State Farm To Announce Change In Deductible Handling in 5 States

[StarQuest]

Glassgod,

I may be wrong but I think what Clyde was trying to say... is that State Farm wants windshield repair to be accepted as normal vehicle maintenance (i.e. normal tire and brake pad wear) which is not currently covered by insurance.

[repare-brise]

Your plight may not be as bad as it seems, I have been working on a type of reform programme to present to insurance co's here in Quebec once I have enough technicians to cover the province. It is in the goal of getting more work for my franchisee's, reducing insurance costs, reducing claims for the insurance co's. I have support from a few large insurance brokerage firms, and we are doing tests in a few towns for a local only insurace co-operative,Feel free to present it to your insurance co's in the states, you never know it might work for you as well, here is the big picture

- Only WS repair techs are approved to do repairs, not replacement shops
- To be an elegable WS repair tech you must not do replacements(in other words no conflict of interest)
- Replacement can only be performed once an approval number has been given by the ins co. The approval number will only be given once a WS repair tech has prononced the WS non repairable. The ws repair tech will advise the ins co of the dammage, a fee of $20 will be sutracted from the WS replacement shops bill and forwarded to the S repair tech.
- WS repair will no longer be considered a claim(it is generaly not, but if a person abuses then non-claims do become claims) if the customer has less than 3 per year, at the 4th ws repair claim, the customer is cited with one claim in there file.
- If the customer refuses repair when tech deams it to be repairable, they repalce the WS at there cost, no insurance involvement.
- Ws repair techs must provide a lifetime warrenty on there repairs
Curently in Quebec 78% of glass claims are for repalcement, we are aiming for 25% repalcement and 75% repair(this would save the ins co's about $170,000,000 in Quebec alone).
- Brokers would not be penalized for repairs either, currently the ins co's treat a repair claim like a full claim, and the broker is penalized.
- Repair techs must pass a written and practical test to be acredited by the ins co(no cost to the tech if he passes the test), only acredited techs will be authorized to do the repairs. Techs must be insured(liability), bonded, and incorperated(I believe you call it a limited liability company).

A scheme like this could also work in the US(should work better since you guy's have more WS repair only techs on the road). It promotes repairs, reduces the chance of bad repairs(testing, certification, incorperation), and eliminates the present situation of conflict of interest with replacement shops.

Merci

[StarQuest]

Iyvan,

I have to admit, after reading your proposed WSR insurance plan I'm at a total loss for words. You kidding with us...aren't you???

[Bois]

Wouldn't it be nice. $20 for every inspection plus the usual fee for doing a repair. Bet the replacement folks would up and riot.

Dale...

[repare-brise]

No
I am not kidding, and yes the replacement folks are not concidering me for there Christmas card list, but the insurance co's realy, realy like me.

Merci

[cwrepair]

Brian, I agree with what you siad 110%! Thats exactly whats going to happen!

[repare-brise]

Dale

Sorry, I read your post too quickly, and I may have not epressed myself properly in my earlier post. The inspection fee only applies when the WS is not repairable. It was negotiated with the ins co, in order to have a way of tracking claims. It it not only an inspection fee, but a referal fee in a sense, we also have to fax the ins co with the info about the repair so that the customer can have the WS repalced, without our authorization, no repalcement is authorized. This just takes away $20 from the replacement shop(heck they pay the dedutable($250 max), give airmiles, and a free dinner with every replacement, they can afford $20) who already makes a huge profit on the backs of the insurance co's(who just pass the extra costs on to the customers)

The co-op insurance co that is going with our plan is sending a letter to all there customers with our info and the new way of operating. They are also explaning to there customers(members) the potential cost savings, and saftey increase(original WS is always better than a repalcement). I have also negotiated an exclusivity agreement(it helps to be the only repair only company in there region) with the co-op, in exchange for exclusivity I have reduced my price from $80 per repair(the normal ins co repair price) to $65. per repair + $10 for an additional repair on the same WS. The trial period is for 1year, with evaluations every 3 months.

So far the local replacements shops have not reacted publicly(or in any way to the co-op), but around here they are too busy installing alarms, remote starters, and radio's to notice.

Merci

[Delta Kits]

This thread is about State Farm. Let's keep it on track.

Thanks.

[Repair1]

I knew this one was going to get intresting.... I think I was told a week ago I was going off the deep end over this mmm.... Over all I think all will be ok...

Happy Repairing
Brian

[dgarza]

well to me this is the end of the world! about 80% of my work comes from state farm insureds and I can tell you about 90% of those would not have the repair done if they had to pay for it! State Farm has always been the easiest to work with and the fastest paying but I guess that had to end sometime. All I can say now is THANKS A LOT STATE FARM, I HOPE YOU ROT IN HELL!!!!