Hi LH community.
TL;DR:
I had the dealer to replace my windshield and asked them to bill my insurance directly. After they’ve done, they found out they cannot bill my insurance directly and asked me to pay upfront and get reimbursed. However, they charged $155/h labor but insurance only cover $40/h. How should I handle the discrepency?
Here is my story:
My car had a big crack on the windshield last month and clearly it needed to be replaced. Since I always buy the comprehensive coverage insurance, so I decided to take the car to the nearest dealership to replace it to save some “hassle” (turns out more hassle to come). When I dropped-off the car, I specifically told the service advisor I’d like them to bill my insurance and I confirmed with him later in the text. Anyway, I believed at that point they should’ve gotten my insurance’s approval first before they do any real work.
After a week, my car was ready and I went to pick it up. Things started to go south from here because it seemed like he didn’t really call my insurance at all (I confirmed this later with my insurance).
The SA asked me “how do you like to pay”?
I told him “should you bill the insurance”?
He was like “Oh I thought you are gonna pay upfront and get reimbursed from the insurance, but OK, we could wait for the check from the insurance, but you have to stay with the loaner before that”.
Me unhappy because I already moved out all stuff in the car including two big car seats, but OK I hit the road.
On my way home, SA called me again: “I just called your insurance and they said you have to pay upfront and get reimbursement. We could not bill them directly”. (this was the first time he called my insurance)
I was surpised cause my imperssion was normally insurance should work with the dealer directly. Anyway, I called my insurance and indeed they don’t work with dealers only on glass claims. They could reimburse me for parts and labor ($40/h at most). However, here is the discrepency: the dealer charged $155/h labor and they’ve taken 5h on it.
I plan to negotiate with them maybe tomorrow to see if they are willing to go down to 40 labor. My point is, no matter what their presumtions are – me paying or insurance paying, they should get the authorization of the repair first before moving forward, which is required by state regulation. But they didn’t, verablly nor in-written. So this is a negligence on their side, and I should not over-pay the labor cost right?
What do you guys think? Any other reasons I’m missing in the whole story? Any negotiation experience? Thanks
I don’t have an answer per se, but I understand the confusion.
Places like Safelite are setup to do exactly what you wanted: fix/replace the windshield and direct bill your insurance.
Not to say that a Service Department at a dealer never deals directly with a customer’s car insurance, but it’s rare. Auto warranties (1st/3rd parties), sure.
Body shops deal with customer insurance all day long. Different software/staff/training.
My experience with service is: it comes down to what’s on the repair order you signed. Does it say anything about rates/billing insurance? What kind of preapproval did you give them?
Thanks for the reply. Yeah exactly my insurance works with Safelite. I actually went there first but somehow they got a broken windshield so I went to dealership instead rightway.
No I have never signed anything or given them any approval (verbally or in-written) on the repair rate, total price or any that sort. They didn’t even ask me for it. During the week they only texted me a few times saying the car needs more time to calibrate the camera stuff. They also texted me that they would call me after my insurance was put through (exact words, but they never did).
I guess I’m standing on a better position when negotiating?
How could it take them 5 hours to replace a windshield? The mobile people do it within an hour.
What they charge is almost never the actual time they spent, it’s based on labor repair estimate (how long it should take, and what the OEM will cover for warranty work).
If it has radar cruise or some techno magic that sits behind the windshield and needs calibration, it can take longer. 5 hours should include a hand-blown glass piece.
While it might not be common knowledge, it is pretty common that dealers and insurance companies do not work together on claims. If a car goes to a dealer for any body or glass work, it is usually outsourced to a local body shop or glass company. Some dealers have it set up where they are reimbursed for parts by the company they outsource to and others are 100% customer pay.
While your insurance company will not pay dealer rates for glass replacement, they will pay for calibration of cameras and safety equipment from a dealer. You need to find out how much they are charging for the glass replacement and how much for any recalibration. Then see if your insurance company will pay for the calibration service (labor and/or parts).
I had to go through this on my Audi S5. Cracked the windshield before a long road trip and a local dealer had the part in stock. I paid for everything on my own to get it done fast and then was reimbursed minus my deductible. Also, I had to talk to 2-3 different reps since one said they will not reimburse me since it wasn’t their provider and a more experienced one said that was incorrect. Your states laws could also affect this outcome.
As for any other negotiating, see what your insurance will cover and then talk to the service manager. Just highlight the fact that you never signed anything, gave consent verbal/written consent to start repairs, and never was given an estimate. Again depending on your state’s laws, they may or may not be allowed to start a repair without a signed repair order/estimate. If they did without your consent, you just got a free repair (again depends on your state’s laws).
I’m surprised you didn’t just work through the insurance company from the get-go. Sure you get stuck using their approved shops and doing it there way, but the upshot is by letting them have their adjuster inspect and approve along the process, you don’t have this kind of issue.
Getting all that insurance pre-approval is frustrating, but it certainly can help prevent you from going out of pocket with expenses which are unclear to what degree they’ll be reimbursed.
You might have a case against the dealer if they didn’t get the proper customer approval to go ahead with a repair, but they also can fight back and escalate to a mechanic’s lien if it comes to that.
I had sort of the opposite reaction.
I would have first gotten a quote from Safelite (with the Costco discount) and see if it’s even worth turning in a claim given my $500 comp deductible.
I’ve looked at full glass coverage on a handful of occasions, but the PEACE OF MIND hasn’t been worth it relative to the cost (over my lifetime I’ve never had to replace a windshield**).
** I probably shouldn’t have said that part out loud.
Every time I think about new tires, I get a flat.
Thanks for sharing. So before you paid everything for the windshield, did you talk to your insurance first to see what they will cover? Or you simply negotiated everything afterwards.
I talked with them first to make sure that everything would be covered minus my deductible. One rep said that they would only cover their provider’s rate (i.e. safelite), but then I talked with another who said that I can bring it anywhere I want and they will cover it. It was about $1500 total with all parts and labor.
Yeah I agree with you man, I also learned something. Initially I had the claim created in the insurance website. It doesn’t have much infomration about the process, so I assume the dealer would talk to my insurance to figure it out before they did the repair.
I won’t say to the dealer that I’m gonna pay nothing because it’s an unapproved repair. Just hope to negotiate with them in good faith to lower the labor cost so that I can get fully reimbursed. But if it really has to escalate, luckily I got a good legal plan from my employer to cover the lawyer. I guess I need to find consumer lawyer right?
Ah I see. Maybe I should call the insurance again. They told me they only cover 40/h labor. But in their website they also stated that I have the right to choose any facility to repair without any restrictions.
That kind of feels like one of those health insurance PPO things where you can go out of network, but you’ll have to go into your pocket for a heck of a lot more. Which might mean they’ll cover the repair up to their predetermined cost and any overage is on you. Probably worth getting some clarity from your insurance agent.
Confirm you are speaking to the actual insurance company you when you call back. I had the same issue with my insurance company as I found out after the fact that they outsourced everything glass related to Satellite including the claim process. They provided no alternate options and just told me “no nearby repair companies are approved”. I ended up getting it fixed out of pocket bc I wanted OEM glass and reached back to the insurance company to close the claim and they eventually covered it after verifying the repair cost was reasonable.
Oh good point. I use Geico. When I called them, they do have a separate glass claim depart.
They stated that I have the right to choose my own repair shop but they just don’t cover labor over 40/h. Did yours mention this similar restriction?