Once again, the old battle of good vs. evil rears its ugly head, but this time it’s in the collision repair industry. When you get into a car accident, and you need to repair your vehicle, who do you go to? Do you use your own “guy,” or do you go to one of the shops suggested by your insurance company, which is called a direct repair shop.
The reason this is such a hot topic is because the insurance companies have basically taken the freedom of choice away from the vehicle owner. If you use one of the direct repair shops recommended by the insurance company you will get perks that you will not receive from a non-contracted repair provider.
One major bonus is that the parts and repair you receive will have a warranty. It never hurts to get a warranty, in particular when dealing with a high dollar item such as car repairs.
And another perk, if you can call it one, is if enough people complain about one of the direct repair shops, the will receive bad marks and ultimately be cut from the program. This is a huge loss for the repair shop, because let’s face it, no shop wants to lose millions of dollars worth of business.
But here’s my question to you, and it’s a big one, so pay attention.
Why do you even care if a company gets removed as a DRP (direct repair program)?
Granted, this will only end up helping the people in your shoes that come after you. By getting a subpar repair shop removed, you save future accident victims that belong to the same insurance company as you the agony of dealing with an undeserving company that really doesn’t care about the people they work for.
While this is definitely a nice thing to do for others, this really is not helping you today or even years from now, unless of course you plan on making car accidents and repairs a regular part of your life. If that’s the case, then you are doing yourself a tremendous favor later on down the line.
Truth be told, direct repair programs are not designed with the consumer in mind. Their main function is to save the insurance companies truckloads of money, while they in turn set up a system where the insurance company doesn’t have to pay the insured the what they are truly owed on their claim.
There is a word for this in the English language. It’s called theft. And as usual in this country, a group of major players (the insurance industry) devised a system to legally steal from all of their customers. Because make no mistakes about it, they are stealing from you.
By making it so unbeneficial for you to use a repair shop outside of their network, they are legally forcing you to use companies that work with them to swindle you out of your hard earned cash.
Do you fight the system or conform to it? You be the judge. Anyone have any comments? Feel free to join the discussion.