Shame...Shame..Shame

[mrchip]

yesterday I called head man on ins network to check on my profile and to see if we could send more work my way..we got into a lot of discussion and come to find out the guy getting all the work..his last 25 jobs ..was charging for 3 repairs on all of them!!!!..thats baloney!!...he's faking repairs to get as much as possible..what say you...

[tooldini]

There is NO way he had 25 in a row with 3 chip repairs LOL , He is probably finding little nicks out of the surface glass and telling customers they need repaired. Any car on the road has tons of those. he should be stopped from doing this. They will catch on soon and stop the referrals to him.

Jeff

[maxryde]

How about FRAUD!! The guy is a moron to do that kind of thing. It will catch up with him if that is indeed what is going on.

[StarQuest]

I'm sure this could be resolved if insurance networks simply provided a few follow up calls to customers whenever somebody looks or smells fraudulent. Will this ever happen? IMHO, probably not. I often wondered at times if networks themselves make additional profit on additional hits? If so, that explains the lack of policing. It wouldn't be profitable enough to go after these guys.

Personally, I will alway's call back for additional chip authorization only to be told many times by CSR's, it's not necessary and I have up to 3 chips to bill! Unfortunately, this also opens the door to the few "dishonest" W/S repair individuals.


Will they get caught? Maybe a few will but what's worse....is the negative effect it has on the majority that are always truthful.

Just one bad local mobile W/R press release issued in your area and every insured becomes skeptical of WSR!

What would I do in your situation? First I'd ask the network to place this guy under the radar and to provide you with some verbal or email feedback. Second, I'd find a close family member or friend to utilize his service and see if this guy is really being legit or not!

Good Luck Buddy,

[Shepard]

This is messed up. I have owned a few businesses in my day, and windshield repair has the highest profit margin by far... no need to be dishonest. It is true that I often find 1/2 moon bullseyes that the customer missed, but 25 in a row at 3-each does seem just a little suspicious, huh?

Have ya'll noticed a trend of companies going to flat rates? USAA is one, and of course it is frusterating to repair 7 chips on a windshield when I only get paid for 3 or 4 .... but it certainly doesn't give me the right to "make it up" on the next guy!

[tooldini]

Harmon told me today they are gonna audit techs to see what is going on. I was asked by them today about how many multiple chip repairs I got on average. I told them probably 1 in 8 sometimes less. I always look over a customers shield to check for more and always see tons of little nicks but no threat of cracking ever, they don't need repaired. It is techs like this that will end up changing the ways things go down with insurance referrals.

Jeff

[Glasseye]

This type of fraud happened in the UK a few years ago. The company concerned had to reimburse approximately a Million pounds back to the Insurance companies and most of the executive board were sacked. Insurance companies will check, even to the point of setting up " check cars" BE WARNED!!!!

[SGT]

Three repairs(actual fractures) certainly possible but for 25 jobs in a row... well probably not. It is a shame that there are shops out there that our taking advantage of the system. Not sure how they are allowed to get away with it. Anytime I have a customer that has more damage than what was reported, I was always under the impression you had to call the network for approval for additionals and they always want to talk to the customer to verify. I have had repeat customers tell me that the network followed up with them to make sure they were serviced professionally. How certain shops get away with this is beyond me unless they are one of the networks shops.

I give up on trying to figure out networks. I have to remind myself that we signed on to offer our own clients this option of billing. That does not mean it is not frustrating for sure. We use them to best serve our customers and try to control how they use us(sending us on work that has been poorly pre-qualified, sending on wild goose chases etc...)

Just yesterday, I had a referral come in from lynx for a SF customer. The CSR said the client needed an actual appt. time since the previous replacement shop could not give him a time and had him waiting all day. This customer was right in my back yard. I asked her why she did not just call us first and told her to think of us more often. Anyway come to find out from the client that before they finally gave us the job they tried to get this client to drive about 20 min. away to get it fixed at a second replacement shop. In the end, we got the scraps, did the job, left cards and I will get the direct call next time for the customer.

I have novels worth of stories on the scraps they send us independents. Some good though. Bottom line for me is find your own work and what the send is just gravy.

[mrchip]

yes ins work is just a small piece of the pie..it takes a variety of sources to stay in business..it was harmon that i spoke to and the guy that was getting all the jobs was high on their list because he covered a wide area..like 7 counties...and by charging for all those extra hits he probably used that to justify for gas and time..he will be looked at by harmon..one thing that might happen in near future is sending a picture of damage via camera phone e mail....I have talked to other techs at various times and they told me they charged for extra hits to make it more worthwhile.. if you can't play by the rules you shouldn't play...

[tooldini]

I agree Mr Chip I have actually called and cancelled a second repair because I didn't feel it was worthy of a repair. You are screwing the customer if you use up their 3 repairs on things that are not worth repairing.

Jeff