Steering a policyholder towards a certain shop is illegal. The mentioned company is taking over more and more Glass shops by the day aiming to monopolize the industry…
I don’t care for that at all.
This is part of the trend we have begun to witness where an inevitable breakdown of “Preferred Vendor Lists” is occurring in the insurance claims industry.
Perhaps Obama can get all of us free glass coverage. Why don’t we let the Obama administration take over the regulation of glass insurance just as they have done with health insurance. Nobody should be denied a piece of glass!
In the interest of Consumer and Business Privacy and Protection, S Carolina should amend their insurance laws to restrict any auto insurance company doing business in the State from contracting with a Third Party claims Administrator that is affiliated with either an auto parts manufacturer or an auto repair facility due to the inherant conflict of interest. Allowing it as in the current situation requires unaffiliated repair shops (the majority in this case)to divulge proprietary customer information to their direct competitor as well as having to receive payments from a direct competitor.
From a consumer standpoint, I for sure would not want my personal information being sent to my chosen shops competitor.
Safelite gets to negotiate prices but then the majority of repair shops are expected to fall in line without having a chance to do the same. Since many independent repair facilities have much less overhead chances are that claims costs would actually decrease without Safelite as the TPA. In order to become an approved member of the Safelite network, independent shops are expected to sign a 14 page document that is one-sided and takes away many business owner rights. Do the right thing and pass the legislation.
The business tactics that Safelite has enacted are not unique to South Carolina. This is the model they have adopted across the United States. We find it interesting that Safelite Solutions is paid by the insurance companies to act as a 3rd party administrator for glass claims and then, in many cases, turns the work over to Safelite Auto Glass (their own shops) to perform. Keep in mind that in they also tend to use their own glass in these replacements. Isn’t it interesting to know that they control a percentage of manufacturing, glass claims for 18 of the top 30 property and casualty insurance companies in the United States, and the actual work being conducted…many times at a cost higher than the local, reputable, certified and warrantied shops in your area. They are attempting to eliminate consumer choice and that is not American. Then again, they are not an American company.
I work at Safelite in the referral center taking claims etc. To say they dont have a choice is simply not true. Ins are given many opportunities to choose whatever shop they want. I cannot tell you how many times people actually give heavy praise on how streamlined and easy the process was by offering the shop, then doing the scheduling for them. Now, all the person has to say is ” I want to use this shop” which immediately removes any scripting to offer a Safelite shop. And in almost ALL scripting, even when they dont have a preference of shop, we dont say Safelite, we simply say basically “if you dont have a shop of preference we can offer one”. Obviously each ins parent has different scripting for this. But when I hear all this whining about how unfair it is, its overblown.
Its depends on the csr… some csr’s will steer towards Safelite. If they don’t know a glass shop representative is present, they will ask “Would you like to let Safelite do the work??” I dealt with it with Geico. It wasn’t a problem for me, it just makes it seem like Safelite is their only option, because it’s the only 1 they mention.
“Brian DiMasi, senior corporate counsel for Safelite. “Claims costs will rise, warranty claims will rise, and customer complaints will rise. All of this affects insurance premiums, and issue South Carolina has worked hard to address.””
So Safelite has the market cornered on quality and safety???? No one else can do a repair or replacement as well as them?? Give your heads a shake Safelite!! There are a lot of companies out there who do better repairs and replacements than Safelite but they have not got the financial backing to refute your inane comments! Plus the fact that your company is not even American one further adds insult to injury by obviously taking profits out of the economy to a different country!
Not American, yet there HQ is located in Columbus, Ohio. I guess I missed the memo that Columbus is now part of India. The parent company that bought Safelite is Belron, which is Europe based, but Safelites hq is in COLUMBUS – and employs quite a few Americans, with a good job. I have worked in the call center a while, and am frankly sick of hearing shops whine about how Safelite is so evil. Even though customers frequently compliment on how easy and great the service is. Funny I never hear anyone talk about the huge majority of shops that outright lie and mislead people and coach them on what to say to try and fraud every penny possible.
As a shop owner in Ohio we face the same problems it’s a growing problem to the small shops ,safelite has taken over free enterprise in the insurance markets , we don’t want all the work just a chance to compete for it would be nice. Not playing fair in Ohio!!!
I dont see any customers complaining! maybe the other glass shops should change how they do business instead of complaining,this bill is not the answer !(change the way YOU do business)
Steering a policyholder towards a certain shop is illegal. The mentioned company is taking over more and more Glass shops by the day aiming to monopolize the industry…
I don’t care for that at all.
This is part of the trend we have begun to witness where an inevitable breakdown of “Preferred Vendor Lists” is occurring in the insurance claims industry.
Perhaps Obama can get all of us free glass coverage. Why don’t we let the Obama administration take over the regulation of glass insurance just as they have done with health insurance. Nobody should be denied a piece of glass!
In the interest of Consumer and Business Privacy and Protection, S Carolina should amend their insurance laws to restrict any auto insurance company doing business in the State from contracting with a Third Party claims Administrator that is affiliated with either an auto parts manufacturer or an auto repair facility due to the inherant conflict of interest. Allowing it as in the current situation requires unaffiliated repair shops (the majority in this case)to divulge proprietary customer information to their direct competitor as well as having to receive payments from a direct competitor.
From a consumer standpoint, I for sure would not want my personal information being sent to my chosen shops competitor.
Safelite gets to negotiate prices but then the majority of repair shops are expected to fall in line without having a chance to do the same. Since many independent repair facilities have much less overhead chances are that claims costs would actually decrease without Safelite as the TPA. In order to become an approved member of the Safelite network, independent shops are expected to sign a 14 page document that is one-sided and takes away many business owner rights. Do the right thing and pass the legislation.
The business tactics that Safelite has enacted are not unique to South Carolina. This is the model they have adopted across the United States. We find it interesting that Safelite Solutions is paid by the insurance companies to act as a 3rd party administrator for glass claims and then, in many cases, turns the work over to Safelite Auto Glass (their own shops) to perform. Keep in mind that in they also tend to use their own glass in these replacements. Isn’t it interesting to know that they control a percentage of manufacturing, glass claims for 18 of the top 30 property and casualty insurance companies in the United States, and the actual work being conducted…many times at a cost higher than the local, reputable, certified and warrantied shops in your area. They are attempting to eliminate consumer choice and that is not American. Then again, they are not an American company.
I work at Safelite in the referral center taking claims etc. To say they dont have a choice is simply not true. Ins are given many opportunities to choose whatever shop they want. I cannot tell you how many times people actually give heavy praise on how streamlined and easy the process was by offering the shop, then doing the scheduling for them. Now, all the person has to say is ” I want to use this shop” which immediately removes any scripting to offer a Safelite shop. And in almost ALL scripting, even when they dont have a preference of shop, we dont say Safelite, we simply say basically “if you dont have a shop of preference we can offer one”. Obviously each ins parent has different scripting for this. But when I hear all this whining about how unfair it is, its overblown.
Its depends on the csr… some csr’s will steer towards Safelite. If they don’t know a glass shop representative is present, they will ask “Would you like to let Safelite do the work??” I dealt with it with Geico. It wasn’t a problem for me, it just makes it seem like Safelite is their only option, because it’s the only 1 they mention.
“Brian DiMasi, senior corporate counsel for Safelite. “Claims costs will rise, warranty claims will rise, and customer complaints will rise. All of this affects insurance premiums, and issue South Carolina has worked hard to address.””
So Safelite has the market cornered on quality and safety???? No one else can do a repair or replacement as well as them?? Give your heads a shake Safelite!! There are a lot of companies out there who do better repairs and replacements than Safelite but they have not got the financial backing to refute your inane comments! Plus the fact that your company is not even American one further adds insult to injury by obviously taking profits out of the economy to a different country!
Not American, yet there HQ is located in Columbus, Ohio. I guess I missed the memo that Columbus is now part of India. The parent company that bought Safelite is Belron, which is Europe based, but Safelites hq is in COLUMBUS – and employs quite a few Americans, with a good job. I have worked in the call center a while, and am frankly sick of hearing shops whine about how Safelite is so evil. Even though customers frequently compliment on how easy and great the service is. Funny I never hear anyone talk about the huge majority of shops that outright lie and mislead people and coach them on what to say to try and fraud every penny possible.
As a shop owner in Ohio we face the same problems it’s a growing problem to the small shops ,safelite has taken over free enterprise in the insurance markets , we don’t want all the work just a chance to compete for it would be nice. Not playing fair in Ohio!!!
I dont see any customers complaining! maybe the other glass shops should change how they do business instead of complaining,this bill is not the answer !(change the way YOU do business)