Last week,
River City Auto Body introduced you to the topic of steering: When an insurance
carrier ‘suggests’ you use a certain repair shop for your covered auto. It’s
worth repeating: Your insurer may suggest, but cannot require, you have
your car repaired at a specific auto repair shop. After an accident, you are under no obligation to take
your vehicle to the shop of their choosing. In order to help YOU stay in
control, here are a six tactics you might hear from an agent
or appraiser (neither of which are auto repair pros – they’re doing their jobs
as employees of the insurer):
1.
"We
can't give you a rental if you go to River City." If you have rental
reimbursement on your policy, take advantage of it. If you are hit by someone
else, they have to put you into a rental.
2.
"River
City Auto Body won't agree with our appraiser." Shops that often ‘agree’
with appraisers are trying to remain friendly with the insurance
companies. YOU are the customer.
3.
"They
are not on our preferred list." ‘Preferred’ can mean the insurance company
trusts the quality of the shop – and we’ve earned that status with many
companies. Preferred also may mean the shop has signed an agreement to
pre-negotiate your repairs by giving the insurer discounts, using inferior
parts, and possibly not doing all necessary processes to repair your vehicle
properly. In those cases, it sounds sketchy, and in fact the insurer is
the customer, not you.
4.
"If
you go to a non-preferred shop your repair will be delayed waiting for our
adjuster to inspect the vehicle." Delays are a scare tactic.
Most state insurance regulations require insurers to respond within a
reasonable amount of time.
5.
"If you go to our shop we can pay
them directly and it will be faster." It is your money, the check should
be written to you!
The sixth one is an odd but common
tactic: "We won't warranty the repair if you go there." Ask the
insurer for a copy of said ‘warranty’ and ask who will do the re-repairs. Insurers
don't actually repair anything. So they can’t do warranty repairs. More on
repair warranties and River City Auto Body’s guarantee in next week’s article.
Photo by Monkeybusiness,
used with permission.
No comments:
Post a Comment