Effective October 19th 2005 State Farm Decided to not allow me to be on their O and A even though I was a member for 5 plus years. Now I need to prep customers for the Lynx script about warranty and price so I dont loose the job to steering. I also had 6 months of doing work and the customer getting paid directly that caused a collections issue(exactly what State Farm hoped for). I have dealt with rude State Farm employees who hold themselves above us and the law Shawn K. from State Farm who is a horses a-- is a perfect example of a employee who feels he is the judge and jury and is a tyrant. Well now I get a letter asking for recovery of payment for a job I installed over a year ago. I didnt get a call from the customer to fix it. I dont think i should refund State Farm because its my warranty not thiers and I have the right to correct the problem(wich i would have gladly done).If State Farm wants Lynx to read the script saying that warrantys are only from the shop then they cant have it both ways. What would you do?

WELL SAID JEFF They can't have there cake and eat too.

We have run into issue's like this...where the insurance company, just decides that what the customer says is right, and never gives us the option to try to fix the problem...(if there is even one...as ALOT of people today, just want things free). We've had the insurance companies even accuse us of damaging the vech, because the customer "said we did"...but it didn't even work before we started working on the vech.

If the work was done a year ago, and no one contacted you to allow you to try to fix the problem, and now your getting a letter stating they want the payment back, I would fight it. I'm not an attorney, but that doesn't seem right! Also, don't forget...this industry is not "right" either...it's corrupt! The other thing to note, is... did you have a signed contract with St. Farm at the time the work was done??? If so, you might have to pay the money back...not sure though. The other thing is, get an attorney to go over the info.

If your able to "get by" without doing work for them, do it. It all depends on where your located...how big your customer base is. We have several ins. co.'s we ABSOLUTELY won't do work for, due to the fact that they have screwed us in someway...not just because their rates are so low. We can't continue working for free...we have to protect ourselves!

We have ALOT of St.Farm customer's who are really mad about St. Farm, not paying the rock chip repairs anymore, as well as their denial of payment to other St.Farm insureds via what they have heard on the news. Majority are changing to different insurance companies.

I would definitely ask for proof from State Farm. They should be able to furnish you with The name and number of the company the insured went to. I would call that company to verify they even worked on the car and if they have any notes as to it being a warranty job from another shop.

A few years ago we had a customer bring a car in and said we had damaged it putting in a w/s-the top and hood had small fine scratches all over. State farm had an adjuster look at it and said "It was obvious that we had removed the w/s and then drug it over the hood and across the top of the car". The wanted me to pay them back for the damage they had already reinbursed their policyholder. I turned it over to my liability carrier and told them that there was no way we did this and they shouldn't pay. They didn't and that was end of it :)]

"It was obvious that we had removed the w/s and then drug it over the hood and across the top of the car"

You got to be kidding! That guy has watched too many episodes of CSI on TV.

Good grief.

I had a customer once do something similar. Explained how we scratched the hood of his car up, even though he'd signed the pre-work inspection form noting the scratches. It was amusing watching him sort of show me how we drug the windshield over his hood.

Remember the old 1067 Buicks where the hood folded forward? When I opened the hood, and explained to the customer that we worked on the car with the hood open, he asked me why I was being stubborn, that my insurance would pay for his new paint job anyway. It didn't happen.

hay mark,

that is a great idea for building a loyal customer base, let my insurance paint their cars. ha ha

we had a customer tell us her dash lights didn't work any more after we had removed the dash to put in the windshield.

Here is two good ones for you.
1. We installed a right rear door glass(manual crank) in a sedan. Customer never left our driveway but claimed their spedometer no longer worked. I explained to them that you have to go over 5 or 10mph for it to move and that neither us or him had done that in our parking lot. Anyway he said he had a mechanic that could fix it and it wouldn't cost very much. I told him the only way I would fix it was if he took it to a GM dealership and they stated in writing how we broke it. Any way turned out the cable was broke and they showed him while it was on the lift that even if we wanted to damage it on purpose we could not have done it in the time we put the glass in WHILE HE WAS WAITING.

2. Pulled a finished car around customer immediately walked around to passenger door and got down on their knees to find a scratch and stated that we scratched their car they had just had painted. We had put in a W/S and did not note that scratch on the prework. Never could see it until we got down on at least one knee. Since it was not on prework I ask them where they had just had it painted they could not remember the name but tried to explain to me where it was. I finally figured out who they were talking about and said the name. Customer says yeah that is it. I then laughed and said just painted huh? They moved to such and such address over two years ago!!!

Jeff,
We also fell victim to Shawn at Satefarm. I tried to stand up to him and defend my shop with the many lies he made up about us. The only way this SOB could fight was by removing our shop. We have now been off for 1 year and I have never been happier. I have some contacts and strategies that will help you. E-mail me at Shelly@pop.halcyon.com and I will share this info with you.