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Mississippi Collision Repair Association and Parts Suppliers File Suit Against PartsTrader The Mississippi Collision Repair Association and Parts Suppliers are seeking industry support in suit against State Farm and PartsTrader. Over 30 plaintiffs, mostly Mississippi body shop owners, have filed an injunction against State Farm and PartsTrader in an attempt to prohibit the insurer from forcing any Select Service shop in Mississippi to use PartsTrader. The suit was filed Aug. 28 by Jackson, MS-based attorney for the nearly three dozen plaintiffs, John Arthur Eaves, Jr., in the Hinds County, MS, Chancery Court against State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company and PartsTrader LLC.
Plaintiff include the Mississippi Collision Repair Association (MSCRA) OEM parts dealers and other parts suppliers and dozens of collision repair principals, including prominent local repairers John Mosley (Clinton Body Shop) and Doug White (Capitol Body Shop). The suit seeks the court’s declatory judgment and injuction to block State Farm from requiring the PartsTrader ordering process in Mississippi. The requested injunction is to 1) Prohibit the Defendants from forcing implementation of PartsTrader in the State Farm Select Serv-
by Chasidy Rae Sisk
Executive Director, Howard Batchelor, explains their goals: “we want to educate members on the new products and information available in the industry, in hopes of helping them improve their businesses.” Each GCIA meeting is broken into various segments to focus on specific issues. One of the association’s main focuses is to be their members’ voice when it comes to legislative issues. Currently, GCIA is interested in Mississippi’s recent lawsuit against PartsTrader and shop owners’ right to purchase parts from the supplier of their choice. They are also trying to put together a class-action lawsuit for
See Suit Against PartsTrader, Page 16
GCIA Sees Role as to Educate and Support
See GCIA Events, Page 6
Change Service Requested
P.O. BOX 1516, CARLSBAD, CA 92018
Arguably, the most important roles of collision industry associations is to advocate for its members rights and keep members educated on and informed of changes, both potential and real, in the industry. The Georgia Collision Industry Association (GCIA) agrees with this philosophy which is why they focus much of their efforts on hosting meetings and events to provide members with current information that may impact their businesses. This fall, they plan to be quite busy with their upcoming meeting, annual golf tournament and First Responder Emergency Extrication Program.
VOL. 4 ISSUE 8 OCTOBER 2013
Quintela Sues 21st Century A Second Time for Short-Pays, Makes ‘Cents out of Sense’ by Barrett Smith
Eddie Quintela, Owner and President of Collision Concepts of Delray Beach, FL has once again found it necessary to file a lawsuit against 21st Century Insurance on behalf of his customer who made a claim under their policy with the carrier. In 2012, on behalf of his company’s customers, Quintela filed three separate lawsuits against 21st Century of which the insurer agreed to settle before the trial dates. In addition to the disputed amounts, the insurer paid all of Eddie’s legal fees and costs. In spite of recent claims whereas the insurer has provided full payments, as of late, 21st Century claims representatives have elected to once again deny payments for the repairer’s
posted labor rates, processes and procedures as deemed to be reasonable and necessary to properly restore their customer’s vehicle. As Such, Quintela, on behalf of and with the full support of his customer, has Eddie Quintela found it necessary to once again file a lawsuit against the insurer on his customer’s behalf for such denials. “As in the past with this company”, states Eddie, “they pay us only after we file suit but before they go before a judge and/or jury. Thereafter they pay in full for every needed material, process and rates for a while… See Quintela, Page 4
Special SNAPSHOT of the Collision Industry, survey by Collision Repair Educational Foundation and I-CAR p. 22
State Farm and PartsTrader Offer More Info on Roll-Out, Use of the System by John Yoswick
Whether or not they participate in State Farm’s Select Service program, shops and parts vendors still have lots of questions and concerns about PartsTrader as State Farm continues its roll-out of the program. Here is some additional information addressing some of those questions that representatives of State Farm or PartsTrader have provided. Roll-out schedule. PartsTrader rolled out in September in major markets in California, Nevada and Utah, and in will do so in October in Michigan and Ohio. It will reach major markets in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee later this year. Vendor choice. Shops are not required to get price quotes from anyone beyond their designated pre-
ferred dealer. In fact, Partstrader’s Dale Sailer said, the system defaults to sending a job’s parts list only to the shop’s preferred dealer, though the shop can expand the search from this default. State Farm does not get data about whether a Select Service shop’s parts list for a job went only to the shop’s preferred dealer for quotes. A shop can “direct order” a part through the system without waiting for any parts quotes; State Farm does know, however, if a Select Service shop does this. And if a dealer always gives a shop the same discount, the dealer can set the system up to automatically respond with that discount to all requests for quotes from that shop. “Dealers don’t have to hire a whole bunch of people to fill out See More on PartsTrader, Page 28
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