SaNdMaNsSi
07-23-2012, 06:32 PM
Well, it's that time of year again. During summer, body shops basically go dead/dormant. Luckily for us, we have been swamped up until this week, and from what I've heard from guys at other places, we have been the lucky exception. We don't want to be sending our guys home early during the week, so my yearly offer returns. Any forum member that brings their vehicle to us, sends a family member, a neighbor, co-worker, cat, dog, or mythical creature our way (provided they have insurance on their vehicle) will get free money courtesy of myself. You don't even have to know the person; if you stop at an accident and simply say, "Take your vehicle to 5 Seasons Auto Rebuilders," and they do it, you get paid. If you bring in your own vehicle for repairs, and we do the work, we will pay part (or all) of your deductible depending on the extent of the damage and your deductible.
We service every insurance company. The ones we especially like are the ones that like to steer customers toward their DRP (direct repair provider). It's actually illegal for an insurance company to tell anyone in Iowa where to have their vehicle repaired, but from what I hear on a weekly basis, they do it anyways because people don't know better. Why am I telling you this? So that you can tell the person that they can bring it to us despite the "steering" their insurance company will do. We work for every insurance company, even though we are not the DRP for some. It's like a dealership franchise for body shops; different shops have a different "dealership" just like car companies.
I know, everyone wants to know the answer to the all important question, "how much?" Well, that depends on the size of the job. 90% of the time it's a crisp (possibly sweaty depending on how long it's been in my pocket) 100 dollar bill. As the size of the job increases, so does the payout. For example, I won't mention any names in case people don't want to be called out, but last year we received a vehicle that was only a couple of years old and had an 8,000 repair done to it....that person received 500 bucks for a simple phone call. The insurance company, (the one with the green lizard) told them to take their car somewhere else. The person had their parent bring the car to our place instead, we called the insurance company for them, did all of the required paperwork, no extra hassle for them. They didn't have rental coverage, so we also gave them a free rental car. The person I paid was nice enough to split it 50/50, but no one is forcing you to! When you let me know that you have sent someone our way, after an estimate is completed, I will let you know what your payout will be. When the job is completed, you can come pick up your greenbacks, we can mail you a check, or you can crawl in my window at night and turn me upside down. Whichever works best for you. We only run this promotion during the summer months, and we don't advertise it. It's something that we only tell our regular customers to spread around, but I figured I'd bring it to the attention of forum members as well. And, even though it's a summer promotion we do, if you call or PM during the winter, we still honor it if you ask. Just don't mention that I said anything, it's usually only an email that goes out to current customers, and heaven forbid we give out too much free money :)
We would love the opportunity to work on your, or your acquaintance' vehicle. We've been in business for 35 years, and provide exceptional service for our customers. I would hope there are more than a handful of people from this site that can vouch for that! We have always worked in the best interest of the customer first. We love insurance companies because they pay our bills, but we do what our customers want. Anyone that you meet in the office is friendly and helpful, and can answer any question you may have. I would like to say I will always be in the office, but that isn't always the case. To those of you that work at shops here in town, I'm not trying to insult you. I'm not saying, "Ohhhhh we are soooo much better than eevvvvvverrryyyooonnneeee else!!!" Obviously there are industry standards that we all abide by, and any shop that has been around more than a couple of years is obviously doing a good job. All I'm saying by putting up this ad is that we are setting ourselves apart during the slow season by offering you something other shops don't. You can take your car anywhere, we need to give you a good reason to come see us!
Most people don't realize that they don't have to go where their insurance company tells them to, and in most cases, (I can name exactly what 2 companies do the things below) they make it hard on you as a customer if you don't take your vehicle to their DRP. SO, read below for their tactics that we have a fix for:
When your insurance company tells you you "have to have 3 estimates" and they will take the lowest one, in Iowa, you don't. By state law you only need to take your vehicle where you want it to go. The insurance company has the right to go to any body shop and write their own estimate, but you do not have to get 3 estimates. Remember, most of the people you talk to on the phone at the insurance company read off of a screen in front of them and aren't even in Iowa.
Most insurance companies have contracts with tow companies to make sure the customer's vehicle goes to the insurance company's DRP. We are also a tow service. Call us directly, we'll tow it to our place. We won't charge you at the time of the tow. If you have towing insurance, we'll bill them directly. IF we repair the vehicle and you don't have towing insurance, we'll waive the tow charges altogether.
If your accident happens and for some reason you can't get ahold of us (yes, we are 24 hours, but sometimes our guys get so beat we let them off after 10pm if it's super hot or they've worked crazy hours that day) we can still go pick your vehicle up from any repair shop that it has been left at provided the owner of the vehicle gives us permission to and the work hasn't already been started. (A lot of body shops will tear off damaged parts the second they can so that they can say they've "begun work" even though they really haven't). We will pay the bill at the shop for the labor they have into it and move it to our place to do the repairs. As long as you (or whomever) hasn't already given that shop permission to begin work, we can go get it at any time.
Those same 2 insurance companies will make it hard on you to take your car somewhere else by using the "delay" tactic. "If you take it to our DRP they'll start on it immediately. If you take it somewhere else, it will probably be a few days before we can get an adjustor out there to write an estimate and begin parts orders...." This one is getting used more and more. There's nothing people hate more than waiting for their car to get returned to them. Well, it's a crock. Both of those DRP's have agents that are here in town on the NE side. They may choose to make you wait to penalize you for not taking your vehicle where they want, which is why we started giving out free loaner vehicles. b Not to mention their DRP orders their parts from the same dealerships we do, they can't get the parts any faster than we can. It nullifies this tactic. Depending on what kind of vehicle you (or the person you send us) drives, we have all sizes of vehicles. A Ford Escort, Chevy Malibu, Mitsubishi Galant, Kia mini van, GMC Envoy, etc. We won't send them out on a pedal bike. If they prefer something else, most insurance companies cover cars from Enterprise, and Enterprise will actually meet you (or them) at our facility with your rental vehicle.
Certain companies (one in particular) will tell you that if you have your vehicle covered by "anyone else" the insurance company can't warranty your parts. Another tactic. Insurance companies actually have no warranty anyways. The particular shop, as well as the parts manufacturer actually have warranties, not the insurance company. If your bumper starts peeling paint in 2 years, they don't send you to the insurance company's home office to have it repaired or replaced, they send you to the body shop that did the work. It's the same with us. We provide the same warranties that every shop in town does, including the DRP's. We've been around for 35 years, we aren't going anywhere.
If you have a very busy schedule, or live on the other side of town/Marion/Hiawatha, etc, and think, "It'd be easier for me to get my car repaired over here..." We will come and pick it up at no cost to you. If you are too busy, we'll even bring it back!
If you have no interest in this ad, at the very least I hope I've given you some insight into how insurance companies work. You have many more rights than you think. If you have any questions that I didn't answer, feel free to post them up and I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability. If you have someone in mind, have them give us a call. 319-396-8683. If you send somewhere our way, just PM me and let me know who they are. If they are someone you barely know, and don't have a last name, just let me know what type of vehicle, their first name, license plate number, what have you. I have no problem supporting members (free cash!) who help support myself and my family. I thank you in advance, and look forward to the opportunity to make one of our employees work on your car while I (hopefully) sit in the A/C in the office.
If you survived reading all of that, pat yourself on the back. Twice.
We service every insurance company. The ones we especially like are the ones that like to steer customers toward their DRP (direct repair provider). It's actually illegal for an insurance company to tell anyone in Iowa where to have their vehicle repaired, but from what I hear on a weekly basis, they do it anyways because people don't know better. Why am I telling you this? So that you can tell the person that they can bring it to us despite the "steering" their insurance company will do. We work for every insurance company, even though we are not the DRP for some. It's like a dealership franchise for body shops; different shops have a different "dealership" just like car companies.
I know, everyone wants to know the answer to the all important question, "how much?" Well, that depends on the size of the job. 90% of the time it's a crisp (possibly sweaty depending on how long it's been in my pocket) 100 dollar bill. As the size of the job increases, so does the payout. For example, I won't mention any names in case people don't want to be called out, but last year we received a vehicle that was only a couple of years old and had an 8,000 repair done to it....that person received 500 bucks for a simple phone call. The insurance company, (the one with the green lizard) told them to take their car somewhere else. The person had their parent bring the car to our place instead, we called the insurance company for them, did all of the required paperwork, no extra hassle for them. They didn't have rental coverage, so we also gave them a free rental car. The person I paid was nice enough to split it 50/50, but no one is forcing you to! When you let me know that you have sent someone our way, after an estimate is completed, I will let you know what your payout will be. When the job is completed, you can come pick up your greenbacks, we can mail you a check, or you can crawl in my window at night and turn me upside down. Whichever works best for you. We only run this promotion during the summer months, and we don't advertise it. It's something that we only tell our regular customers to spread around, but I figured I'd bring it to the attention of forum members as well. And, even though it's a summer promotion we do, if you call or PM during the winter, we still honor it if you ask. Just don't mention that I said anything, it's usually only an email that goes out to current customers, and heaven forbid we give out too much free money :)
We would love the opportunity to work on your, or your acquaintance' vehicle. We've been in business for 35 years, and provide exceptional service for our customers. I would hope there are more than a handful of people from this site that can vouch for that! We have always worked in the best interest of the customer first. We love insurance companies because they pay our bills, but we do what our customers want. Anyone that you meet in the office is friendly and helpful, and can answer any question you may have. I would like to say I will always be in the office, but that isn't always the case. To those of you that work at shops here in town, I'm not trying to insult you. I'm not saying, "Ohhhhh we are soooo much better than eevvvvvverrryyyooonnneeee else!!!" Obviously there are industry standards that we all abide by, and any shop that has been around more than a couple of years is obviously doing a good job. All I'm saying by putting up this ad is that we are setting ourselves apart during the slow season by offering you something other shops don't. You can take your car anywhere, we need to give you a good reason to come see us!
Most people don't realize that they don't have to go where their insurance company tells them to, and in most cases, (I can name exactly what 2 companies do the things below) they make it hard on you as a customer if you don't take your vehicle to their DRP. SO, read below for their tactics that we have a fix for:
When your insurance company tells you you "have to have 3 estimates" and they will take the lowest one, in Iowa, you don't. By state law you only need to take your vehicle where you want it to go. The insurance company has the right to go to any body shop and write their own estimate, but you do not have to get 3 estimates. Remember, most of the people you talk to on the phone at the insurance company read off of a screen in front of them and aren't even in Iowa.
Most insurance companies have contracts with tow companies to make sure the customer's vehicle goes to the insurance company's DRP. We are also a tow service. Call us directly, we'll tow it to our place. We won't charge you at the time of the tow. If you have towing insurance, we'll bill them directly. IF we repair the vehicle and you don't have towing insurance, we'll waive the tow charges altogether.
If your accident happens and for some reason you can't get ahold of us (yes, we are 24 hours, but sometimes our guys get so beat we let them off after 10pm if it's super hot or they've worked crazy hours that day) we can still go pick your vehicle up from any repair shop that it has been left at provided the owner of the vehicle gives us permission to and the work hasn't already been started. (A lot of body shops will tear off damaged parts the second they can so that they can say they've "begun work" even though they really haven't). We will pay the bill at the shop for the labor they have into it and move it to our place to do the repairs. As long as you (or whomever) hasn't already given that shop permission to begin work, we can go get it at any time.
Those same 2 insurance companies will make it hard on you to take your car somewhere else by using the "delay" tactic. "If you take it to our DRP they'll start on it immediately. If you take it somewhere else, it will probably be a few days before we can get an adjustor out there to write an estimate and begin parts orders...." This one is getting used more and more. There's nothing people hate more than waiting for their car to get returned to them. Well, it's a crock. Both of those DRP's have agents that are here in town on the NE side. They may choose to make you wait to penalize you for not taking your vehicle where they want, which is why we started giving out free loaner vehicles. b Not to mention their DRP orders their parts from the same dealerships we do, they can't get the parts any faster than we can. It nullifies this tactic. Depending on what kind of vehicle you (or the person you send us) drives, we have all sizes of vehicles. A Ford Escort, Chevy Malibu, Mitsubishi Galant, Kia mini van, GMC Envoy, etc. We won't send them out on a pedal bike. If they prefer something else, most insurance companies cover cars from Enterprise, and Enterprise will actually meet you (or them) at our facility with your rental vehicle.
Certain companies (one in particular) will tell you that if you have your vehicle covered by "anyone else" the insurance company can't warranty your parts. Another tactic. Insurance companies actually have no warranty anyways. The particular shop, as well as the parts manufacturer actually have warranties, not the insurance company. If your bumper starts peeling paint in 2 years, they don't send you to the insurance company's home office to have it repaired or replaced, they send you to the body shop that did the work. It's the same with us. We provide the same warranties that every shop in town does, including the DRP's. We've been around for 35 years, we aren't going anywhere.
If you have a very busy schedule, or live on the other side of town/Marion/Hiawatha, etc, and think, "It'd be easier for me to get my car repaired over here..." We will come and pick it up at no cost to you. If you are too busy, we'll even bring it back!
If you have no interest in this ad, at the very least I hope I've given you some insight into how insurance companies work. You have many more rights than you think. If you have any questions that I didn't answer, feel free to post them up and I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability. If you have someone in mind, have them give us a call. 319-396-8683. If you send somewhere our way, just PM me and let me know who they are. If they are someone you barely know, and don't have a last name, just let me know what type of vehicle, their first name, license plate number, what have you. I have no problem supporting members (free cash!) who help support myself and my family. I thank you in advance, and look forward to the opportunity to make one of our employees work on your car while I (hopefully) sit in the A/C in the office.
If you survived reading all of that, pat yourself on the back. Twice.