Today, we had an interesting new twist in the claim game happen.

Customer calls AmFam (Safelite) on his cell while we are performing a repair.

Safelite, after realizing the work is done, refused to give a claim number. Says it is now policy that no claim numbers are assigned after the work is done, but here's the PO Box in Columbus to mail it to.

Now, what happens to claims mailed to Columbus without claim numbers????? Ya, I thought so.

Gonna have some fun with this one.

i never do any work untill i see authorization i sugest you do the same
mostly because ive made the same mistake
dont give up and youl get paid

YEP SEEN IT HAPPEN, chip takes 15-20 min to complete, most times sgc can't get authorization in 1-2 hours,,,, can they get away with not paying????? NOPE,, it won't fly in court!!!!! or Arbitration,,, It won't even get there,,,we make sure w/ agent, coverage is there, or customer pays and sends it in to ins.,,,, they have to pay for services,,,, just get the customer in the mix,,,, THEY(SGC OR LYNX) WILL LOSE!!!!I'm in a kick booty mood,, sorry,, Didn't mean to RANT, RANT, RANT!

I have no worries getting paid from the customer, and I could care less about authorizations or getting paid from Safelite or the insurer, that's just a service we do for the customer.

And I know that 'authorizations' can take hours, and days.

This was new and different. This lady specifically said they do NOT issue claim or referral numbers for work that was already done. The customer, nor I, were ASKING for authorization to do work, the customer was reporting his claim, FNOL. In essence, she was refusing his claim, she had to be. The customer kept asking if she wanted his POLICY NUMBER, and she said NO. How could she have filed his FNOL on his claim without his POLICY NUMBER?

Now, I know that payment conditions in the policy don't include a provision past the 'right to inspect' clause. There is another string about taking pics for the insurer before the work is done. Fine, I will, IF I am paid to do so.

I also know that the clause about the insured 'mitigating the loss' is in the policy, so, how does one mitigate the loss other than by patching it before it spreads?

The operative question is, can Safelite, or any network or insurer, refuse a claim because work is already done?

I don't think so, and I hope they try.

If you are not on their network you don't need a claim number for Am fam. There is only a few ins. cos.(Farmers,Geico,Progressive) maybe a couple of more that require claim numbers to get paid. We do the job, get the signature and then send in the invoice. We do not get preauthorization!! If we do it any other way we face hard steering tactics and lose some jobs.

Rob

Who do you send your invoices to? And do you get short paid?

I like your style! Please give us more information.

Thanks

Yes. Please do give us the info. It sounds like a good way to do it. The heck with pre-authorization...just a fancy term for STEER. They had a good article on short pays in this months Auto Glass magazine. Basic jist of it was don't cash the check unless its full payment. By cashing it you are agreeing to the amount being paid.

What do you do about verifying deductibles and such? It seems you'd have to call thne ins. co. yourself. If the customer did it you'd end up losing the jobs by steering.

We had seen SGC and LYNX do this several yars back. If they ever hear that the work has already been completed before they gave authorization they state we must bill the agent direct of collect from the customer(depending on ins company they are representing). Funny thing is the agent would usually then call in and get it authorized and dispatched/referred to us because they did not want to have to cut a check and/or be in noncompliance with their hoem offices glass claims procedures. Never had a problem getting the money though as long as they had current coverage.

Mark 1, sounds like you have it covered because the insured's going to pay you direct, right? So it's not your problem anymore, but thanks for the heads up you could have saved someone else from making that error on a replacement or something more costly than a repair. In our small town market if this kind of thing or any issue really with the networks occurs we can always call direrctly on the local agents, and 99% of the time they'll handle it, no problems, no complaint. Just like the 07 FJ Cruiser I've shared about here on the forum, when the insured called me I immediately called the agent and informed them that we could not, would not do the replacement with the network involved. Since the insured would not think about anyone else doing the work they simply processed it through their office. We were paid within 10 days of install, at a rate higher than dealer list too for w/s and list for moldings.

This happen to us as well on occasion. We simply call the home or regional office and tell them their TPA would not authorize the work. Usually they get right on it.

Another thing, SGC likes to use the "cannot verify coverage" line, especially every 3rd week of the month for certain ins. co. policyholders if none of you haven't noticed that. We do the same thing in those cases. Call the local agent, the regional office or national office to report that their TPA was unable to verify the policyholders coverage. We have found 90% of these calls get handled immediately. Several insurance companies had no idea this was happening and have now REQUESTED we call them EVERY time SGC cannot verify coverage.

Of course most of us can guess why every thrid week they use this tactic, especially when they then call your customer telling them you are to busy to perform the service, but they can send an SGC tech right out to do the work. But the joke is really on SGC, we do the work anyway after calling the local agent to verify the coverage, and the customer tells them. Usually we get the referral or fax in some cases shortly after that call takes place.

It really is insane how many ins. co. pretend to not know SGC steers work to their own shops. However, I have been pleasantly surprised how many insurance companies of late are "getting a clue" by auditing SGC "reports".

How many of you are on electronic payments with SGC?I've seen alot of people post that they would never do it, but I have to say it's been a very positive change for us. The average turnaround on invoices submitted through SGC web site is 14-16 days. That's a considerable difference from what it was when we were getting paper checks, also signed up last week for email notification of EFT payments now I don't even have to go "LOOK" for payments on web site just check the ole' email and there it is. Of course every week I call the 24 hour bank line and verify all electronic payments because we have the EFT agreement with Lynx as well. Then they are verified again from statements. We've had no problems, unless you consider quicker payments a problem

absolutely EFT = Faster pay!~

HOW did your Nov 9th post end up above my Oct 16th post? Bachman are you a webmaster as well?

Haha that is actually pretty funny i just noticed that? I think mabey this web site might be broken...

Bachman, so have you recently signed up for the EFT payments, or have you been doing it for awhile? It really amazed me how much faster we get paid! Be sure and request the email notification from SGC. Now I don't really think LYNX's payments are any faster than they were on paper checks. That's the last time you'll ever hear me give credit for anything to S@$, as I much prefer dealing with Lynx.

Just keep in the back of your mind, that timely payment laws (bad faith claims laws) were written in vastly most states long before the fax machine even existed.

It does not makes sense in this day and age that paper would take long beyond the time allowed when everybody was using snail mail.

Food for thought.

If safelite won't help you cut them out of the picture. Call the claim in to the insurance company yourself. They will want to speek to the insured, so conference call it. The check will be on its way the same day.

i have been on eft since like day1