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Florida Shop Owner Files 53 Lawsuits to Counter Short Pays by Insurers by Melanie Anderson
In Delray Beach, FL, Eddie Quintela, 42, owner and operator of Collision Concepts, recently spent $10,450 on filing fees for 53 separate lawsuits against insurers for short pays. Quintela says he’s not worried about the money. He will recoup court Eddie Quintela costs and attorney’s fees when he wins his cases, plus recover the compensation he
should have received in the first place for properly repairing the vehicles. To date, he and his customers have won every single case they’ve filed against insurers. According to Quintela, his plan to get insurers to pay for underpayments is pretty simple and easy to do. “If we cannot get an agreed price with an insurance company to properly repair a vehicle, we engage the customer,” said Quintela. “We give our customers a couple of options: 1) they can pay the difference, or 2) the customer can sign an Assignment of See 53 Lawsuits, Page 29
CIC Continues Discussion of Alternatives to Existing Paint and Materials Calculations
See Paint and Materials, Page 18
P.O. BOX 1516, CARLSBAD, CA 92018
A consultant whose study indicated that the vast majority of the industry finds the current way that paint and materials compensation is calculated is a poor methodology is now saying more accurate and fair calculation systems exist, are being used by some shops and are being accepted by some insurance companies. “The most important message here is that by properly presenting itemization and documentation using a paint material calculation system, we are actually able to resolve these conflicts,” consultant Steve Lanza of
Richfield Associates said at the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) held in Phoenix in April. Lanza’s firm in 2012 released its findings that compensation for paint and materials has not kept pace with increases in the costs of these products, and that 64 out of 68 industry participants interviewed think the current way paint and materials compensation is calculated is a poor methodology. Only four people (including representatives of three repairer operations and one estimating system provider) rated the current system as “adequate” or “good.”
Change Service Requested
by John Yoswick
VOL. 31 ISSUE 6 JUNE 2013
First Southern Automotive Repair Industry Conference Held in Biloxi, MS, April 26–27
Presenters included Aaron Schulenburg of SCRS, Rick Leos with Toyota Motors, Ray Gunder and his attorney Brent Geohagen. The inaugural event was held at the Beau Rivage Casino and Hotel in Biloxi, MS, and kicked off Friday night with a reception and exhibition featuring more than 18 vendors demonstrating their products and services to over 200 attendees from collision repair shops from across the Southeast. “The event can be best deJohn Mosley talking shop with Aaron Schulenburg scribed as an unqualified sucsored the first Southern Automotive cess, both in terms of information Repair Industry Conference and Ex- presented and the impressive number hibition in Biloxi, MS, on April of attendees from seven states,” said See Southern Conference, Page 20 26–27.
The Mississippi Collision Repair Association (MCRA) and the Alabama Automotive Repair Industry Society of Excellence (ALARISE) co-spon-
DEG Received 1,300 Inquiries in 2012, Up 30%, Expects More than 1,500 in 2013 In 2012, the Database Enhancement Gateway (DEG) received more than 1,300 inquiries, an increase of approximately 30% from the previous two years, DEG Administrator Arthur Harris reported. This year, DEG expects to receive more than 1,500 inquiries. The DEG was built to help address individual estimating database issues on specific vehicles. As a free service, those who use estimate systems may submit inquiries to the DEG when they encounter questions or concerns relative to estimating data. The DEG acts as a go-between for shops and information providers— CCC, Mitchell and Audatex—to improve the quality and accuracy of the data used to generate collision repair estimates and to provide feedback to information providers. As an advocate, the DEG will process all submitted database inquiries to information providers until a conclusion is reached. All issues and
responses are posted on the website and visible to all. Through feedback by repairers, the DEG can help fix footnotes, inaccurate labor times, missing parts, incorrect part numbers, and substrate identification. Upon receiving an inquiry, Harris said the question is posted on their website and forwarded to the information provider within 24 hours. Many inquiries are resolved and responded to within 2-3 days, depending on the complexity of the inquiry and responsiveness of the information provider. Response times are posted directly on the website database for clear transparency into the process times for each of the three information providers. The DEG database is a valuable tool for the collision repair industry as it provides valuable feedback on missing, unclear or potentially inaccurate data within the estimate systems, Harris said. Often, an inquiry can result in changes to the database or P-Pages. See DEG Inquiries, Page 32
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