Mercury Insurance - WUZ UP ?

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dentmedic
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Post by dentmedic »

Repaired my first Mercury Insurance clients windshield today and what a hassle.

They would not speak to their customer on my cell phone per company policy and said that would need to call in from her home phone. I told them no, she was at work and that was had to be acceptable and they changed their tune and agreed to speak to her from her wk phone.

Once she called them Mercury said that only Allstar Glass was authorized to direct bill Mercury and that a claims agent would be calling to schedule an appointment. She said "no, the glass company is here and bills industry competitive rates so I want them to do it"

Hopefully Mercury will reimburse her.

IS the above normal and or legal....WAZ UP?

Jason
Dent Medics
StarQuest

Post by StarQuest »

Jason,

Personally, I've never had that situation occur. Were you speaking to a network third party administrator on the phone or directly with a Mercury insurance agent? I think I would have been asking to talk with a senior representitive or manager for some serious explanation as to their steering tactics.

Just wait till DesertStars reads this one!
Coitster
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Post by Coitster »

This is a great post. I have personal done lots of work for mercury. I am not on their network. Yes they do try to steer the customer. You do not need to collect from the customer and then have them reinbursed. What I do is tell the customer to sign my form and I send it into mercury, they have never failed to pay me directly. You don't have to listen to the person on the other end of the phone. That paticular technique that was used on you is just one of the ones they use to help steer customers. Don't fall for it. :wink: Continue to direct bill them.
David
Coitster
Glass
Repair1

Post by Repair1 »

I usually give the customer a little card with the number for them to call, school them a bit :shock: and go to work let them go in there office and get the information needed usually I will have the fax sitting waiting for me. Although I must say I personally have never billed out a Mercury ins. Here? Sounds like a local company I deal with here has that one network handling there claims. :twisted:

Your right Coitster, DesertStars will light this one up
desertstars

dark, cold and wet repairs

Post by desertstars »

Ouch.

In deference to Jeff, I wouldn't touch this one with a vaccinated crowbar.

Good thing I don't have a few brews in me right now.

I will say ONE thing, though.

I wish me, myself, and I had been the one(s) talking to Mercury. They would have gotten an earful of invective pounded in with a railroad spike impelled by a sledge-hammer.
glassdoctor
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Knowing & understanding your prospects & competition

Post by glassdoctor »

Coitster, do you send in just the invoice with a signature, or do you send a letter or other documentation of some sort along with it?


Thanks.
Coitster
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Post by Coitster »

Actualy,
I just get their fax number to the claims department and I send it in. Thats all, it may take a while to get paid for the job but by law they have to pay you. They can't deny the claim just because you didn't collect from the customer. If you offer a service that they normaly cover with any other company in the country which you do, they have no leg to stand on in regards to turn it down.

Special note though: What they can do is take your claim and send the check to the customer made out the them if they want to be pissy about it. Just let your customer know that in the even that happens to just endorse the check over to you and mail it to you. They have never done that to me, but I have had that kind of thing happen before, although almost never turns out that way. Hope that helps.
David
Coitster
Glass
StarQuest

Post by StarQuest »

David,

Funny you should mention the situation with the insurance company sending a check made out to the customer for the repair. It's never occured with my WSR business but it has happened to me twice before with Harmon glass networks for replacement! Think it had something to do with the class action law suit I was involved in as a franchise glass shop against them :wink: Needless to say, I lost some money on that one!
Michigan didn't have any anti steering laws in the books to prove our case.

Fortunately for me, they were loyal customers and just signed over the check.
Coitster
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Post by Coitster »

I may be wrong,
but if I am not mistaken there are some federal laws in place concerning customer rights that this might fall under. I am no attorney but I would think this would fall under customer rights issue.
David
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Glass
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vidales
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Post by vidales »

ive done lots of mercury jobs and i have not had a problem with them . but then i go through A.C.T. i get my money in about 2 to 3 weeks. they are one of my best ins. co. to deal with.
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