Posted On: August 25, 2004, 10:55 am CDT

Posted By: Tom

Why is it that everyone puts down the free offer as something you pay for,illegal,unfair, etc. This is completely innaccurate. A marketing co-op is an advantages agreemant for two parties to share advertising dollars. Free dinners,carwashes, or widgets are offered by the company in the ad to the glass consumer as an incentive with no added cost. The Glass shop, Transmission outfit, or Oil change business that is going to spend advertising dollars anyway finds a way to offset cost or value-add to thier consumer. This is much the same as Geico saving 15% by sitting a gecko in the seat an agent used to occupy. Or the toy in the cereal. There is nothing unfair about it except it makes those without the resources to fight it upset. What better way to get around network steering than a direct to consumer advertising blitz that states come to me and I will offer safety AGRRS cert NGA cert and yes I will charge more than cash to offset my costs.
This brings me to a new focus. Cash. The cash segment is a much smaller segment of business. When I give a deeper discount to a smaller segment of my business (cash) because I do not have to sit on hold and wait for dispatches and reference numbers listening to a safelite rep try to steal my business it is my business not the insurance company's. If you do not have time to check every invoice then hire more people do not expect me to pay for it. An insurance company gets charged more than cash because they make us spend more time dealing on the phone and less time installing glass.