INSURANCE RELATIONS
Hail Horror o we have an insurance company “partner,” or will they abandon ship at the first sign of trouble? In the corporate environment we work in today, you can bet that some will run at the first sign of trouble, while others will stay and help. We found that out the hard way after the worst hailstorm we had ever seen blew through.
D
Catastrophe Strikes » I’ve been in the automotive business for more than 35 years and I’ve never been through anything like the hailstorm that hit my area (Beavercreek/ Xenia/Dayton, Ohio) on May 25, 2011. I’ve experienced hailstorms, ice 44
Do you truly have an insurance “partner?” After working through the worst hailstorm we had ever seen, we discovered that one insurer didn’t live up to that label. By Jim W. Patrick storms, floods, blizzards, locusts, flies and a major tornado that hit my area on Sept. 20, 2000. But the 2011 hail storm caused more repairable vehicle damage in a concentrated area at one time than anything before.
October 2012 | BodyShop Business
It was a catastrophic storm by insurance company standards, and not our normal way of doing business. It took us a couple months to get a handle on the volume and the total amount of damage. The first two days, we had more than 150 vehicles dropped onto our lot for repairs. Plus, more than 450 of our dealership’s new and used vehicles suffered damage and needed to be repaired as soon as possible. We set up some insurance drivethrus and had adjusters all over the place. We had a half dozen paintless dent repair (PDR) companies show up the first day after the storm, some good and some not so good. It took awhile to get them set up and sort