PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Stuck in the Middle

by JERRY MCNEE

I feel sorry for the appraisers negotiating on the insurance company’s behalf. Sounds crazy, right? But here’s the thing: Many of these guys and gals know right from wrong, but the powers-that-be – the pencil pushers who unjustly enrich their companies on our coattails – are the ones calling the shots from closed doors. They’ve taken claim centers, which were set up to indemnify the consumer, and they’ve turned it into a profit center at our expense.

Appraisers come out to the shop to negotiate the claim, yet they have little training, little experience; however, they’ve been brainwashed into believing this is the cost of doing business, that the shops are a bunch of crooks trying to take advantage of them and that it’s their job to prevent that from happening. They’re forced to come into the shops and try to cut repair times and write for aftermarket parts, ignoring the data that’s out there which proves that those parts are NOT the same like, kind and quality as original OEM parts.

Of course, this isn’t the case with all of them. Some of them have built up such calluses that it’s almost impressive. I mean, they could care less about the consumer. They’ll write an estimate for a repair at a shop when they KNOW the shop doesn’t have the ability to fix that vehicle correctly, but they’ll still cut a check because all they care about is how cheaply they can get the repair done. At the end of the day, the liability doesn’t fall on the insurance company; it falls on the shop that performed the repairs.

It’s a problem, and it’s wrong! Historically, it’s been a “shame on us” situation because the majority of shop owners don’t really have a clue. Let’s face it: Many of us came up through the ranks or inherited the business, and we got a crash course in real life, figuring it out as we’ve gone. A lot of us are still figuring it out. But more shop owners are fighting back, standing up for the consumer and demanding to be compensated adequately for the work performed.

Meanwhile, the poor insurance appraiser – the one who actually has a conscience – is tormented because she knows what’s right for the customer, but she’s being pressured on the back end to do the job a certain way. So, she ignores potentially unsafe repairs, but it eats at her

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