Feb 15 1999 issue, page 8 interview/article Beating the System

This open letter is in response to Bottom Lines interview/advice article that advises your million plus readers.

For the record, my name is Ron Alford; I am the author of two consumer's information books on insurance and the claim process.

With 30 years of hands on experience 13, 000 clients, readers of my books including fair and honest insurance executives recognize me as an authority on insurance, the claim process and financial recovery. All of  which fall under the umbrella of "proactive crisis management" which is my primary occupation.

I neither sell or represent any insurance company nor I am I funded by insurers in any way. I am not in the collision repair business. I provide consumer and corporate education on proactive crisis and risk management issues which, includes clearly understanding insurers' selling tactics and claim procedures amongst other things that are irrelevant here.

This first lesson for every consumers is to learn about risk management that insurers are as different as people. No two are alike. It is in this role that I submit this open letter about your advice below in bold print.

"if you car needs only minor repairs it is probably fine, to get an estimate from insurance company drive-in claims center and have the repairs done at almost any shop the company recommends.

I totally disagree based on the learned points below.

1. Vehicles today can be a total wreck underneath and yet appear to only have minor damage because of the plastic bumpers and the horizontal shock absorbing systems built in these vehicles.
2. It is physically impossible for 80 percent of the drive-in-claims offices to inspect the vehicle underneath for evidence of damage. The true role of the insurer's adjusters is to "cash out" with the insured. This means, write a check on the spot, which is historically 50% of the real cost to restore this vehicle to its PRE CRASH condition.
3. When and if a victim ends up in a qualified collision repair facility (about 20 percent of the time) and one who is not on the insurers discount vendor list, the victim is then pitted between two numbers. The amount of the check in hand and the amount a qualified expert needs to properly, and safely restore the vehicle. More often than not, the victim get ripped off by default when he/she finds a shop that will fix* the vehicle for the amount of the check.

The next recommendation is

But for major repairs, be sure to get the estimate and repairs from a shop you have checked out thoroughly.

The article does not give consumers one word about the behavior of certain insurers and how they intimidate victims with subtle, yet, very specific messages. Nor is the impracticability and difficulty of carting a wrecked vehicle from shop to shop discussed.

Bottom Line's recommendation should be for consumers to do their homework today and create a Vehicle Accident Management Plan so when this wreck happens, the victim will not have to ask any questions or learn some hard and difficult lessons under stress and  the worst of conditions.

The next paragraph delivers mixed messages in the attempt to advise consumers on how to define a quality repair company. Asking insurers for a list is likely to send them to under-qualified repair shop because insurers have no interest in paying for quality repairs. The word safety or a definition of quality has never appeared in any contract of insurance that I am aware. These are critical issues that your article fails to address. 

There are a dozen hard hitting, critical questions that all consumers should get answered before they ask  "How Much? With respect to collision repair, you can see this list at http://theplan.com/qii/questions.htm

The article hit the nail on the head when it said,

What you want is a competent body shop?

I could not agree more. Again what is missing is the critical information on HOW to find or identify a competent body shop.

Then it says"

Have you ever tried to call a State agency? What agency? How would they know? If you gave the reader a name and a phone number I believe that the agency's information would be at best, terrible if it were available.  The information offered by most States Dept.of Insurance is downright terrible. More mis-information.

Under the best of circumstances it is a terrible undertaking. The article also hints of calling the BBB. More wasted time and false expectations.

"Your best bet, is a shop where the estimator is articulate. Such a personality will come in handy if you need the person to be your advocate during a dispute with the insurer over needed parts or repairs."

This is the scariest and the worst recommendation of all. In the repair industry, providers fall into one of four classes. Articulate incompetents are by far the largest class which is the #1 reason expectations are not met.

The article recommends that the consumer find an articulate person. More often than not this is the reason that real problems arise in insurance negotiations because one side is an articulate incompetent who makes claims, statements and promises that unrealistic or can never materialize.

A perfect example of articulate incompetents are insurance sales Agents. They create illusions in consumers minds and when its time to pay what was promised, they pass the ball to the defense team. The article could have been titles How to avoid "Articulate Incompetents "

It is easy to say anything. Being able to do what is said is everything.

The only incentive an insurer has to recommend any collision repair company is because the repair shop has agreed to provide discount labor and material. Discount or after market parts is an euphemism for phony, counterfeit parts that are made in Taiwan to be installed on brand name high priced vehicles. Moreover, it is against the law in several states for insurers to steer victims but certain insurers do it on a regular basis using subtle intimidating messages.

Again you say * Check the shop with you local state consumer agency to see if complaints for consumer fraud have been lodged against it.

What it should have said is "Before you suffer a loss and need to recover financially, check out the growing number of consumer advocates Web sites like  THE QUALITY INFORMATION INSTITUTE on the Internet that report on insurers evil deeds across the USA. Don't trust the information given to you by your state Dept of Insurance because it is only 1/50 of the information you need to make an intelligent decision.

Request that you be given a warranty on the repairs from the car-repair shop and your insurer.

In 30 years I have yet to see one insurer provide any kind of written warrantee on a contractors work. That would conflict with the performance bond insurance they sell.

What should have been said. Get in writing from the shop a personal guarantee from the owner that if you have to bring the vehicle back for defective repairs that your time will be compensated in the amount of $ 00.00 per day for consequential damages. The same goes for insurers who insist that you have your vehicle repaired at their discount repair shop. Insurers will never agree to to do this but it demonstrates to the insurer that you are not a run of the mill ignorant consumer.

Don't sign off on you claim until the work is complete. Often wrecked cars sustain more damage than initially thought. 

When a subscriber reads Bottom Line Personal its purpose is to provide its reader with inside information and quality advice to make peoples life easier to manage. The message here should be about proactive measures that consumers can do today so that they wont ever have to undergo dealing with misinformation crooks and articulate incompetents tomorrow. When consumers do everything right at the get go they won't need to deal with incomplete work.

Any and everything a consumer can do to keep an insurance adjuster, lawyer, state agency or a public servant out of their affairs is a very worth while effort that is guaranteed to pay big dividends.

My Bottom Line.

I respectfully ask the Publisher and the Editors of Bottom Line Personal consider publishing proactive rather than reactive slanted articles. The main stream press is constantly reporting on the victims and  what happen, rather than educating people to prevent preventable things from going wrong.

This is especially important when the stakes are so high. A Bottom Line Personal reader should never lose their car, their home or a family member because life and death situations were never a considered by insurers in the claim or repair process.