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‘Fax-Only’ Parts Ordering Option will End by September For Shops Using PartsTrader 2.2 PartsTrader held a webinar on Aug. 1 to discuss several changes to the parts ordering application, including the end of the “fax-only” ordering option. In the new 2.2 release, which went live on August 1, PartsTrader has made several changes that will affect users of the electronic parts marketplace developed for State Farm’s Select Service DRP. Lucy Smith, Product Manager at PartsTrader, said that—with this release—the option to place orders through PartsTrader by fax will no longer be available in the Tucson, AZ, market effective immediately. The
change was made in preparation for the full state rollout of PartsTrader in Arizona beginning on August 12, according to her statement. The fax option will remain in the other pilot cities of Grand Rapids, Chicago, Birmingham, and Charlotte until the end of August or September 1, Smith said. The fax-only option was originally added to the PartsTrader system so that Select Service facilities could still place orders with their preferred vendors, even if those vendors refused to participate in the PartsTrader program. If a See Fax-Only Ending, Page 8
A Matrix of Parts Procurement Features Won’t Help Shops If They Have No Choice on Usage
See No Choice on Usage, Page 24
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The Collision Industry Conference (CIC) Parts & Materials Committee came to the CIC meeting in Boston in July looking for input from the assemblage for a survey it plans to conduct about electronic parts procurement systems. What it heard was an impassioned request to look at another aspect of the issue. The committee is working to produce a matrix that would help shops or other users of the systems understand the capabilities and features each system offers. At the Boston meeting, the committee shared the
questions about the systems that it plans to ask the providers, and asked CIC participants at the meeting whether the questions would Randy Stabler provide information about the systems that would be helpful. But as the committee was completing its presentation, California shop owner Randy Stabler drew applause when he told the committee that understanding the differences be-
Change Service Requested
by John Yoswick
VOL. 4 ISSUE 7 SEPTEMBER 2013
State Farm & PartsTrader Meet with Industry As Program Rolls Out in the Southwest by John Yoswick
Shop and vendor concern and unhappiness about State Farm’s mandated use of PartsTrader was evident at a packed Automotive Service Association (ASA) of Arizona meeting in Phoenix in August, the same week the program was being rolled David Priest out in that market. We feel you’re using your size and intruding into our business through the shops with PartsTrader,” David Priest, parts director for Brown & Brown Chevrolet in Mesa, AZ, told State Farm’s George Avery at the meeting. “You’re asking me to pay a fee for a program that will probably
decrease OEM part usage. How do you perceive that PartsTrader for an OEM dealer is an effective tool?” Dale Sailer of PartsTrader, who also spoke at the meeting, pointed out that dealers can now see and quote prices for an entire parts list for each job, whereas currently they may not know about parts that a shop Dale Sailer contacts only a recycler or non-OEM parts vendor about. Avery agreed that PartsTrader gives dealers a chance to see other potential business and shop customers. “The performance of those who provide parts has an impact on repairers, and repairers have an impact on See PartsTrader Rollout, Page 33
See Correction to July 2013 Article on Felder’s Collision Parts v General Motors et al. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p. 3
Avery v State Farm is Back in the News, as a RICO Case making the Judge the Issue A sitting Illinois Supreme Court justice, Lloyd A. Karmeier, may have been compelled to testify under oath about allegations that he voted in 2005 to overturn a $1 billion verdict against State Farm because the company secretly funded a multi-million dollar campaign to help him get elected to the state supreme court. The 2004 Illinois Supreme Court race was the most expensive campaign for a single judicial office in U.S. history. Lawyers whose plan to depose Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Karmeier became public now say they will do it later or maybe not at all. On Aug. 14, they told U.S. District Judge David Herndon that they would not rush into it if he lifts a temporary stay on discovery in their
fraud and racketeering suit against State Farm. In 1998 in the Avery v. State Farm case, the original plaintiffs won the largest verdict ever against State Farm for requiring the use of “imitation” crash parts in its auto repairs. After years of appeals, the verdict was reversed. On May 29, 2012, three plaintiffs from Avery v. State Farm filed a new class action lawsuit, claiming that the insurance company acted as the hub of an enterprise designed to defraud millions of policyholders out of a $1 billion judgment. Mark Hale, Todd Shadle and Carly Vickers Morse, all of whom live out-of-state and were class members to the unsuccessful 1997 class See Avery v State Farm Judge, Page 39
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