Shop Reactions:  Why Do You Deal?

By Tara Taffera

In my last column (see AGRR March, April, page 4), I talked about all the insurance hoops you jump through on a daily basis. I made the statement: “I don’t know how you guys deal with this.” I heard from several people after that column was published, and some gave me permission to share their feedback.

From a Texas-based shop: “Thank you so much for writing this article and giving us all a voice against what keeps me up at night and some days has me bawling. Means so much more than I can put into email.”

And another from Auto Glass Today in Roseville, Minnesota.

Dear Ms. Taffera,

I read this article just now, and frankly, I thought it was just us, a small company with four techs and one office staff (me) having issues getting paid. Thank goodness I have 20 years’ experience in handling glass claims and submitting billings and know who and how to deal with this.

I, too, have had all my disinfecting disapproved or flat out denied. I bill what was approved; they say do the billing one way, you do, you submit, then they do not pay, at all. I still have outstanding balances, then they respond after a few weeks–I’m not joking. Then they say you need to submit it with the wording a different way and email it to shop care and they will forward it on to research and then they will be handled in the order they came in. Really?

You cannot call SGC. I mean you can, but no one will answer. With LYNX you are hold for forever and a day. It took me three hours before I got a call back to set up a Western National Claim. Three hours just to set up a glass claim!

I have a Chubb insurance job where I am waiting for payment. Invoice submitted and accepted EDI on 01/26/2021. The responses I get are after a week or two of a request are ‘We’re waiting to hear back from the insurance company,’ or my all-time favorite ‘We’ll send it to research’ to see what is going on. After a few emails back and forth and still no payment pending, I filed a complaint with the Minnesota Attorney General’s office against Chubb Insurance and SGC.

Enough ranting, I’m sure you’ve heard this story over and over, I just wanted to thank you for writing this article and making me feel ‘not alone’.

—Mary Lundgren

Yes, Mary I have heard this time and again. In fact, I’m currently talking to one shop owner who is consistently told to send the info to a particular email address only to never hear anything back again. The worst part is that while they fight to get this straightened out, they lose job after job.

So yes, I will continue to tell your stories, from everyone on all sides—that includes the Third Party Administrators. I’m here to talk to you. Give me a call or send me an email and let’s figure this out.

TARA TAFFERA is the editorial director of AGRRTM magazine/glassBYTES.com.
ttaffera@glass.com

To view the laid-in version of this article in our digital edition, CLICK HERE.