State Farm Insurance problems

[DaveC]

Nelson,

I do believe that most everybody that does insurance-retail work and direct bills has run into this and there seems to be no magical way to stop the steering. In TN, there are presently no anti-steering laws but many states do have them. Even if you attempt to sue, you would probably be long gone by the time any settlement were to be reached;)

Generally, customers don't realize that when they call their insurance company to report a glass claim, that their call is more than likely routed to a network call center. So, the average cutomer would but assume that they are being told the "official" insurance company policy regarding their repair and to do other than recommended, their claim may go unpaid.

Naturally, WE know better, but that doesn't help us if the insured is sucessfully steered.

What to do?

Well, short of the universe imploding and re-generating itself in our favor, we need to actively monitor our customers' calls to their "claims" departments. Unless you absolutely trust the customer and have fully explained the "steering" concept and are sure that they will avoid such steering, NEVER let them call in their claim without your being present. Make sure your cell has a speaker or that you conference the call and be prepared to "jump in" at first signs of steering attempts. Remember, these call center operators are essentially nothing more than telemarketers reading from a script, so you may have to demand to speak to a supervisor and threaten to report their activities to every possible Federal and State agencies you can think of. Eventually, yoou will receive your claim/referral number:)

Is it fair? NO!
Is it legal? Not in many states!
Should we have to put up with it? NO!

But, it will continue to happen so long as the insurance companies and networks have the money to lobby the politicians and pay the attorneys.

On the brite side, even with this inconvenience, not too many businesses operate in the 80%+ profit tier;)

[StarQuest]

Nelson,

Dave brings up a valid point on how to counter any steering problems when getting authorization aproval. When I call in with customer present I always put my cell phone on speaker mode. If at any time during this conversation I hear the insurance representive trying to use steer tactics I will imediately intervene and explain that their insured has already chosen me to provide the service and to just give me my authorization. This stops them dead in their tracks. If they continue to try and sway the insured away from me I then demand to talk with a senior call center manager. 99.9% of the time it never goes that far. They may huff and puff for awhile but will never blow my house down and I'll still get my get my authorization #. Try this next time.

One other thing, it really helps prior to making this call to pre-educate the customer as what to expect and how to answer questions regarding their claim. It helps provide the insured with total confidence and absolute control as to who they want doing this repair.

Good luck.....and don't give up

[dgarza]

hey star qwest,
what kind of phone do you have? mine is a nokia 3586i. I didnt know cell phones had speakerphone capability.

[StarQuest]

Dargaza,

It's a Kyocera smartphone through Verizon. A little bulky but it also has palm reader built in so I can also takes daily notes and info. Not to mention recording cabability to use for these insurance calls.

[GlassMasters]

I use Act they call get an aproval stay online to stop the your not on our list steer and send the customer a bill with a SASE stae farm sends the customer the check custopmer signs it puts it in SASE and its done. Unfortunatly this way involves alot of trust on your part that the customer will send the check back rather than cashing it.

So if I understand this correctly, with State Farm -and other than collecting from the customer up front and providing them with a receipt- even if you have proof of business liability insurance and go through ACT, you STILL have to bill the customer and wait for them to get a check and then HOPE that they send it to you?

[DaveC]

I don't believe so.

When you receive your ACT signup package, they provide you with instructions and documents required for StateFarm and Allstate. I believe that once the docs are approved and you have completed your telephonic interviews, that you will then be an "approved" repair shop.

Else, if you fail to complete the process, you're stuck with the SASE deal;)

[Scott Tyner]

I'm curious to know if a great deal of other repair techs are having this problem with State Farm. I have always had this problem with SAFELITE, but never LYNX.

But just last week I had my first such problem encounter with State Farm and LYNX (who handles State Farm claims). I was told by the customer when she got off the phone that they were trying to get her to use another company.

I was very surprised since I am signed up with State Farm and have never encountered any problems before this.

I agree with Dave about trying to get the customer to wait to call in the claim until you are present. I usually tell the customer to wait since the Insurance Company might want to talk to me to verify the claim. So, even though the network might try and steer the customer, with me present it's never happened so far.

Scott

[Nelson]

Scott

This is what happened to me. Maybe State Farm is changing the way they do the telephone scripts and want to send the customer somewhere that they have a vested interest in.

[Scott Tyner]

Hopefully we are not seeing a trend with the Insurance Companies who use Lynx to handle their claims. I've only had problems with the Insurance Companies who are using Safelite to handle their claims.

I've never encountered this before with Lynx. They've always been very polite and friendly. My customers have never reported any hassles until now.

I'd be very interested in learning if others are starting to also have problems with State Farm or any other insurance companies that use Lynx to handle their claims.

Scott

[dgarza]

I think if enough of us sent letters to them asking why they are doing this to us then maybe they will address it?