dent repair association concerned by insurer steering

Publish date: Jul 16, 2009
By: Bruce Adams
Source: Automotive Body Repair News

Members of the National Alliance of Paintless Dent Repair Technicians (NAPDRT) board have received numerous calls from its small business technician members and collision shop clients concerned about some insurance companies requiring body shop owners to use the insurer’s preferred vendor providers for paintless dent repair (PDR) instead of the shop’s preferred PDR technicians.

“NAPDRT's volunteer leaders – all of whom are PDR technicians – take comments from the general membership very seriously and believe strongly in a business owner’s inherent right to structure, manage and orchestrate their personal business as they see fit,” says Tommy Clayton, board secretary and owner of Tommy’s Dent Service in Gibsonville, N.C. “A business owner has an inherent right to select individual vendors, suppliers, systems and services.”

The board’s directors adopted and approved the following position statement to provide its support to the alliance’s membership and the repair industry at large:

Members of the NAPDRT subscribe to establishing the highest standard of PDR and believe in third-party education and skill level testing to ensure quality paintless dent repair and impeccable customer satisfaction.

The NAPDRT supports an individual collision business owner’s selection of a PDR provider that meets the individual’s business needs, relationships and customer’s expectations.

NAPDRT recognizes those insurers that incorporate the established business relationships between the collision repair facility and their preferred PDR provider. And request those that do not, re-evaluate their current PDR model to ensure a quality repair and satisfied policyholder.

Clayton said this problem is occurring nationwide with certain insurers.

“Insurance companies are trying to force collision repair shops to use the insurance company’s PDR vendor of choice, instead of those that the shop may have formed a business relationship with,” Clayton says. “It is steering and it locks out some of our independent members from an opportunity to make a living.”

Clayton cited a case in New York where Allstate lists only one franchised PDR services vendor – Dent Wizard – that is approved to handle supplements on cars that need repairs. A similar situation occurred in New Mexico following a hailstorm involving a different insurer, he said.

Clayton said NAPDRT will continue to monitor this issue and others that have an impact on paintless dent repair professionals. For more information about NAPDRT , which has about 100 members, visit www.napdrt.org

I need to mention the help of NAPDRT member Joe Cicchiello and NAPDRT BOD member Steve Shaughnessy. They are the one that gathered the information that made this possible.