What has happened to autoglass. Where is the fair and rebalanced pricing. I am not looking to make billions (safelite, triumph, belron) I just want to make a living for myself and my techs. Just recived a safelite farmers fax at 33 percent off. If iI decline the job than safelite does it. We loose again. If I try to collect from the customer first they go somewere else. We loose again. Tried Neon they bill the ins co they go to safelite I get short paid form safelite less Neon percentage. Safelite wins we loose again. Does anybody direct bill ins. co without going through any WONDERFULL BILLING SERVICE (safelite, lynx). I think list, plus per hour labor, plus per kit urethane is a fair price. Net priced priced parts are a hole different problem, each needs to be handled one at a time, each is different each time. I have been in the industry for 24 years. Everything has changed 15 minute jobs NOT, atleast 1 hour. Urethane $3.15 a tube NOT, $12 to $13 a tube plus primers. Good tech $6 to $10 an hour , NOT try $20 to $30 an hour, plus helpers. OH yea liability insurance has gone down NOT, my figures show 750 percent increse form 18 years ago. Hey what great idea, why don't we just pay the ins. co what we feel is a reasonable price. I pay more than 5000. a year for ins. and never use it, so 523.63 a year is fair and reasonable. To get that price I through a dart at a dartboard, isin't that how NAGS gets there list prices. If you haven't figured out I am finially ****** off, and I am ready to fight to keep my business open. Any help would greatly appreciated.

reminds me of non-conductive urethane prices when certain vehicles started using it. Lynx gave 125 $ back in the day. hahahahah!!!! did a VW that required non-cond yesterday.... 35 bucks is all they allowed.

Wow. $20 - $30 an hour? I need to come and work for you.

Sorry about the venting. We (the industry) need a different way to bill the insurance companys. What ways do your companys bill insurance companys, direct, other billing services? I have tried Neon which worked OK but safelite still made money off of our work. So Neon made money and safelite made money and my company made money. Lets cut out the middle man and let us bill a reasonable price. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks liljohn

Liljohn

I just got into the industry. It looks to me that Safelite keeps lowering thier prices to get the small people out. They can cut down thier prices due to thier cheap glass and they have a manufacture tube thier own adhesive. I'm in the process of geting an account with safelite and they will sell me a tube of thier adhesive for 4.19 tube when I buy a case of 24 tubes, then another price break at 4 cases, and that includes the primer. I also check on some of thier w/s and thier prices range from 15.00 to 35.00 dollars cheaper then I can get them from LOF. Not saying I'm going to use them but If you think about it on an average just say of 22.50 a window cheaper at 100 windows a month, that's a good chunk of change. And it's not costing safelite our prices. I would exspect the prices to keep going down. So I think the only way that Safelite will get hurt is if all customers want OEM glass. Most policy holders don't know what is being put into the vehicle.

If you're paying $12-13 for a tube of regular urethane, you're paying way too much.

Age old questions....
How can SGC be allowed to make THEIR own glass, then dictate to us what to charge for OUR glass? And be in 'cahoots' with the insurance companies?

LilJohn, Very eloquently put and you won't find many that aren't in the exact same boat with you, up the river without the perverbial<(spellcheck) paddle!
There are posters on this forum who claim to have the answer to the mysterious "direct bill" issue, but for good reason they're not sharing them on the forum. Too many eyes & ears on here , and it's not paranoia. Personally, we will take a loss and buy more expensive parts from Mygrant (still reasonable, and the best customer service), or last resort Pilk, and in the South at least Lewis is staking claim to some territory by being very competitive with pricing distributing Pilk, LOF, PPG, OEM, AM and more I'm sure, BEFORE we give in and buy from the "competition" they may dictate pricing, and shortpay, late pay make $$$$ of us in all of their ways, but we will not give them the satisfaction of buying from them as well! We value our customers and think they deserve the best quality we can give them and still turn an acceptable profit, not what the job's worth but acceptable. So be careful who you climb in bed with, and if you get that direct bill info......SHARE IT. The only thing we ever direct bill are comp claims that have damage other than w/s or similar situations involving agent adjusters as opposed to unlicensed adjusters called CSR's working for the big four.

But, what about those of us who stress the QUALITY OF MATERIALS AND SERVICE!!! Most smaller shops have to really press that angle simply because we DON'T have the buying power of the big guy's. I refuse to install Safelite glass. I may pay a little more for the brand I use, but my customers know that they will get quality materials, and top knotch service. Most reputable companies don't want to be known as the cheapest guy on the block. When I am buying something and someone tells me that, I have to wonder WHY????

I'd really like to know how much MORE SGC ups the price to the insurance companies after we bill through their Network.
anybody?
anybody?
Bueller? Bueller?

Last year when S@$ picked up our last direct bill company we were giving them 15% off, the day they began dispatching thru the network the discount went to 25%.........coincedence? When we have a claim going thru the adjusters office they pay at 15% still. I have my thoughts on the answer to that question, I have the aforementioned clues, answers I have none! Accusations I make none.

so what everyone is saying is what pay terms we agree on when calling in a claim on SGC network is not what safelite agrees to? Doesn't safelite charge the insurance the same pay terms but SGC charges the insurance a processing fee. I also run a emergency roadside company and i'm contracted though a company basicly like a network, I have set prices. I bill the company they pay me then charge the insurace and manufactures the bill plus a processing fee.

First Mr. ninja let me know if you are looking. Let us know of your qualifications. Second, after checking we are not paying that much for sika ASAP or MOVEIT. We are a quality only company. Oem or oem quality glass is the only glass we use. I hate the way the industry has gone with Chinese glass. Big mistake by the manufactures. The manufactures have nothing to fight with when they want to argue about price. Net priced parts fight them when they are made in china. I do and win sometimes, use suppliers against each other for the best price. I had to use safelite when I worked for US autoglass, what junk. More warrenty problems than it is worth. I am tring to work on direct billing processes with some insurance companys. If safelite keeps droping prices a time will come when nobody wants there junk install and glass. We as a quality industry (certified, trained, agrss) will be able to demand a fair and GOOD price. On the safelite billing ask the insurance companys if Farmers is going to use Allstate to do their billing and have Progressive handle the claim. We all know how well Progressive takes care of their customers.

As far as profit goes, in my opinion, we all make more if we buy the parts from Mygrant/PPG than we do buying from the dealer. It is also more of a pain to buy a part from a dealer with all the hoops you have to go thru to get authorization from the networks.
They want you to purchase the parts first so that you can provide a proof of purchase. By the time you get approval, it could be days after the completion of the job. A bit backwards in my opinion. Most networks won't accept a quote from the dealer. Also, most dealers won't take the part back if the job goes south.

Is anyone else being paid short by SGC on completed jobs?

GET THE HELL OFF THE NETWORKS!!

Easy to say GET OFF THE NETWORKS for people in areas where there are not large concentration of AGR shops.
In NY on LI if you get off networks you are OUT OF BUSSINESS.

I would never defend a network, but I have to say in my two years managing the AR for this glass shop we have never had a short pay. Now we have been forced to send fax invoice after three attempts at EDI were unsuccessful, I once had a part time helper who never got the hang of it...hence the once part.

Well - I didn't have a problem with SGC short paying until I changed my custom offer prices back to the default prices as dictated by each insurance company on the SGC Network.

When I questioned the short pay ----
I was asked to fax "proof" of my price changes!!

So I went to the SCG Network website and sent a copy of the "history page" showing the exact day, hour, minute and second I made the price changes!!
Question: Has anyone else had this problem with the SGC Network website ??

YES! they approved using a dealer part that the customer told safelite She wanted only dealer glass and WILL NOT take anything else, well her car was a 2001 and that does not quailify for dealer part. She demaned it and they said ok. But now, They say NO WE NEVER DID, that I need to call the billing or the authorizing dept. whatever it is. but to be put on hold with junk music, forever. and then they have a recording, go to website, sure... cant get in. call back. same thing no person. I actually sat on hold for over an hr. just to see if they would come on. NOPE. they put you into the music mode, instead of hanging up, so you think they will come on sometime, but in reality, they are sitting there laughing their butts off, another idit thinks they will get a real person. and by not getting into the website, you cant get paid. how convenient!
I started to shop my insurance for my business. I refuse to support a company that has safelite as the TPA.