Below are 2 emails sent to my customer. The first confirming the inspection by Safelite. This inspection was done by Safelite.

Please see the 2nd email that is thanking the customer for choosing Safelite.

Now thats the funny part the customer has not changed shops or at least they think they havent. The apointment time is the same time I had job scheduled for. Problem is I dont have the refferal number and I now have to get customer back on phone and have them go through the steering pitch and get the claim back in my shop again.

This is way out of hand and some customers will not switch back or will not call me back. I can only guess what nice things Safelite is saying about my shop.

1st email

Inspection Information
>
> - Inspection Date: Wednesday, January 19, 2011
> - Inspection Time: 9:00 AM 12:00 PM
> - Shop Phone: (864) 458-3404
> - Shop: SAFELITE AUTOGLASS - GREENVILE,SC SER-CTU
> - Mobile Service Address:
> 415 N Pleasantburg Dr
> - City/State/Zip: GREENVILLE, SC 29607
>
> Vehicle Information
>
> - Inspection Area: 29607
> - Make/Model: TOYOTA COROLLA 2007
> - Inspection Type: Mobile
> - Glass: WINDSHIELD
>
> Please do not reply to this e-mail, as we are unable to read e-mails sent as
> replies. You received this e-mail because you recently contacted USAA GLASS
> PROGRAM for auto glass service. Your e-mail address and personal information
> will never be sold. USAA GLASS PROGRAM is serviced by the Safelite® Group
> family of companies, 2400 Farmers Drive, Columbus, Ohio 43235.
>

SAA
> Inspection Confirmation
> Thank you for contacting U S A A.
>
2nd email
> This e-mail serves as confirmation that a claim has been reported. You have
> requested service to be provided by SAFELITE AUTOGLASS.
>
> SAFELITE AUTOGLASS - GREENVILE,SC SER-CTU will inspect your 2007 TOYOTA
> COROLLA 4 DOOR SEDAN.
> You have the right to have your glass repaired at the shop of your choice.
>
> Should you need to change your appointment, please contact the shop at (864)
> 458-3404 Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM and Saturday from
> 8:00 AM to noon. For any other changes, please call 800 567-5568.. Please
> have your confirmation number XXXXX available when making the call.
>
> Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to serve you.
>
> Safelite Solutions
>

wow, so they chose your shop and Safelite emailed them to tell them that it was changed to themselves? lol

Tell me how this practice is legal?

I am sure most of you are like me and call the claim in with the customer AT YOUR SHOP.

Well, this happened to me several times in the past year:

We call the claim in, Safelite captures all the data, I get back on the line and the Safelite agent says "We cannot verify coverage at this time. We will fax the information as soon as we get coverage verified".

We already had the customer scheduled during that time for windshield replacement. I had already called the local agent and verified coverage. So while the customer is in the shop office she gets a call on her cellphone.
It went something like this: "This is ____ calling you back from Safelite Solutions, who is handling your glass claim. We can have an installer at your place of residence or business first thing in the morning to do the windshield replacement".

The customer tells them that we already took her windshield out. I get on the phone and talk to the CSR, who begins to tell me we are not supposed to perform work until coverage has been verified. I told the CSR that I called the local agent and already verified coverage! I explained to the customer their tricks and the customer was not so happy. She called her agent and let them know she did not appreciate their business practices at Safelite. And the funny thing is, I didnt get a faxed referral with verified coverage for 3 days!

The same thing happened with one of our trucking fleets. We had them scheduled to replace 3 windshields mobile the next afternoon. Claim went through Safelite. A Safelite installer shows up at 10am (coverage not yet verified of course) and the mechanic ran them off the lot!

They will do anything to get our business.

One of the Safelite installers in our area stopped at my shop one morning to shoot the breeze. He accidentally left his printout of installs for the day in my shop.....complete with customer names, phone numbers, deductables, etc. Man was I tempted!

Wow that was tempting
next....

SAFELITE AUTOGLASS - GREENVILE,SC SER-CTU will inspect your 2007 TOYOTA
> COROLLA 4 DOOR SEDAN.
>
You have the right to have your glass repaired at the shop of your choice.

"Counter Hmmmm":

"This e-mail serves as confirmation that a claim has been reported. You have
> requested service to be provided by SAFELITE AUTOGLASS."

Have to ask a question. What service, exactly, did the customer ("you" in the email) request of Safelite Autoglass?

Did he speak at ANY time to Safelite Autoglass? Or did he speak to Safelite Solutions, the TPA/Claims Processor for that insurer?

Hmmm...

Need more facts here.

JMHNLO

The customer NEVER spoke to Safelite Auto Glass. The customer called from our telephone to the 800 number for Safelite Solutions that acts as the TPA for USAA. My customer never requested Safelite Auto Glass for their replacement but when he told Safelite Solutions he wanted to use my shop he was then told he had to have the glass inspected. They took the information and then the email came later to my customer who then forwarded it to me. The email says in large print at the top Thank you for choosing Safelite Auto Glass.

If the tape of the call is pulled it is clear that the customer has reported the loss and has told Safelite Solutions that he has picked a shop of choice already.

The email from Safelite is steering and interference with my customer.

Yes they try and cover themselves by adding in small print at the bottom "you can choose the shop of your choice. but the customer has already done that!

I ask you this if the customer did choose Safelite Auto Glass do you think there would be an inspection? I would guess not.

If USAA really cared everything was legit, they would have another glass company perform inspections for jobs dispatached to Safelite, but we know they do not. If they really, really cared, they would just have their own adjustors look at them. It seems like this inspection idea came from Safelite, not the insurance companies. They just bought what Safelite was selling.

Safelite Auto Glass just completed inspection.

Inspector = Installer (New with company only 8 months)

Pushed customer to repair

Customer had a repair done to their glass before and picked up new damage/chip and wanted it replaced.

The conversation back and forth with Safelite Installer/inspector lasted for over 5 minutes. Inspector called Safelite/USAA and told them yes on damage but thought he could repair. Customer spoke with Safelite Solutions/USAA and said NO I want replacement.

Safelite Solutions said they needed to contact glass shop to dispatch work but they could not get through to my company (That is what they told my customer) my phones did not ring.

The customer was not given claim number and was told to have glass company call USAA=Safelite Solutions as the next step.

The Safelite Inspector/installer did have the glass on his van for the customers car.

We now will call Safelite Solutions get our claim number and replace windshield.

1.Tortious interference of business.- When false claims and accusations are made against a business or an individual's reputation in order to drive business away.
2.Tortious interference of contract.- When an individual uses "tort" (a wrongful act) to come in between two parties mutual contract.

How can this get any worse for regular glass shops? If you do not own a third party administration company that settles claims for insurers well, you are basically on the wrong end of tortious interference.

What I don't understand is this: with all the poor repairs that have been reported, with all the allegedly fraudulent claims reported (Hakimian, et al...), with all the proof of repair and replacement invoices being altered by third parties to a claim (against most State claims practices laws), when are insurers going to begin the practice of performing post repair inspections?

It seems to me that this would be the best time to inspect windshields. Unless of course, you are trying to create contempt for your insured's word when they are dutifully reporting their loss. I don't know of many (if any) policies that mandate an inspection to verify the loss is real and not imagined by the policyholder.

> Inspection Confirmation
> Thank you for contacting U S A A.
>
2nd email
> This e-mail serves as confirmation that a claim has been reported. You have
> requested service to be provided by SAFELITE AUTOGLASS.
>
> SAFELITE AUTOGLASS - GREENVILE,SC SER-CTU will inspect your 2007 TOYOTA
> COROLLA 4 DOOR SEDAN.
> You have the right to have your glass repaired at the shop of your choice.
>
> Should you need to change your appointment, please contact the shop at (864)
> 458-3404 Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM and Saturday from
> 8:00 AM to noon. For any other changes, please call 800 567-5568.. Please
> have your confirmation number XXXXX available when making the call.
>
> Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to serve you.
>
> Safelite Solutions

I hate to split hairs as much as I dislike SGC, but they did not schedule a repair only an inspection. That is why "you can choose the shop of your choice"is stated in writing. We all now how this will pan out! Would you like me to repair/replace it as long as I'm here? I learned a while back. There is a lot of difference between "legality and morality.........

LOL. Like I said.

You have the right to have your glass repaired at the shop of your choice.

Do you think there is anything less than a team of lawyers that oversee and guide the careful wording and carryout of this stuff? Are you really that naive?

what is the background to have expert inspect another expert work , THEY HAVE NONE ,WHO IS DOING SAFELITE INSPECTION / DIAMOND TRIUMPH ,CINDY ROWE? TOTAL SCAM!!!!!!!!

LMAO You really don’t know. It is all about the “Benjamins”. If USAA is going to pay, it is going to pay who it wants, what it wants.

Come on. You troughers didn’t think those who created your artificial business world wouldn’t do something about harvesters? Seriously? It was only matter of time. And now, everyone is paying a price.

And according to some, something worse is on the horizon. Something that will make even Belsafe squirm.

Welcome to the here and now.

I'm on the inside, and know more than all of you. Your attempts at making a livelihood for your selves and your families is laughable to me. Nothing is more self-satisfying than anonymously showing my vast superiority on the internet.

I am the Wizard of Oz. You can call me Wiz if you pliz. Welcome to the now and here. Ya hear?

Yes, I am a pompous a$$.

Welcome to the here and now.

Encourage all to set them up & let Safelite do the job. We are just dying to get one that needs to go to inspection.All our customers get well versed on there steering tactics.Most laugh when the calls go in to solutions & exactly what we tell them happens. We will sue there arses when it happens.Welcome to here & now.

Yea sure. They will punish you financially.

Hope it all works out for you...

Bring it on.Has been a goal to punish them for a long time. Good things happen to good people & good companies. Bad things happen to bad companies & people.There day will come it's scripture pal.

Uh Oh.

It's a bible beater. Now I understand your ignorance.

^ who are you? if God is for us, who can be against us?

didn't know God took interest in business that often, or is it that you speak on his behalf? or just make decisions for God based on your own interests? what now? gonna declare this to be a "holy war"; might as well find the first safelite installer you can, throw him in the back of your van and chop his head off with a long knife?! idiots.

then again religion is the opiate of the masses; so whatever makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside must be God's divine intervention. you one of those yahoos that protests military funerals too?

why even ask questions, you seem to know all the answers...

This is still an issue. Although it has slowed down a bit the moment we tell them our calls are being recorded for quality assurance. The moment they feel that there being recorded the phone calls to set up a repair becomes pretty flawless.

Thats why i never ever ever ever ever consider safelite solutions in my claims. I just get the policy # and send it in directly to USAA. Sure they will short pay me, fine with me. Well guess what my lawyer is right on it. And i will get my money sooner or later. At the end if they played nice it would be cheaper.

I would think this is grounds for a lawsuit also.

Does anyone inspect Safelites jobs??????

Well there you go. Unfair business practices could be one type of suite,

singling out independents for inspections when they do not practice the same

as everyone else.

Discrimination suit could possibly be another.

any feed back would be helpful.

I have heard that in Europe many auto insurance companies establish insurance plans not dissimilar to an HMO in the United States, where you can ONLY use their choice of repair shops. This isn't steering or Safelite Solutions recommending a Safelite AutoGlass shop, this is your insurer straight up saying "you will take your car to so and so for the repair."

The law would have to change a lot in the U.S. but if insurers sell it as cost saving like they have in the EU, they might be able to lobby for that kind of change. Not sure how that would impact Safelite since they're the preferred provider in many instances but the entire goal of such a change is to drive margins down.

I have opined on this topic many times.

First: I believe that IF insurers wanted to go there, they would have by now, after many decades.

Second: I believe they won't because they will accept liability for the repairs to do so, a major key factor they are repeatedly avoiding to date. Insurers are experts at mitigating risk, and they have repeatedly thrown the member repair shop under the liability bus when things go wrong.

Third: Even IF the laws were to change, this does not excuse the fact that, essentially, they've been delivering an HMO/PPO policy for decades, but that is NOT what they sold the insurance consumer. They sold an indemnification plan, then deliberately set into place a scheme to limit the amounts of the indemnification, via manipulation of a variety of data and rates and "agreements" and and and....ect ect. Changing the laws now won't make that go away, and lawsuits working their way through the system may expose all of it.

Fourth: Europe, and Canada, don't have the same laws we do, including anti-trust and RICO.

Fifth: "Cost Savings To Consumers" is a (cant help myself here...) "RED HERRING" that has NEVER BEEN PROVEN to save insurance consumers one thin dime. It HAS, on the other hand, scared many legislators, regulators, and politicians into letting insurers have their way.

Finally, many years ago, an association leader in Washington made a comment regarding "exposure" of what was then, and still is, current practices. His comment, that I have yet to forget, was "The key is to turn on the lights in the kitchen and watch the ****roaches run for cover".

More now than ever, the lights are on. And some are noticing the ****roaches.

Of course, as always, this is all Just My Honest Non-Legal Opinion.

I would have to say that's steering!!! Thanks USAA for giving all that money to a non American owned Company.... And thank you for standing Strong STATE FARM!!!!!

State Farm is the devil!!

And whom, exactly, owns Lynx? Now, or previous to Solera, whom were the investors that likely excercised control? Do you really, honestly, believe Solera to be, or will be, in the future, "better"? If so, for heaven's sake, WHY, and financially speaking from any TPA standpoint or viewpoint, HOW?

And what, exactly, is the difference in steering BY an non-foreign owned company vs a foreign owned company, if they are domestically owned?

And whom, exactly, is Lynx steering to? Member shops? Just like the foreign owned company does?

And in case you haven't noticed, Lynx does steer to Safelite over the local Lynx member shop, that I have both observed, and been shown via documentation. Whether the difference was strictly based on a "customized offer" or not should not matter, especially since I'm betting that the one that made the lower customized offer isn't actually a Lynx member shop, but a competing network.

Bottom line, I hope your comment regarding State Farm was intended to be in jest.

So long as any entity that is NOT party to the contract of repair excercises control over ANY aspect of the repairs, or the repair contract, that they are not legally party to, then, Mission Control, we've got a PROBLEM.

As always, JMHNLO.

I totally agree with Mark. Lynx and State Farm are two of the most agregious players in our industry. Lynx is worse than Safelite in that if you don't agree to their pricing they won't tell you who requested your shop, and they won't bring the customer on line for a three way call. I REFUSE to deal with them.

One must give State Farm credit for having a stand alone offer & acceptance agreement. Not that I would sign it, but at least, they are "negotiating" with shops on an individual basis unlike all the other insurers that use the networks established by the TPA's.

The network participation agreements are so onesided, I am surprised anyone signs them. If the truth were known, most shops only sign to keep from being referred to as less than "preferred".

By using the stand alone O&A, State Farm avoids the price fixing issue because the agreement is between one shop and State Farm. However, State Farm should explain how it is fair to offer less for chip repairs today than they did twenty years ago.

I would also like to hear their explanation as to how chip repairs are not covered in states other than Texas when their insurance policy clearly states that it is the policyholders duty to prevent further damage and that they WILL pay for the mitigation expenses incurred.