Windshield Repair Forum

The new Apartheid. (steering)
Segregation. That indeed is a bad thing, this day in age there should be no place for any segregation. Period.
Many believe that those segregation days are over, if you’re one of them, I have to wake you up from your innocent beauty sleep. Others, very much detailled in the know as they are actively involved, appear to be blind and do nothing to end all this. They indeed should open their eyes and look. Segregation came to our trade and is there to stay if we do not all raise our voices and act against it. Our auto glass repair and replacement community is clearly separated in two parties; the fortunate vendors participating in the steering program, and the less fortunate that not. The fortunate get almost all the work, and the others are just fighting each other, so to speak, for the left overs. Every once in a while insurers and networks throw a bone their way, and the less fortunate will probably even say ‘’thank you sir’’. The few fortunate understandably so really enjoy their current very comfortable and easy position and simply neglect any signs from ‘the others’ while the insurance companies, responsible for the current situation, well, they ignore it too and just look the other way. They probably think ‘’if it aint broke, don’t fix it’’. Wrong! Many things need a fix, not just a quick fix, but a very thourough fix.

Dear insurers; what has happened to your care for the community you are continiously claiming to be so proud of?
And what has happened to your corporate responsibillity and environmental green promisses you are whenever and wherever possible proudly like to refer to? Is it just a marketing thing...or is it for real?
Why aren’t you guys distributing the jobs in a more evenly, ethical and honest way? Why is it that Repair Only guys are not taken serious? It is so easy to change the systems and infra structure you are currently using, it can be implemented in just a matter of days, yet, nothing possitive appears to be happening. With the economy as it is today, you could do with huge savings realized by a significant higher repair ratio, it indeed would save you many, many millions. And the good news is that many, many professional, service minded, honest and hard working people in our trade are willing and prepared to start helping you saving money today. Who in the right mind would not support this?
The steering as it is executed today, in its current format, has had it’s best time and it is time to move on and improve things for the better. Steering as we know it today is a very bad thing, it is a lethal poison to our trade because it closes too many out. The new Apartheid has arrived!

Some of the above was very much, on purpose, a ‘them versus us’ thing. It may even be too spicy to some, but it has gotten your attention because you’re still reading. Of course we all realize that we cannot do without installers, there will always be a need for them. And although I admit that I usually do not care all that much for installers, it must be said that the steering problem also affects many installers, and in many situations to no fault of their own.
The other Apartheid ended, so should this new form of Apartheid. It appears that nobody else is taking care of our problems and I regret to say that the NWRA isn’t communicating anything about this recently.
We should, in a civilized fashion, openly discuss the various isseus with the insurers. It shouldn’t be all that complicated. Considering the many posts here on the forum, there should be people who would be willing to offer their help. Wouldn’t it be good to, as a first step, establish a group of people from our industry to open discussions?
What do you guys think? Let’s talk!

as a repair only guy also i whole heartly agree with you. is that why in 3 years i have had a total of maybe 4 calls from sgc and 3 were for replacement a one a previously repaired (store bought) repiar
paul

if you worry to much about the nickel you won't see the dime coming in.
jc penny

Not to be the t%#d in the punch bowl but when a company is contracted to do a service it is only natural that they try to keep as much as they can and keep the sub contracting to a minimum
Try telling you HMO you want to go to a doctor not on their list see if they try to steer you into the direction of one of their providers It is a fact of life I choose to work around it as much as possible and don't give it a moments thought why stress what you can not change?
My feeling is if I go out and find work and don't count on any referrals when one shows up it is a bonus The feeling that somehow one is entitled to a certain number of jobs from referrals doesn't fly with me
I can be found complaining about why my team didn't make the spread once in awhile though LOL
Positive thoughts bring Positive results

The problem that many of us have with these TPA's is that they are both an administrator and a repair facility. This flies against the principal that the client has the right to have his repair/replacement done by one of his own choosing. Steering conflicts with this principle...The steering TPA maintains his own list of approved shops which consists of those within his own organization.

Obviously you are a member of one of those TPA's as you espouse exactly what they are doing. Hopefully some day honesty will again be paramount in the glass industry and laws agains the current practice will be enacted and enforced.

I am in rural MS....People here are hesitant to get windshields replaced......why because next week the new windshield will be cracked. Many log trucks are on roads here....rural area roads are not properly maintained etc....so their attitude is why get a new windshield?????So an active repair guy can do pretty good.... Perfect example...before i got into repair my wife got a new car....1st month ws was cracked......immediately got a new one....within 1 month a nice chip....had it repaired within 6 months a new bullseye that cracked out along the bottom before the ws repair guy came.......a new ws was installed.......now
it already has a crack about 12 inches across bottom....I have repaired this crack!!! anyway my point is I feel like alot of people have seen this so it is no longer a priorty to replace scince It will be cracked again very soon..........That is what I have seen in this part of the country....I estimate 65 percent of vehicles at least a year old have cracked ws.......

I'm just a solo independent guy not part of some nefarious secret group looking to take over the Windshield World that said a bigger company has contracted to handle the work of insurance companies they owe us nothing fortunately for us they allow the customer to use us rather than the Demon
Control your customer and control the sales process and nothing gets steered away from you count on 0 referrals from the giant and be happy when they do send you some work Go out and find your own work and get paid its pretty simple You can sit around complaining that Walmart has moved into your neighborhood and your store will be out of business or you can figure out how to make it a positive and make some money
There is no boogeyman under the bed now go to sleep

Can I ask how many insurers in the USA pay the repair person directly when invoiced. A lot of the lads insurers over here are refusing to pay many techs directly or at all. Now that is steering.

Screenman, I have never had an insurance co that would not pay me directly. In fact, I believe they would rather pay the repairer. I have on many occassions billed the customer, clearly marked "paid by customer" on the invoice, crossed out the line on my invoice that says "pay directly to shop" and they still send payment to me, then I have to reimburse the customer.

I used to do all direct billing but my experience was not one of ease. That is not to say it cant be done as it did work for me and I was paid full retail. Just be aware that there is a trade off... your valuble time and lots of aggravation to stay on top of it. Most of the time insurance would forward the bill on to the network for payment anyway despite a letter I had with very specific language. Then I would deal with short pays, supplement payments to make up for the short pays, and long overdue pays and it goes on. All this took many follow ups for the extra money. As I learned, do something more productive with your time. Sure sometimes(rarely) if I had a little non national insurance company that did not use a network to handle the glass claims it was no trouble and payment was quick. Im my area most are insured by big national or multi state insurance companies who use a network to handle the claims so it was not easy to direct bill.

I joined the networks to make life easier for those insurance jobs, try to cut down on steering and just another option for the customer. I always try to sell cash first whether they send the invoice in for reimbursment or not is up to the customer, if they want to use insurance well I can offer that as well, if it is a referral job I always talk with the customer to make sure the CSR truely advised them correctly and answer any questions they might have. I them make the decision if they still want to go through insurance at that point.

I am a small repair only part timer who did direct billing on a small scale and it was aggravating, I cannot imagine someone who is doing anykind of volume doing direct billing unless you have staff to deal with payments. I certainly am not suggesting you should not direct bill if that is what you want. I am just merely providing my real world experience not so much for the the old timers but the new person just starting out.

Sorry if I went off topic but I saw the whole direct billing issue popping up.

Brian, I certainly value your input re the direct billing and Screenman indeed asked the right question since both replies are very related to the steering subject. We indeed do have staff to deal with the direct billing here in the European office and yes, it is in many occasions an aggrevation to deal with -and the situation is step by step getting worse. Why? Steering! You will be getting more info in another post.