Customer walked into my shop today. Has 2 vehicles in need of 2 WS. Running off to work just wanted to let me know. USAA insurance. He called in the claim and Safelite told him he had to use Safelite AG or he would have to pay for WS replacements up front! How can we handle?? It’s impossible to compete. We need to hire an attorney. Anyone out know any legal recourse we can take. Customer is also my neighbor so he is willing to help me out. But how many are we loosing! Vero Beach Florida

You must be on top of your game......... This will never happen to us.

We have taken 100,s of jobs from Safelite over the years with educating

the general public in our area. First we were willing to spend the money

for a mass mail out letting the community know who is really a locally owned

verses foreign owned company. Second good ole Gorrilla marketing

1.Flyers, referrals, relationships with local business,Ect.

By far the best way was getting out and educating the public and winning

over the community. Safelite has never been a threat to our business model

we have beat them to the punch.

Goodluck

First of all, who even acknowledges SGC. Insurance is as good as cash. Just a payment method. Take before and after pics and fax the bill to USAA. If they dont pay send it to your attorney for none payment and let them prosecute.

I am amazed at the same complaints over and over again. Marie is today your first day in business? Safelite has done this for years. If you do gorilla market be sure they will increase their pressure and brand your company as Harvester's and frauds of course this means you are doing a good job and getting work. Oh and your fellow independent glass companies will be happy to see you branded as a fraud as it may benefit them in the short term. This industry is done stick a fork in it.

When insurance regulators claim that they have no consumer complaints of steering I always wonder how many confirm consumer complaints they have of harvesting and where those complaints came from, perhaps NICB via SS? The only thing worse than what is going on is standing by and doing nothing. Pound the rock. Eventually it will crack.

We have the same problem up here in Canada with Speedy, which is the Canadian division of Safelite. They tell our customers that they don't "guarantee" our work. What??? We guarantee our own work! This is dirty, unethical and should be illegal. But consumers don't KNOW they have the right to take their vehicle where they want. Agree with above poster, the only way to combat this is to educate the public and maintain a great relationship with your customers. Be proactive and talk to them BEFORE they call the call centre. Offer to make the call and handle the insurance claim for the customer.

Does Speedy in Canada work also as 3rd party admin for the ins. companies?

Yes they sure do! Belron monopolizes the market here too.

The insurance company faxes or emails a work order. We don't start a job until we have that work order. It's our authorization and they don't have to pay if we do the job before the authorization is in our hands. The problems begin when customer calls their "insurance company claim number" which, of course, isn't their insurance company at all, but Belron, who then does everything in their power, including lying, to steer to Speedy. Our law protects the consumer, who has the right to go to whichever repair shop they choose, but unfortunately, the consumer does not know this. And when they are told that Speedy is their "preferred shop", they take that at face value.

Our best defense is to educate the customer BEFORE they call Belron. Also, we have very good relationships with our local insurance brokers and agents, who often don't even realize how the claims process works. Most of them have never even heard of Belron.

A few months ago Belron faxed a "code of ethics" to every single independent shop in the province that we were expected to sign and fax back. It was a veiled attempt to get us to sign off on some pretty serious policies. We do have a program where we will help the customer out with their deductible. Sometimes it's the only way we can get the job. Belron wanted us to sign this contract stating we'd no longer do that, and if they found out that we were waiving deductibles, the equal amount would be deducted from our payment. On advice of our lawyer, we did not sign. But now I'm sure customers are being told that we don't adhere to their "code of ethics".

It's a circular, unfair and unethical network but no one in the government seems to care.

Thanks for the info GoGlass, but, respectfully, you didn't answer the question.

Most of what you related goes on in the US as well. But just because an insurer or network sends you a "work order", it does NOT mean that the insurer is contracting for repairs to the car. Hence, the facade, the illusion, the gaffe, and finally, the sting.

Please go back and read multiple strings on this topic, centered around the simple single question of "Who is the Customer?" or "Who is Contracting for the Repairs to the Property?" It revolves around the insurers indemnification choices under their policy provisions, that the consumer bought. Usually, in short, there are three: Total loss the property and pay the value, OR repair the property, OR pay the consumer in money via his proof of loss after repairs are done. You will note the word "OR" in between the options, NOT the word "AND".

In two options, the insurer carries no liability for the repairs to the car, and does not dictate ANY parameters FOR those repairs. In the repair option, they do, and here, they rarely, if ever these days, choose the repair option, yet they "ACT" as if they have, and repairers are fooled, right along with everyone else that thinks the "insurer is the buyer".

After you read the multitude of strings, please come back and let us know what's going on in Canada, or at least your specific part of it.

Of course, as always, all of this is JMHNLO, yet I've read several court transcripts, and heard many recordings of calls, and when asked, the insurer or their TPA answers "NO" to the question of "Is the insurer or are you (TPA) contracting for the repairs to the car?" So, if they aren't, how can they be making ANY decisions in regards to the repairs to property they don't own (nor have excercised any policy provision to allow them to do so), or how can they be hiring a TPA who is literally subcontracting out to shops via "work orders", "work assignments", or "network agreements" to shops, when the insured/customer/consumer IS NOT PARTY TO THOSE AGREEMENTS, and it's NOT contained in the insurance policy?

Still again, JMHNLO, and have a great day!

GoGlass, down here, the customer gets to choose the service provider.

Consumers are not required to select any particular service provider.

The insurance company may have several service providers that have (foolishly) agreed to bill at insurance company offered pricing. (Insurers base their premiums assuming that they will pay full retail and make a profit if they do not have to pay full retail.)

I suggest that you read your own auto insurance policy, paying particular attention to the property damage sections as well as the "duties" section to see what is covered, when a deductible might apply and when a deductible might not apply and if the contract actually requires the customer to notify the insurer before any "mitigation' takes place.

Where in the policy does it state that the insured must make their first notice of loss by phone and to Belron? It probably doesn't.

INSURANCE COMPANIES DO NOT HAVE THE LAST WORD ON INTERPRETING THEIR POLICIES! If the wording is ambiguous and could be interpreted differently by a reasonable person, down here the courts are supposed to give the consumer the benefit of the doubt since the insurer wrote the contract.

In my experience, insurance companies quite often misrepresent what their policies actually say during the claim settlement process.

Okay, I guess I see what you are trying to say. You're probably right in that the customer has the right to authorize the work on their own cars. I just always assumed that we had to have the work order first, and that's how we proceed, to avoid any billing issues later. I like to have the policy number and work order number to put on the invoice and then we're paid promptly with no hassles. Insurance companies up here pay VERY well, much more than customer would pay out of pocket.

I think the local brokers and agents tell the customer to call the claims number just to pass the buck, to be honest. Again, probably not something that HAS to be done before completing the job...it's just how we do it. I want to make sure customer has coverage and find out what their deductible is, if any. I imagine it would be pretty annoying to do the job, find out customer does NOT have coverage and then have to try and collect from them.

I don't care who authorizes it, or who is "contracting" for it, I just want to get paid. Other than the steering issue, this works very well for us.

You need to "care" about who is contracting for the repair, that is the key.


Here if the insurer contracts for the repair he inherits the liability for the repair. The insurer has that option, when the insurer fails to utilize that option, the insurer has no standing to negotiate the pricing. Shops that incorrectly believe the insurer or the 3rd party is the customer blindly act against themselves.







Who is the Customer?

Where in the U.S. are you marketing gorillas?? Any chance you meant to use the term "guerilla" marketing?

Do you guys know if rental car agencies are required to use Safelite as a part of their policy or can they use any SGC service provider? The reason I ask is that I walked into a local Enterprise location recently and the manager agreed after my pitch that he would love to use me. Especially if I could get things done promptly for them. Well a couple days go by. My guy at Enterprise needs a windshield so he calls SGC and requested my business do the work just like I asked him too. The SGC rep told him that I would be there between 8am-12pm the following day? So then my customer thought it was weird they would speak on my behalf without calling me first so he then called me and asked when I was going to show up? I then broke the news to him that Safelite never sent me a referral. Total BS.

Why would you bill Safelite for an Enterprise vehicle? Why would you have a business call another business to give you work? That's like saying here call my competitor and lets see if they are kind enough to let me know my customer called.

Yes it's Guerrilla Marketing

http://www.creativeguerrillamarketing.com/guerrilla-marketing/122-must-see-guerilla-marketing-examples/

Can you tell me if I'm On the right track.

It would be wise to ask TPA
Which insurance policy option is being implemented at this time?
A total
B company is taking vehicle repairing and returning to customer
C Customer is allowed to choose shop and shop is too negotiate price with insurer.

Depending on their answer I could respond.
A. Are you representing customer or Insurance CO.
B. If the INSURER. Is the insurer choosing option B. Do you have written permission to negotiate for Insurer if so Email to XXXXXX
If No
B. Please give me the direct number to Insurance Company so I can negotiate with them Directly.
C. Why should I honor a contract I was not involved in making?


JMHNLO
TOTG tired of the game

56 views from this morning till 6:00
not one are you nuts
ya that's close
Keep thinking your getting warmer
Have a nice day YOUR FIRED
maybe you all read these at night.
OR well whatever
GEEEE cant figure out why the insurers keep winning and we keep
each other from working together. Don't want the other guy figuring out what might bring the whole industry up. NO NO can't have that!
Keep em barefoot and pregnant that way they will never have enough to fight with.
JMHO

Please stop using the term "gorilla" marketing, unless you have gorillas doing your marketing for you. The correct term is "guerilla" marketing. You make the auto glass industry look like monkeys when you keep using the term "gorilla" marketing.

I get alot of customers who have been unfortunate to have had delt with the nation wide company of hacks. When I see that a windshield is not original I try to find out if customer had w/s replaced and who did the job. If the answer is safelite I warn them of the possibility that no primer was used and that I often find lots of rust after cutting out the hacks job. Not to mention that I also point out all the other problems with the previous job. I carry pictures of the cars I've done behind these kids and show the rust I've had to repair. And the pictures of the one that was so bad the guy had to go to a body shop cause it was beyond repair.
One other thing,I had a customer a few days ago that needed a 1431 and said safelite came to there house started to cut the top out and stopped because they could see a little rust across the top of the pinchweld. They then put the truck back together and put a piece of tape across the top. So now you have broke loose the top bead and leave the vehicle unsafe to drive (like the jobs you do). And tell the customer you cant do the job cause of the rust. Well first of all the rust was very very minor and easy to repair and i was able to take care of customers truck. So if you're installers (note that I do not use the word technician) are out there hacking up cars causing them to rust,how in the world do you expect to have repeat customers if you can't deal with the problems you caused the last time you stuck it to em?

Makes ya wonder

Sharing info we provide customers if we are on job site and they need to report the claim. We also have a framed version on our counter in our office with similar info. Hope this helps someone...

YOUR INS COMPANY REQUIRES
YOU AS THE POLICYHOLDER CALL IN TO REPORT THE CLAIM.

Please call (800) __________ and tell them you have an appointment
scheduled with XXXXX Auto Glass. You need your policy # and date of loss.

Quick FACTS when reporting your Glass Claim to a 1-800 #

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE THE SHOP OF YOUR CHOICE!

*** You are NOT talking to your Insurance Company. ***

Usually you are talking to someone that works for Safelite Solutions
which is a division of foreign-owned Safelite Auto Glass.

During the phone call they may say things to try to manipulate you
into changing your mind about the shop you have chosen
and STEER you to one of their own shops.

XXXXX is a locally owned shop that is obviously
NOT part of their network of foreign-owned company shops.
They are our competitor and we do not approve of their business practices.

Manipulative comments they frequently make:
(REMEMBER THEY ARE NOT YOUR INS CO AND THESE COMMENTS ARE MEANT TO SWAY YOU)

…you may have an extra out-of-pocket expense if you use this shop.
(Absolutely not true!)
…the Glass Shop you have selected is not on our list of “approved shops”.
(They are not on ours either.)
…if you use a non-approved shop they won’t be able to warranty the work.
(Imagine that! Neither are we able to warranty their work.)

WE GUARANTEE OUR WORK FOR AS LONG AS YOU OWN YOUR VEHICLE
Since we are doing the work our warranty is the only one that matters.

XXXXXX Auto Glass has been serving this community since 1983.

THANK YOU for keeping your business local & in the USA!

If you still need help give me a call.

Rob Arnold
727.485.4281