We''l see what Novo/Solomatrix does with it! They should do great things. (Hopefully)

I too will be very interested in a combination of the latest technologies from Asia and how US markets their products.

Sorry, sorry, I must have made myself unclear or understood wrong in the first place. I meant before (in the good old times) everything was factory warranted and we did get films replaced until January normally. Now of course it must be a different thing, thank God we haven't gotten any claims yet... I kind of understood from the article that films outside US wouldn't have been under warranty, but I quess I got something wrong.

Steve,
Thanks for the kind words and yes, Joe had passed when FTI closed. I think that he would be very pleased now that Novamatrix has ownership of his old company. They will and are going to do great things with the Sun-Gard/Glass-Gard brands. Try our new IQue flatglass films, you won’t be disappointed.

Bill

Im out of it long day, can someone clarify. Is Sun-Gard the name still used or is it now called Solamatrix?

YES..

just curious, a competitor... well they really cant even be called that use sungard. I told em they are out of biz and they looked like I'd told them Jesus was detailing a car out back.

bill, what you are really saying is joe (rip) was rolling in his grave at the way his company was run into the ground and his dealers were thrown under the bus. and now, novamatrix has purchased the now de-funked company's assett's but kept the sungard name.

IQue is some interesting stuff. Solomatrix just might pull a wabbit outta their hat.

Bill,

Josephine still allive??

I was the first European dealing with Sungard 25 years ago and there Condo in St Pete where we stayed a couple of times.

Not sure if Josephine is alive but the condo you are referring to is gone. V climber, you are correct again and Solamatrix has a few other things in that hat!!

Have you updated the adhesive? Which, from what I've seen on here, was the weak point.

Yes, we have.

I think the name should of been put in the grave with the belly up company so no one could use it for 20 years, or who ever kept the name would accept all warranty work in good faith to keep it's dealers.

Bill said to talk to him about warrantys if you wanted to buy the film so .... is that protecting dealers

I read that stan

stan

you know, this is a bunch of krap with this warranty from solomatrix. they call me and say they "might" be able to help on a case by case basis as long as i keep buying there film. then a custy calls them and they tell the custy absolutely no warranty. not for nothing, custy's who lease there cars's and were sold a bill of goods that didnt last there 24 month lease will look elsewhere for there next tint job. why would they use us again, they spent hundreds of dollars for krap that didnt last. now dealers are in a catch 22, use there film to cover warrantys... solomatrix aint going for that... use sungard film as your permier product to help with the warranty issue and still try to make a living. most of your regular auto custys know it's garbage in which case they will look elsewhere and take there chances that there new tint shop will supply a better longer lasting product.. or, bring in a new product with global recognition and raise your dollar per car average 25+%. the latter is what my company opted for. selling against a sungard/solomatrix product wont be an issue either, not with the track record they kept with the name. just my 2 cents.

I think that if Solamatrix wants to get a customer base going, they're going to have to tell the dealers why the product is going to be better than before.

I've not seen any advertising that says the newly manufactured products are going to be better shrinking or longer lasting than before. 6 month adhesive failure and poor shrinking are 2 major factors why I switched to another film 4+ years ago.