June 18, 2013—A Maryland judge recently ordered GEICO to reimburse Mark’s Body Shop in Baltimore for damages and court costs for a short-pay lawsuit filed against the company.
Mark Schaech, co-owner of Mark’s Body Shop, filed a lawsuit against GEICO for a short-pay of $392.95 in repair costs. According to the shop, GEICO neglected to provide payment for several repair processes, including degreasing the vehicle prior to repair, panel feather-prime and block, vehicle cleaning for delivery, clearing OBD fault codes, resetting electronics, masking for primer, and overhauling door handles for refinishing.
“Insurers have continued cutting their costs, while our costs for labor, materials and overhead have steadily increased. The only way we could survive was to either concede to the underpayments and cut our quality of materials and labor, or push back,” Schaech said. “We found short-pay litigation necessary to stop the insurer’s practice of underpaying our customers and to enable us to provide the quality repairs that earn our customers and their referrals for life.”
