[ainarssems]

You are right about dealers not replacing windscreens but at least you get OEM glass and hopefully they use a good fitter. Mine was fitted by Corby Windscreens who has decent reputation at dealer premises.

It does not matter what your insurer says or wants, it's your car and your choice who you choose to do the the repair. If the insurer covers that kind of repair they need to pay pay for it regardless of who does he repair as long as costs are reasonable. What is reasonable is open to interpretation but generally it should be OK as long as charges are genuine and not some made up scam. There have been several lawsuits with insurance companies about costs where insurance companies lost. One of the recent big ones was where 3rd party claims management company was used and they charged their share on top of repair costs. Insurers refused to pay management fees only paid for actual repair but court ruled that charges were reasonable and ordered them to pay up.

Even if you paid for windscreens yourself you can still claim it back from insurance. If they refuse to pay there is MIB to complain about your insurer or even small claims court. I have done couple of claims to MIB on behalf of my friends and they always ruled in favour of us instead of insurance company.

But you are right that you could loose your NCB depending on your insurance company and whether you have protected NCB or not, that's why agreed to pay a bit more excess than normal for windscreen replacement.