When to say enough!!!

El Toro

Member
Wrote a estimate on a 2015 Honda Odyssey side sliding door small crease on door. A independent appraiser cut the refinishing time to 1.3 for base color and .4 for clear! I told the customer I can't do it at this price. Just wondering what the book time is for outer panel time on this van as I dont have a estimating system. Thanks for opinons. Crash or Chris??????
 
The paint time should be 2.5 + 1.0 clear. This is the insurance company's way to cut cost on the most expensive part of the job, refinish. In their mind you are not having to "paint" the entire panel, only the damaged area. Then the clear time is based on the paint time, so you get screwed there, also. Then the material is based on the total paint time, so they save themselves half the refinish cost by the time they're through. Bean counters at work. No way can you buy the material necessary to do the job. Then if you tell them you need to blend they will tell you they can't pay for it because the damage doesn't extend all the way to the next panel, or it's black, or white, or too old, or not adjacent, etc,etc,etc. I really don't have the answer, if you refuse the job, you look bad to the customer because the BIG shop down the street did it for what the insurance company wrote. This is their plan to squeeze out the small independent and only deal with a small number of chain shops that bend over backwards to be fed the majority of the work. This has been going on for years, but keeps getting worse. All I can say is fight for every .1!
 
Yep I am with you 100% And oh no blend time into next panels as I have to prove the color is not perfect match.
 
I'll check today Toro. Doesn't sound right especially if they are not allowing blending then there should be at least 1.0 hour of clear time. Sounds like he deducted for overlap when there wasn't any. I've seen this with the Independent Appraisers alot. Especially if they are new. They are trying to cut it to the absolute bare minimum to make the Insurance Co.s happy and refer them more work.
One thing that works for us sometimes, (you need to have the job in the shop and the customer in their rental car) is to call the adjuster who wrote the estimate and tell him that you have real issues with this estimate. It is not enough. Then tell him your issues and most of the time they correct it. No way can they expect panel painting on anything other than black. You can only blend within, when the repair are is contained in the first 1/4 of the panel (front to rear). Anything further you got to extend to the next panel.
PM me some info and when I get a chance I'll do the estimate in CCC Comp Est. today or tomorrow if that'll help.
 
If you don't have a computerized estimating system, it's really hard to supplement and get paid properly. I don't know how many dollars a month you do, but it might be worthwhile because then you can join the normal claims process that inside adjusters understand and make it easier to get paid.
 
It really gets me when they say you have to prove it doesn't match. Every color on every car needs to be blended, IMO, because there is no such thing as a perfect match. I once had a headlight door on a black corvette that I spent 2 hours matching to keep from blending the whole clamshell. Customer may have never seen it but it was very noticeable to me in the sun that none of my sprayouts were close enough. I make sprayouts on every car, then when they say to prove it I pull them out and show them. If I don't have a sprayout, I'll show them the amount of alternates and ask them which one will match perfect. Usually they will just pay it.
 
Crash I am just a small one man shop and do a 50/50 mix of old cars and collision work and out of the 50% most customer pay. dont care for ins work. Also getting older so may not be in this a whole lot longer.But you are right about " them understanding the process.
 
My 17yr old niece got her license & 2008 lincoln mkz which lasted 2 weeks before lightly rearending a trailer hitch.
I'll post bill totals when i get a chance to show breakdowns. $3,850 done, cash. I guessed $1,500 boy was i off.
 
A pipe fell off a trailer and hit the front of our 2018 Toyota Avalon. Cracked the bumper cover and put a small dent under the headlight assembly.
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Cost to repair was just over $2850.
 
Hit something on the front end of a current Chevy or GMC truck. We've had several recently like that and the total amount was anywhere from $8500-$12000. By the time you get everything for the bumper, that alone is in the neighborhood of $2000 by itself. Totaled 2 Ford Escapes recently because of damage to front upper apron. Used to be a simple fix on cars. On an Escape you have to take so much apart that it'll total even a nearly new one. They are not designed to be repaired past a certain point. Don't even get me started on the aluminum F150's.:mad:
 
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