How long should it take an insurance company that you don't have a direct repair program (DRP) relationship with to visit your shop to do an estimate on a vehicle?
That's the question Connie Bauer of Body Craft Inc. Collision Center in Marysville, Wash., asked ABRN after being told by Allstate that it would take the company seven to 10 days to make an onsite evaluation.
"I made several calls because I thought seven to 10 days was unrealistic and inconsistent with what used to be their 48-hour turnaround time," Bauer says. "A customer service rep said they were going through some major changes and a new team was analyzing field representatives. Has Allstate thinned out their field organization that much or are they just dumping on non-DRP shops?"
Bauer says other non-DRP insurance companies that Body Craft deals with usually take two to three days to get a representative to the shop. The Allstate case took nine days.
During a recent online survey of shops, ABRN found Allstate ranked highest in terms of the time it takes to conduct estimates at non-DRPs, while Travelers appeared to be most responsive. (See chart.)"Seven to 10 days sounds excessive," says Wade Ebert, owner of American Auto Body in Springfield, Ill. "It usually takes two to three days to get them to our shop. I have one insurer that is a problem because the adjuster does not return phone calls. I assume he is an anomaly."
American Auto Body does not have a DRP relationship with any insurance companies, Ebert says.
A repair shop owner in Ohio who does not have a DRP relationship with Allstate says it often takes the company eight to 10 days to get to his shop.
"When Allstate gets busy, they take the business as it comes," he says. "Instead of hiring somebody when they are busy and having to lay them off later, they just put it off and pay the car rental. I had a car once that took five weeks before they approved the repair. They came out to look at it, but didn't approve it right away."
Despite the long wait times, the Ohio shop owner said Allstate was not difficult to work with. "They have a different philosophy," he says. "They take their position and don't squawk about paying the rental."
Of course, not all consumers have replacement car rental as part of their insurance policies. And those who do have it often have day or dollar limits on their policies. So an excessively long wait can hit them hard in the pocketbook and be a source of dissatisfaction, which they are likely to blame on the shop for taking too long.
"For non-DRP shops, from the date of report, we normally have vehicles estimated in less than seven days," says Mike Siemienas, an Allstate spokesperson. He doused any notions that Allstate is providing poorer service to non-DRP shops in an effort to sway consumers away from them.
"We need to estimate the claim and determine the liability," Siemienas says. "The processes we have in place should be consistent throughout the country. There always is an exception for various reasons."