just lost a job from state farm, they for some reason think some of these rural areas are to close to the big city.

it is just stupid, they are in the same school district as i am, but they want to pay 10 off list. from this zip it is 12 over list.

it is crazy, they are bringing their car into our shop, its not like we pay for materials based on the customer zip code. geeez.

nice when everybodies lives are controlled by paper pushers, where life is lived in convient boxes.

needless to say i am a little hot. sorry to vent here.

I think that is why Me-tricks was set up. Won't be long when it doesn't matter what zip code you're in, someone will mobile from a cheaper zip code into the higher zip code and deflate the price. It will soon be one price across the country.

the lady from lynx actually called me back, this time with the agent on the line.

heck the agent is from a more rural area than me, only he stuck to the party line, he said do you want to do this or not. boy that gets me hot.

the lady from lynx said that this is like an HMO, i had to straighten that out. Car insurance is not like an HMO. Then she tried to tell me if the work is done in our shop that we should get our rate, the problem was we didn't click on the correct zip code, in the maytrix (ha ha).

i told her if we click on an a area zip, it drops all the pricing to a area, she tried to tell me this is not the case.

she also gave me a helpful hint, if it works. she said if the insured says they are getting the w/s replaced near their home zip code, the pay rate will be an a, in this case. what the customer needed to say was that the w/s was not going to be replaced near their home zip. problem is, to rural people like us, 30 miles is near our home zip code.

i really hate loosing jobs, they are so far and few between. if i had hair i would pull it out.

There is no sense in their rate structure.

They actually do the rates by county, not by zip. In our area, there is a county which incorporates the big city, as well as a mountain top village of about 300 people an hour and a half drive's away.

The rates on the mountain top are the same as the city, 10% off, $100 flat, etc.

I asked a State Farm glass claims manager why they thought this was fair, and the answer was that there are too many zip codes for them to do it by zip code (it is too complicated).

I find that unbelievable. Insurance companies are data masters; they hire mathemeticians and statiticians by the boatload to figure all this out. Obviously, they figured out that it is better to pay by county so they can stick the rural areas with city prices.

And why the hell are city prices so much lower? It's not like it costs $100 less to do the job in the city. It is total bull****.

ok i am in shock.


the agent called me back and now i have the go ahead to do the job.


call me speechless.

Ralph, your customer was fighting tooth and nail to get to use your shop the whole time.

Don't for a second doubt that. It was your job, your customer, from the start, not Lynx's or the Farm's.

And you're right to correct them about HMOs for your car.

Next time ask them to bring the customer into the call, the heck with the agent.

And tape those calls. The day may be coming where tapes of them asking "do you want the job at X Price" will come in very handy.

1 very simple fix,,,,, GET OFF MORETRYX! we never signed up for thier bull, and we are starting to see an increase in lynx and st farm jobs,,WHY?,,,,, OUR CUSTOMERS WANT & TRUST US! Do we get better rates??? YOU BET YOUR SWEET BIPPY!

xxx, more power to you.

we did the w/s sat am, the agent had actually told them to drive the 60 miles to somebody who would do the replacement for a market rates.

obviously, the customer didn't go along with that program, thank goodness. A business just can't have enough loyal customers.

All this because of a zip code.

So does Metryx go by zip code or county? I am confused now!!

Here's my question -

Why do big city shops ( "a" areas) get paid less than rural shops?

We may have more potential jobs than rural areas, but we have more competition, higher rents and taxes and, probably, higher labor costs.

State Farm has about 35 or 40 "shops" that cover our zip code.

Metryx lets you look up the rates by zip code, but if you check out the counties, you will see that, for State Farm, anyway, the rates are the same for all of the zip codes in a particular county.

the only reason i can think of for higher rates is we don't have as many of the cut-throats to drive down prices because they focus on volume, i also have to pay alot of freight since my distributor is 500 miles away,about $60 for three shields

Thanks,

it's the first reasonable answer I've seen

Ira