loc@sacto,ca. its been two days already no jobs at all.
how about u guys and ladys out there.

SLOWED DOWN A LOT LAST 10 DAYS.

THAT'S WHY I BEEN

Here to,central wisc.Goes from being busy to nothing.Great winter ahead im sure!

Slow on ong Island in NY. Very slow

Dead here in western Pa. also

I'm down alittle but I sure am happy it's not 100 degrees every day like it was most of the summer.

for some reason, eastern Pa. is steady with high teens to low 20's all week-next week, who knows?????

It's been kind of hit and miss here (Ohio) this month. Some days, phone are really slow, others they are ringing off the hook. We are actually up about 6,000 from this month last year. Go figure. We do a lot of work for body shops so everything will depend on the weather for the winter. Any one else out there in Ohio? What kind of month are you having?

In MA it is the same here, hit and miss. Keeping busy with the flat glass, that helps alot.

Been slow in MN too,,, More time for fishin!

just open up now. just waiting for phone to ring.
starting next month as of 10/9/06 pilkington glass will increase 3.5% on glass in Sacto/CA. +$3 fuel charge for every run. good thing they are next door to me. i just will call everytime. what else can go wrong?

ag, D/T could open a stop next to you and do their usual thing. . See, it could be worse!! Hang in there!!! It will get better!

Here in NE AL, we haven't taken an insurance job since Monday had 10-12 private pays, and a couple of reg account jobs. Flat glass hasn't slowed down since Spring began alot of building going on around here, and alot of broken IG units and storm doors in summer, love those lawnmowers LOL

Slowest month I have ever seen in Seattle area. Very Very Strange. Last month was booming and then it just died. Seems to pick up on Thurs/Fridays but it's pretty boring the other days.

Glasswoman---- I was born in Everett & from 4th grade on lived in Edmonds --- I miss the northwest so much --- why am i in Wisconsin, you may ask? --- husband had to be close to mommy --- --- we're planning on moving back there....... skip a rock for me...

Well, down here in Hurricane Katrina Country (50 miles N. of New Orleans), our commercial/residential guys are starting to catch up. As for my auto... S L O W.

Holidays are coming, and schools are back in, so, i'm used to it. The 'holiday break ins' are soon to come.

auto has been pretty slow but flat glass is busy,ag listen to glasslady she gave me the same advice and with time things started to turn around!

Here is about even, both auto and flat. But Auto is holding due to direct sales, not insurance. No dependence on networks here.

What I am wondering is, are we concluding from the above posts that flat is fine, direct to the customer auto is fine, but insurance auto work is down suddenly? Meaning steering is up because end of busy season is here and summer numbers are not there for the big boys, so an effort is in place to get the numbers up, i.e. steering is up?

I ask this because there are only a few people here that claim to receive unsolicited referrals from networks, and they haven't posted yet, so I can't help but be curious.

I often wonder when people say that networks send them work, if those customers were in fact requesting them, but the network just sort of 'forgot' to mention that fact to the shop?

Mark1 hey how's it going TGIF. Regarding network referrals I would say 1 out of 10 are network referred from SGC the rest from them are repeat customers or agent referrals, or they let their fingers do the walking through YP. I ask every insured how they came to choose our shop, I always hang up after the CSR from network leaves the line and then call customer back "paranoia will destroy you", and ask them if anyone tried to dissuade them from using our service, I have to say that since our letters from insureds who'd had it tried on them went to ins co glass claims manager every answer has been NO. Now Lynx is different I'd guess 4 of 10 are network referrals, I don't actually compile and analyze the data it's sort of raw. Insureds who have been referred from Lynx always tell me they are given our name first, we have a good record in 12 years we've never had a warranty issue reported to a network. Plus we are on EFT and they like that because it makes their job easier, less paperwork which is apparently the goal of the networks "not to handle a piece of paper". The remainder of Lynx assignments are customer request or again agent referral.

All network calls we get they tell us the customer is requesting our shop. Most of our customers are pretty loyal and want us due to local service. I have noticed we have recently had quite a few customers call us and then after they call in to sgc or lynx whooosh they gone. But for the most part if it is a walk in customer we call in and we then get the job. Cash customers are running about the same. Flat glass about the same, ins work has dropped off a bit. Sometimes it seems no matter how we try to prepare the customer some get steered away, but usually once they know "the whole story" they repeat to the tpa as many times as it takes, what their choice is. we lose some to body shops and mobile guys, but over all I don't care anymore.I'll stick to profit jobs or live with it being slow. I refuse to have to beat myself up to make a living! over all it has slowed down.

XXX, on those call in's that get whooshed can't you three way the call? Put insured on hold then call network and bring insured back on line. That's what we do.

Right, But there are times we don't have the time to babysit the call, or might be in the middle of setting a w/s or 3 customers are at the counter. When we take the time to handle it right we rarely or almost never lose a job. We are a very small, full service glass shop. thru the winter and alot of the summer it's me and my sweety! ANd we do residential, all flat, auto, screen and storms, mirrors, plexi, if it's glass we do it. If we can't repair it we replace it. That's also why we can turn down non-profit or low profit work. We are also fairly smart and have very low overhead. It all helps to survive!

XXX, amen on the overhead situation. That is exactly our problem when the cash flow slows down. The corp rents the building from the owner of the business (he bought it when he was sole prop) since we incorporated in 1/05. So a 1200. mortgage went to 2000. rent, but that helps him keep his salary down so it's kinda a wash, but we have 3 vehicle payments (1's paid for). Company pays 150.00 of all employees health care plan then you add up the insurance, utilities, repairs and maintenance, accountants, office and shop supply etc, etc. Then there's the cost of sales/product I do AR & AP and I tell ya some months it's a real juggling match. Somehow though we manage to stay pretty comfortably afloat most months. So you guys have a great plan that will hopefully lead to early retirement, and we don't turn down many jobs either, mainly just the *NET* jobs or ones that are out of our service area. Which coincedentally are the ones that we get referred from THAT S@$ network.
Strange but true LOL

Hawk, Amen, Amen & Amen!!!

Had another one of those today too, Hawk!

Another "Safelite does not service that area" (ya? Since when?) Then you find it's a net priced part. (OH, THAT'S SINCE WHEN! LOL)

Gotta love it.

The interesting part on these will be to see if the short pays happen, especially after the insurer approved the price we quoted for the net priced part job.

We'll see.