Windshield Repair Forum

FYI
I was pleased to hear from (LR) Farmers Insurance now waives deductables and pays in all states except Indiana as of 10/28/04
Hehe, I forgot to ask what they pay!

They always have just in some states not to the people with a big deductible makes sence why pay for a chip when the deductible is higher than the cost of a replacement?

here in oklahoma they havent waived the deduct unless its less than 250. I wonder if thats changed with this?

Every area of the country is different when it comes to Farmers. I just sell farmers as a cash sale myself. If they call their agents they will 90% of the time recommend the customer just pay cash and not send a claim in.
David
Coitster

In my area, if the deductible is $150 or less OR if you have purchased a separate glass policy (aprox $10 a year) they will pay for up to 3 rock chips per claim.

From my rather vast experience I have found that if the deductible is under $150 or if they have their special glass waiver attached to their policy then repairs are free.
Farmers is without comparison the worst company to do business with. I suggest to ALL my Farmers customers that they change to Safeco, American Family, State Farm or even American Express insurance. They are usually all cheaper (except State Farm) and are MUCH MUCH easier to deal with in all claims.

I have had Farmer's Insurance since 1986 and have never had problems with them. I dont especially like that they dont waive all deductible, but I dont tell my clients to switch from them... I just suggest that they add the glass policy to their coverage. I had a client that I suggested that to, but she either didnt want to, or forgot... opps... she needed the windshield replaced after it got shattered... $500 deductible ... she has it now.

Well Farmers is awful on many fronts. I will start with when I used to own a Motorhome rental company with 75-90 units at any one time. As you can imagine there was frequent damage by renters and the majority of renters used their rental vehicle waiver off their policy to cover the rentals. The ONLY people we had problems with when try ing to collect on claims was Farmers, and it wasn't a single time it was multiple times. They just flat out refused payment on more than one occasion until we had to bill their insured. I started over 10 years ago telling people to switch from Farmers and have successfully switched many people. Now I get into windshiel repairs some years back and find that they not only are the worst company in handling rental damage claims but they also are heads and shoulders above the rest in making windshield repair claims difficult. Where most insurance companies encourage repair claims they discourage them due to their relationship with Safelite (aka the great satan). With Safelite Farmers pays $125 per claim to Safelite whether it is a replacement or a repair which means to Farmers they would rather have Safelite do a replacement than a repair because it costs them the same amount. Not only is the above the case but also they use a service that sends all their jobs straight to one company and harrasses the customers who want to use others (such as independent WSR guys like us). How many of us have lost a job to safelite? I know I have. Not only is all the above true but also they intentionally withold monies due to small companies such as us in hopes that we will go out of business so Safelite will get all the business(and I have documented proof of this by the way, I am far from a conspiracy theorist).

They are one of maybe 2 or 3 companies in the US that makes you purchase a seperate waiver to get windshield coverage... that is bad for the customer. They are one of a very few companies tat constantly refers to windshield repairs as claims with the intention of scaring the people away from doing the repair. For instance when you initiate a call with Farmers they ask the customer specifically if they would like to place a glass claim ... well who wants a CLAIM on their insurance? No one I know. They then mention 2 or 3 more times in the call that this is a claim being placed. They make it very difficult to explain to the person that it is not a "claim" per se but more of a preventative maintenance item that the insurance ocmpanies do to help keep costs down and therefore keep premiums down. The problem is for Farmers it doesn't keep costs down it costs them the same regardless of repair or repalce.

If you want to use Farmers as your insurance company it is certainly your choice but just pray that you will never have a serious claim with them as they do not pay well and would be much happier to get a lawsuit than pay out a claim as is proven by numerous stories and instances that I have personally experienced and heard.

p.s... I do not check my spelling and I transpose letters often so I hope you can decipher my garble

Does SGN charge $125 to all ins. companies for handling the claims for repairs?

I should have added, does the ins. company pay for the cost of the repair plus $125 to SGN