What You Need To Know About Car Insurance Claims
EPISODE 3
Car accidents can be overwhelming and difficult. Filing a claim and working through the aftermath of your accident shouldn't add on to the stress. On this episode we talk to Brent Maier, owner of Charlie's Auto Body, and he walks us through how to efficiently work through a car insurance claim and a few things you should know about your claim.
In This Episode:
About Brent and Charlie’s Auto Body
Challenges and Setbacks for Car Repairs
The Car Parts Shortage and Effects on Getting Vehicles Repaired in a Timely Manner
What To Look For in Your Auto Insurance Policy
What It Looks Like To File an Auto Insurance Claim (and What To Expect Throughout The Process)
New Vehicle Technology and How That Impacts Your Auto Insurance
Podcast Episode Transcription
Intro:
Welcome to the (un)covered podcast, brought to you by Manna Insurance Group, where we pull back the curtain on the insurance industry and provide valuable insights, guidance, and truth so that you can make informed decisions when choosing the right insurance.
Dan Vander Kooi:
Hey everybody, welcome to the (un)covered podcast. I'm Dan Vander Kooi with Manna Insurance Group. I'm really excited to have Brent Maier here today from Charlie's Auto Body. And Brent, welcome to our podcast.
Brent Maier:
Thanks for having me on.
Dan Vander Kooi:
You and I have gotten to know each other over the years. When our clients have an insurance claim or there's a vehicle in an accident, you're the first person that we have them call and get things going. I know I've had a few over the years too.
Brent Maier:
Unfortunately.
Dan Vander Kooi:
Unfortunately, but tell us a little bit about who you are, how you got into the auto repair industry and what you guys are about.
Brent Maier:
So as you said, Charlie's Auto Body, I've owned that for roughly 10 years now. Kind of took bits and pieces of it from my family. It was originally started by my grandfather in 1958 and then my father more or less worked for him, took over ownership in the nineties and then I worked for my dad starting at about 14, sweeping after high school, and then slowly got worked into the office. Originally, it wasn't something I thought I wanted to do forever. I was originally going to try to be an engineer, but as I was going to college I had more time in between class to work at the shop and that's when my dad really pushed me into the office. And I just saw how much help I was doing in there as far as learning how to write estimates, taking the load off of him, finding ways to kind of help improve the business, so that's when I caught my passion for it.
Dan Vander Kooi:
Well, if you were looking at engineering too and those details a little bit too, coming into fine-tuning a business and running it, it kind of lends itself to that creativity but also the minute details of trying to make things go smoothly, right?
Brent Maier:
Yeah, sometimes I feel like I try to over-complicate the process, like we could shave three minutes off of this if we do it a little bit more efficiently. But ultimately it's just your presented problems all day as far as you're dealing with broken things that come to you, like a car, and then you're just trying to figure out the best way to get it back to how it was before. So I kind of like that constant problem solving.
Dan Vander Kooi:
Yeah. So you have Charlie's Auto Body in Lynden and you also have another shop too, correct, in Bellingham?
Brent Maier:
Correct. In 2020, a business partner and I, Tim Burger, a lot of you guys might know him, bought into Grand Central Collision, and it wasn't a great time to get into a shop, but it's been a really good move long term now that we're more established. And it's been nice to have the two shops to be able to kind of carry the load when one gets a little bit burned in some tasks or just to have the fact that we have 16 staff members now at Charlie's and 14 at Grand Central. Almost any one of those people have gone through an issue if I don't know how to solve I can rely on the staff to really kind of guide me through what they did in that circumstance last time. So that's a nice resource.
Dan Vander Kooi:
And it's just nice having a team. We have the same thing here. I have people, I've got Ben who handles employee benefits that is really the expert in that way more so than me, and I've got Caleb in commercial or Talysa in personal lines... having those team members that you can go to that collaboratively work on things is great. I think one of the things that's been really interesting now, and my wife was rear-ended two, three months ago, which you know, you're well aware of.
Brent Maier:
I know a bit about.
Dan Vander Kooi:
So she was sitting at a stop sign and rolled forward a little bit, someone kind of rolled into her, wasn't hit hard at all or anything like that, but on a Suburban it caused some damage to the bumper. And so first thing we did is I called you guys, your team's awesome, they always take great care of us. They always check in with us on a weekly basis. But brought in and got the estimate, dropped it off, Enterprise came, got us a rental car, and now we're going on two, three months in a rental car, not because of you but the reason I bring that up is I would love for you to just share a little bit about where the industry's at right now. Part of why we're doing this podcast is because the insurance industry has a ton of changes going on right now, but also there's some, on the auto repair side, there's some challenges.
Brent Maier:
Yeah, challenges, and it always seems like there's something. But your example is kind of a perfect example of how things can seem like they're going wrong, but you're doing everything you can to mitigate it.
Dan Vander Kooi:
And I want to make sure too, it's nothing that they did. They've been awesome. I get a weekly phone call from Brent's office checking in, letting us know what's going on, but there's a big strike going on, there's a shortage of parts and all that stuff. Do you want to just dive into a little bit of that and so that way people know what to expect when coming in?
Brent Maier:
Yeah, exactly. So everything you went through is pretty typical. You have the accident and typically you're going to either talk to your insurance company, you're going to give Dan a call and see what's going on or you're going to come in for an estimate and kind of see if it's worth going through insurance or not, depending on the cost. So that's pretty standard. We got the estimate approved by insurance really quick on Dan's job, got him scheduled, we ordered in all the parts we initially thought we were going to need, got it into the shop, so everything's going as planned. Got Dan's wife into a rental car, they meet you at the shop when that happens.
Dan Vander Kooi:
Which is really nice not having to drive to the Enterprise thing and they took care of everything. They were awesome.
Brent Maier:
So far, so good. Everything's going as normal. And then what happens a lot of times once we get the vehicle in, we don't disassemble the car until it comes into the shop because we don't want to leave it disabled. We want you to be able to drive it in the meantime while we're getting all those parts ordered up. But once we got it apart, we realized there was some bracketing on the back of the bumper that was damaged to the extent to where if we tried to repair it might not fit as proper. And every car deserves the same repair, but especially on a brand new Suburban you'd want everything to look like it did before. So a replacement was necessary to get it to where it was before. And within the couple of weeks before Dan brought his Suburban in, the UAW, which is a union leader for a lot of the automotive makers that are domestic, so Ford, GM and Chrysler, they went on strike and they kind of pick and choose what factories they shut down depending on-
Dan Vander Kooi:
The leverage they want.
Brent Maier:
Yeah, the leverage they want. So unfortunately one of those was the factory that produces a lot of the Suburbans and Suburban parts. It also doesn't help that unfortunately the bumper, there's a few different options on that Suburban, and of course you have the particular one that has the bumper that's less common. It's also a new model year, so they didn't have the inventory so it was already going to be a little difficult to get the part, but on top of that they just stopped making them.
So, in this scenario this brings me to a point where you're in a good place with the rental because it was the other party at fault, but it's always good to check in on your insurance coverage as far as rental coverage goes, because this is becoming a more common issue where if there's a parts delay, we can't just 3D print a part for you. We can't just run down to the parts store and grab it. Sometimes you're just at the mercy of when the manufacturer's going to get it to you. So knowing that you have rental coverage or knowing your limits on that is going to be immensely helpful when there's a delay like this.
Dan Vander Kooi:
And honestly, a lot of times... Every carrier's a little different. I think the highest I've seen coverage is about 75 bucks a day. The lowest is typically 20, which doesn't get you much. And usually there's a cap around like a thousand or $1,500 or 30 days max. In my situation, we're going on where we've been in a rental Suburban now for, gosh, a month and a half, two months maybe, somewhere in there. And again, if I was at fault my own policy would've probably been exceeded, but since it was someone else, at least our rental vehicles covered for this time.
Brent Maier:
And a big vehicle like you're in right now, that gets expensive every day.
Dan Vander Kooi:
It does, yeah, it's probably 75 to 100 bucks a day. And when you're used to driving something and we've got three kids and toting sports and then bringing other people's kids with it, yeah, you're used to it, wet football gear in the back and all that stuff.
Brent Maier:
One thing we can do to help mitigate it if we're stuck up against this kind of scenario, is it's not ideal because obviously I want to deliver a car to you finished, but if someone is kind of hitting the rental limits and they're going to start paying out of pocket, a lot of times we can try to do a temporary repair and get the vehicle back on the road and get you back in when that part arrives.
Dan Vander Kooi:
We're still safe and legal and everything like that.
Brent Maier:
Exactly.
Dan Vander Kooi:
And I think too, really quick, that's another thing just to highlight about you guys that I appreciate is, you're looking at all those angles. And as I said before too it seems like there's constant communication from your team and that goes a long ways because otherwise you just kind of wonder like, "Oh, I wonder if anything happened this week."
Brent Maier:
If you wait three months to call us then do you really... It just makes it more transparent, we're not trying to hide anything from you. We have to break bad news to people all the time and it's better just to let them know as soon as you know or within a few hours of you having a solution to it to say, "Hey, we ran into this issue, but this is what we're working towards now." So just staying in contact with the customer and letting them know what you know as best you can.
Dan Vander Kooi:
So are you seeing more and more the vehicle repairs just taking longer due to the strike, due to lack of inventory, that sort of thing? Is there any typical timeframe or is it kind of honestly at the mercy of just getting the parts now?
Brent Maier:
It's very hit or miss. Some parts have not had any issues. Sometimes you're waiting weeks and weeks for that part. And we kind of talked about it earlier, when we call a vendor and order a part they typically can give you a date range, but a lot of times now they don't give us any. And sometimes it shows up in three days, sometimes it shows up in six weeks. That's the frustrating part where a lot of the dealers don't even want to give you a promise date because they know it's most likely not going to happen on that date. So it's frustrating for me to update customers and say, "I don't know," because I always want to try to give people an answer, but unfortunately it's kind at the mercy of someone else who also doesn't know when it's going to happen.
Dan Vander Kooi:
Yep. One of the things that we've kind of talked about in the podcast and even the reason that we call it (un)covered, is we're kind of pulling back the curtain a little bit on the insurance industry. People either typically have a really negative connotation of insurance or a positive one. And I always tell our clients too, or I tell our team members, that if we really go above and beyond during claims for clients and we represent them well, there's only so much we can do as a broker, it's up to the carrier, but if we do really well we can earn a client for life.
Brent Maier:
Absolutely.
Dan Vander Kooi:
What are you seeing when working with insurance carriers that is a frustration point for you? And I know over the years we've even talked about labor pricing and that kind of stuff like that, but also what are the things that you've seen carriers maybe step up and do a good job with? Because you're going to have good and you're going to have bad, right?
Brent Maier:
Even the best carrier has a bad day and even the worst one surprises you with good news every once in a while.
Dan Vander Kooi:
But what's something that people should be aware of when they go through this claim process from an insurance carrier?
Brent Maier:
So some of the best insurance carriers, what they do well is the speed they process the claim, but even insurance carriers have noticed or have had an influx of claims and it seems like it takes longer for a claim to be processed. So just be aware that there's probably going to be a few days that you're not going to hear back from the insurance adjuster if you're waiting for them to approve an estimate. That's one frustration that we have a lot is once we get your car in the shop, we take it apart, we find additional damage, we need to wait typically for an approval from the insurance company that they're okay with the additional repairs. They believe it's related and they are okay with the parts being selected, because they also, depending on how the policy is written, they have a say on what kind of parts go on the vehicle, at least initially.
So there's just a delay on that side. Sometimes where we take your car apart, we'd love just to order the parts and proceed but we have to wait a couple days. And that's pretty typical to wait one or two days but sometimes it can take weeks and it almost seems like they've forgotten about you. I try to leave the customer out of that aspect as much as we can, but unfortunately on some carriers they're going to... the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and sometimes a call from a customer helps. But Dan would probably be able to speak to that better because he's more than willing I'm sure to be the squeaky wheel.
Dan Vander Kooi:
Yeah, we usually kind of jump in if it's taking too long and we jump in, that's what we're here for, right?
Brent Maier:
That's not always common, but that's something that we run into a lot.
Dan Vander Kooi:
Have you ever had it where bids, like you do a bid and an insurance company comes back and says, "No, I don't want to pay that,"?
Brent Maier:
Oh, I was going to bring it up because that is a fairly typical thing that we run across. We see more of that in insurance companies to try to speed up the process. They have the customer send them photos of the damage and then based on blurry, bad angled photos, the insurance company just writes an initial estimate. And a lot of people get worked up because I'll supply an estimate because we saw the vehicle in person, it could be $6,000, and then the insurance company gives them an estimate for 950 bucks.
Dan Vander Kooi:
And you're like, "Wait a minute, there's a five grand difference here."
Brent Maier:
There's a little bit of a difference there. But I try to tell people don't get worked up, this is kind of just a starting point for the insurance company. They just had to get something on paper. And what this does a good job of is at least they're identifying where the damage is that they're agreeing to pay for and we can build off of this. It's nice that they at least got the photo estimate done so now we have something to work with, because otherwise if they were going to send out someone in person it could have been weeks. So at least we have something to start with. Although it is frustrating to get those really chopped up estimates, at least it's something to work with.
But going back to how an estimate can be less, something that you can do with your policy that helps sometimes, is a lot of times why it's less is we're going to write for original equipment parts as much as we can, which are parts made by your manufacturer. So if you drive a Ford, it's a Ford part, where there's usually quite a few alternative parts out there made by aftermarket vendors and the quality may not be the same standard. The fit quality might be a little off as well. But I know we've talked in the past about how there's usually an option for some type of OEM policy but it usually costs you a little bit more, but if it's something that concerns you it might be worth that money. But I don't know, does every insurance carrier offer an OEM policy?
Dan Vander Kooi:
Not every carrier does, but some do. It's one of those things where it doesn't get brought up a lot to be honest, but it's one of those deals where if you really want to make sure that those parts stay the same, that you need to specify that. And it just depends on if you're willing to pay extra for it, and that's the thing is with insurance you kind of get what you pay for.
Brent Maier:
Exactly, because aftermarket parts do help keep the policy down, so ultimately you're benefiting from it one way or another. But we have ways to kind of mitigate that as well. If an insurance company writes for a bunch of aftermarket parts, which they pretty much all do, we can get a lot of those parts price matched by the manufacturer, which it hits our profit a little bit because we're getting a smaller margin on a cheaper part. But there's a lot of time savings there because we're not fiddling around with these aftermarket parts figuring out they're not going to work, waiting for the new parts to arrive that we know are going to work. The insurance company will pay for an OEM part once you document that aftermarket's not going to work, but to go through that process it can add weeks to the repair. So it's just a little bit more efficient and better for the customer if we price match in the first place.
Dan Vander Kooi:
It's interesting, insurance rates continue to increase, I'm convinced of that for numerous reasons. I think there's just way more litigation and lawsuits that go in, which means carriers are paying out more. Things that used to cost 1500 bucks, two grand to fix, is probably four to five grand now or even more. The other thing that I'd be really curious from your standpoint is there is so much stinking technology in vehicles nowadays. Vehicles are just computers now pretty much, right, in a lot of ways. We haven't even got into electric vehicles and some of that stuff. But just in general, I mean you've got all the minivan doors that slide open and close automatically with a button press. You have all the different cameras now everywhere on vehicles and you have all the navigation stuff like I have in our Suburban, like if we start to drift a little bit, it kicks us back.
Brent Maier:
It notices that you're going over the line,
Dan Vander Kooi:
And it just kind of brings you back. And there was one time I think we were driving to eastern Washington and there's no one on the road around and I was like, "I just want to see how this does it."
Brent Maier:
Like how long can you last?
Dan Vander Kooi:
Yeah, like how much will it... it was interesting. So all that new technology comes in, what's maybe the coolest technology piece that you've seen on a vehicle, but then also how has that affected how you guys repair vehicles and maybe technology that you've needed to put in your shop or anything like that?
Brent Maier:
Yeah, so that's a great point. A lot of the costs now associated with repairs is parts and a lot of those like your cameras and the sonar sensors in your bumper or the radars, those are very expensive pieces as well and they typically require some type of calibration to be done once they're on there because most of the time you can't just plug it in and send it down the road. You have to make sure it's aimed properly and there's a lot of software and targets that the dealership has to use. But probably one of my favorite pieces would be the adaptive cruise control.
Dan Vander Kooi:
Oh yeah.
Brent Maier:
I know it's been around but it's getting more common and I just think that's so nice that it's actually a cruise control that adjusts for you. And so the idea is there's a radar that sits in your front bumper and it detects how far away a vehicle is from you. And as you approach that vehicle, it's going to slow down your speed so you're constant distance away from that vehicle. So where cameras are awesome, I love the 360 degree cameras and whatnot, this is actually more or less is an interface to your driving experience as well because it's going to apply the brakes for you or the gas for you rather than just being at a set speed. At the same time it's scary though because you have to remember to hit the brake eventually.
Dan Vander Kooi:
Yeah, yeah. I don't know if it was a state trooper or sheriff's deputy I was talking to the other day, and they were saying they believe that 90% of all accidents right now can be prevented. And two main things that they see in all accidents right now, number one following too closely, so tailgating. And number two, distracted driving using these things. Even with Bluetooth and Apple CarPlay and everything in the vehicles, people are still distracted and looking at emails and texts and that sort of thing. And if you actually just drive down the street and you actually just are aware of the other drivers around you and you start to look for it, you'll realize like, man, every like third car someone's looking at their phone. And so again, insurance companies right now have had more claims, I feel like, than they've ever had. And a lot of it is coming from those two things and that's backed by law enforcement. And so it's really interesting just to see that play out. And with all this technology and things like that, it's also a detriment, we still have to drive the vehicle.
Brent Maier:
As the screens get bigger in cars too, but a lot of the new safety features like you were mentioning, like emergency braking now is in place where if you have a camera that kind of tells you if you're staying within the lanes, a lot of those act as... you'd have to check with your manufacturer and make sure it applies, I'm not going to say it's going to do it for you... but it also will detect when you're approaching a vehicle too quickly it's going to apply the brakes for you. It may not stop you from hitting that car, but it's going to make it less of an impact. So they are trying to develop these technologies to mitigate accidents.
Dan Vander Kooi:
So when you're going through and you have to repair something like that or recalibrate, are there certain certifications or trainings that you guys do that you are a part of? Is it kind of just the manufacturer gives you the specifications that you have to repair them to and go from there? You're probably constantly having to learn all this new stuff, right?
Brent Maier:
Absolutely. So we've changed how we intake vehicles now, all the way from when we're writing the estimate to when we're scheduling them for drop-off. We do a lot more research now with the vehicle manufacturers' websites on what it is that we need to do to fix this car properly. It would seem like it's very straightforward. You're still just taking a bumper off, but depending on what the manufacturer says, if you take that bumper off that radar that sits behind it may need to be calibrated, it may not be. But each manufacturer's different on what they say so we have a staff member now that's just dedicated to looking at what's coming in on the schedule and diving into procedures related to that repair in each one and making sure that's available for the technicians to review. And as far as us doing it in-house, there's quite a few requirements to get that done.
We've looked at some of the technology that's out there, but a lot of it's based off aftermarket tools and ultimately we have a lot of certifications and all our certifications say we really need to be using OEM software and OEM targets and procedures. So what we found that works best for us is to partner with the dealership. So if it's a Ford we'll bring it down to Ford and have Ford calibrate it because they're using Ford software, rather than have us do it in-house and we're using some third party software, some third party target. There's a lot of liability on that. And we also, to have the certifications we have, we have to abide by those rules. So that's kind of how we handle the recalibration. A lot of it's just the fact that you need to figure out what needs to be calibrated and if I plug in a sensor is it going to be fine or does it need to have something done additionally to make sure it's safe? Because it's going to work, but is it going to work properly?
Dan Vander Kooi:
Yeah, yeah. So what would you say is the thing, I mean there's a lot of auto body shops out there, it seems like everyone's fairly booked out right now, but what sets what you guys do apart?
Brent Maier:
Well, I could start with the factor locally owned. There's not a whole lot of those around anymore.
Dan Vander Kooi:
We're big fans of that. We're the same way.
Brent Maier:
Yeah, exactly. You're like the last man standing too.
Dan Vander Kooi:
It feels like it.
Brent Maier:
So we're locally owned, but what does that mean for you? It means that we're invested in the community. I'm going to probably see you in the store and you might be my neighbor. I have a vested interest to make sure what we're doing is right for you because we plan on being around for another 60 years minimum. So the fact that we're local stands out there. But we've been around for a long time and some companies in Lynden can be kind of known as conservative as in they kind of do things the same way forever. But we try to be on the forefront of what is changing in these cars. The big thing in the last few years has been OEM certifications and that's where Ford will come out and say, "You need to have these tools, this equipment, this training. If you have all that and we do an inspection and you pass, we will say you are certified to work on our cars."
So I went through and saw anything we did, 5% or more of the work we did was say Honda or Subaru, I went out and pursued the certifications for that program. So anything that we work on, the majority of our customer's vehicles, we have the certification for that. But it also opens your eyes to what is changing because the manufacturer is going to make you adapt years before you actually have to. Like GM, we just got on board with their EV Hummer, we're certified to work on EV Hummers. Am I going to see one anytime soon? No.
Dan Vander Kooi:
Probably not.
Brent Maier:
Probably not, but EVs unfortunately, for better or worse they're coming, especially in this state. So the fact that we're EV certified for Hummer means we're also EV certified for Silverados, and Lynden is a Silverado town.
Dan Vander Kooi:
I don't know what you're talking about. I don't drive a Silverado.
Brent Maier:
Everyone drives a Silverado.
Dan Vander Kooi:
I don't see like three other blue trucks like mine.
Brent Maier:
But it's just a matter of being on that side of things, just being aware, you don't want to be reactive to that stuff. You want to be proactive. So we're constantly looking at trying to improve what we do and stay ahead on that side. And then we've always put an emphasis on customer service. That's really been our staple over the years, just making sure we're taking care of customers, making sure they're happy, and at the end of the day it's referral work that keeps us busy. We do a little bit of advertising but it's usually, "Oh, I talked to my neighbor and they said you guys were great," that kind of stuff.
Dan Vander Kooi:
Word of mouth is always the best. And if you treat people right and you do a good job and you're knowledgeable on what you do, people share that. They share that experience. All right, so to kind of close and wrapping things up here, what would you say... obviously we have a good working relationship... what would you say is important on the front end, and I guess last words of wisdom for a client, how insurance can impact the final outcome when you're working on stuff too? We've talked about OEM, we've talked about processes. Does it really matter if they're going online and buying insurance versus having someone local that's going to kind of help walk them through the process? Do you notice a difference in those scenarios?
Brent Maier:
Yeah, a lot of times if you're going to be out buying insurance online they're typically going to be maybe the most affordable insurance you can find, but going back to what we talked about, you get what you pay for. It's always worth dealing with, in my opinion, dealing with someone like Dan or Manna and having them pair you up with who's best suited for you. I mean, there's a lot to insurance. I don't ever try to claim that I'm an expert on it. When a customer comes in, it's like, "Please talk to your agent." There's so much more that goes into it. So for a customer to go out and try to think they're picking out the right coverage needs for themselves that's kind of-
Dan Vander Kooi:
It can backfire once they get it to you, right?
Brent Maier:
It can backfire, because we have it more often than not that if you're involved in a collision or you hit someone, you may have the minimum coverage and you never realize that it's $10,000. That doesn't go very far and they potentially could be coming after you if that limit comes up. Or if you're hit by a driver that only has $10,000 in coverage. We've had it where they end up having to go through their own insurance. So just having someone that's educated that can tell you what fits your needs, I think, is major in that sense.
Dan Vander Kooi:
Thanks for being on today and thanks for all you do for our clients and our community. It's been a great partnership and I just really appreciate you and your team. And it's nice to be able to refer some people too, that you know that they're going to have the same level of integrity and service. And the partnership with Charlie's for Manna and our community has been awesome and so I can't thank you enough for that. Thanks for taking the time today to just kind of educate people and pull back the curtain a little bit on the collision industry.
Brent Maier:
Absolutely. Thank you, Dan, for having me on and vice versa, it's always nice to know if we have someone that's looking to shop around you can send someone somewhere you know you can trust and they're not just going to try to sell you on something just to get you in the books essentially.
Dan Vander Kooi:
Absolutely. Thanks, Brent. Thanks everybody for tuning in and we'll see you again soon.
