Adjusters !!!!!!!!!!!!

[ronbeatty]

I get a phone call from an independent adjuster this morning about a clean water restoration job we did over Christmas. He tells my wife that my bill is outrageous and he wants to comment on it. He did not see the job until it was completed because (it happened when he was on vacation for the holiday). I have all the documentation, thermal images, pictures and humidity readings etc. He did not ask for them, just went off. I have a signed work authorization with a deposit. Called the customer last night she was very satisfied.

I have been doing this work for 15 years, Sometimes they just send you a check with no question, but lately everyone that I do is a pain in the butt.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Don't let it get you down Ron, they are doing what we've trained them to do. They scream and complain about price and someone gives in. Independents generally are tougher because they want to show the company they are contracting with that they saved them money. :x

Tell him you provided Outrageous service, so it's commensurate with the price. :wink:
Just kidding DON"T say that.

Justify the charges and offer him the proof that validates them.

 

[steve g]

I have better luck with independents actually, they seldom question anything on my bill. many of them will have me submit my mitigation bill direct, I seldom get questioned on my repair breakdowns, the only thing that does suck is it takes longer to get paid because you are dealing with a middle man, ie the independent adjuster.


**mod edit from deleted post*

there are a few adjusters that just can't be reasoned with. they have something in their mind and can't be talked out of it. if you encounter them again, I am doing this on every farmers job now BTW. since they supposedly can't put my name on the check, want to negotiate my bill down, and take forever to pay, will not respond to emails. I just hand my bill to the customer and have them submit it to be paid. the attitudes are gone and the last thing they wanna do is explain how they don't wanna pay something to the insured. if they don't pay it they could be sued big time by the insured. to me farmers in particular has lost the privilege of me dealing with them.

 

[Desk Jockey]

if they don't pay it they could be sued big time by the insured. to me farmers in particular has lost the privilege of me dealing with them.

Man, I'm just glad I don't have to deal with you!

You fight a good fight! 8)

 

[Hoody]

Ron,

This is the perfect opportunity to exploit the fact the home owner is THRILLED with your service. You need get to get them on your side. Explain whats going on, and have the homeowner get a call. Reminding them the contract is between yourself and them, and you don't want them to get stuck with the bill.

 

[ronbeatty]

Steve, I called the customer last night. She was thrilled with the quick response and the fact that we dried everything in place. We priced it out in exactimate, he says many of the prices are above what other restorers are charging him locally. I really don't give a rats a___, what everybody charges. It was over the Christmas holiday and we had E-tes, thermal imaging cameras and two Vortex's out with 3 men. !gotcha!

 

[Askal]

I got a call from an office adjuster today. She said (not very nicely) "I have some questions about your bill and there seems to be some problems that may cause us to not pay all charges". OOPS wrong start. I said "That's OK, if you want I can give you the customers # and you can let them know what items you will not pay for." Then she ways "What is a service call?" I said "Are you kidding, you don't know what a service call is and you are reviewing estimates?" It must have been her first day. The conversation went downhill from there and I said I had to go. Just amazing.
Al

 

[Al]

I got a real AH adjuster right now on a sewage job that re- flooded.
His summary was less then 1/2 of ours. I can't even begin to tell you the stuff this guy tried to pull but the clients Love us and hate the adjuster "from hell". I stood my ground and kept the clients in the loop. He called the clients and told them " Al is holding this whole thing up with his high prices, its going to take weeks to hash it out!"
My clients are Indian and there is a small laguage barrier, the client called me about my high prices a little upset.

That was the adjusters first atempt to "throw us under the bus". You see this is a game to him, now he put the client in the middle of the game.
I quickly made a print out for the client, at the top I had an image of gears in motion, representing Al's and an adjustable wrench representing the adjuster "sticking a wrench in the gears".

Then an explanation of my pricing and a couple of notes about the adjuster. Basically it it explained that Al's uses Xactamate which was created by the insurance industry and it is fair.

Next I Had the client call the adjuster and tell him Al came right over and showed us his pricing and how it was created by YOUR INDUSTRY and it is fair!

Now I shoved the adjuster infront of the bus. LOL He gets thown under later!

Then I pointed out how the adjuster used depreciation on structure items and my clients have replacment value insurance.

Now they sent out a supervisor to the home and he had a form to rate the adjuster, my clients said everything he did was wrong on the whole form, plus they had to ad stuff. And they spoke very highly of us to the supervisor.

They have a 1.5 million dollar home and the job come to a near stand still, while were waiting on this adjuster.

The game aint over yet but we are going to win. 8)

 

[ronbeatty]

Update. The adjuster finally called me back yesterday after I made 3 calls to his office. My message on my last call was just that being he had not returned my calls, (I ASSUMED he had no further questions since he did not return my calls). He calls me back with an attitude. He told me that my pricing was way out of line with my competitors, it was priced with Exactimate. I told him I don't know what my competitors charge and I really do not care, the work was performed in a timely manor and I expected payment in full, or I would exercise for my terms for collection under our contract with the customer. He told me that I would do no more work with him in the future, I told him that I had never heard of him in the last 15 years so I didn't think that would be a big deal to me. The only time I run into this is when I am dealing with independent adjusters.

 

[topnotchman]

I've had good luck with independent adjusters. Most times the bill isnt really questioned and the check is cut. Most my jobs aren't really big (under 5k) though. One time I did a job around 3,800 bucks and an independent adjuster came out days later after the job was started, and I sent in the bill to him. The main insurance company he worked with were disputing $60. I laughed and the independent was on the phone with me and even told me "someone has to get paid to do a job looking over invoices" so it was funny, and even he knew it was B.S... I actually just said go ahead and adjust it cuz it was taking too long to get paid anyways. Oh well pinching pennies I guess.

 

[Greg Cole]

I've had good luck with independent adjusters. Most times the bill isnt really questioned and the check is cut. Most my jobs aren't really big (under 5k) though. One time I did a job around 3,800 bucks and an independent adjuster came out days later after the job was started, and I sent in the bill to him. The main insurance company he worked with were disputing $60. I laughed and the independent was on the phone with me and even told me "someone has to get paid to do a job looking over invoices" so it was funny, and even he knew it was B.S... I actually just said go ahead and adjust it cuz it was taking too long to get paid anyways. Oh well pinching pennies I guess.

We are getting alot of these $60-$90 adjustment requests lately. Our operations manager is seriously thinking that I am having our adjusters play jokes on him!

 

[steve g]

Update. The adjuster finally called me back yesterday after I made 3 calls to his office. My message on my last call was just that being he had not returned my calls, (I ASSUMED he had no further questions since he did not return my calls). He calls me back with an attitude. He told me that my pricing was way out of line with my competitors, it was priced with Exactimate. I told him I don't know what my competitors charge and I really do not care, the work was performed in a timely manor and I expected payment in full, or I would exercise for my terms for collection under our contract with the customer. He told me that I would do no more work with him in the future, I told him that I had never heard of him in the last 15 years so I didn't think that would be a big deal to me. The only time I run into this is when I am dealing with independent adjusters.

thats funny I have had the very same attitude from an adjuster I have never met, then low and behold I get them 2 more times in the next 2 mos on a loss. its really strange it happens that way.

 

[Steve Toburen]

Independents generally are tougher because they want to show the company they are contracting with that they saved them money.

I hate it when Chavez nails it. But so it is. The independent adjuster in general is in peril. Just note the posts above that say the independent adjuster basically "rubber stamped" my bill. Say what you will about insurance companies, they have not become billion dollar enterprises by being stupid. So many claims managers are basically saying, "Hey, why am I paying this joker $800.00 to $2,000.00 to 'adjust' this claim when I can 'rubber stamp' this bill long distance for free!"

Steve "Island Boy" Toburen
www.StrategiesForSuccess.com

PS I had one independent I had worked with for years start to red pencil me like crazy. I asked him why? He basically told the me what I wrote above. So I said, "Glenn, what are we going to do? You and I are joined at the hip. You need me, I need you. I want you to stay in business and I assume you want me to stay in business since you don't want to be sucking water at 3 AM!"

So here is what Glenn and I discreetly came up with. I submitted my bill directly to him- he wrote it up on his claims form using my numbers (which came from Exactimate) and sent it off to the insurance company and looked like a hero since he generated the loss estimate. Everybody was happy and we did it all by working behind the scenes instead of being confrontational. This won't work with an adjuster unles she is a savvy individual that trusts you. But with the right person it is a wonderful thing. (Let me stress there was nothing dishonest here- all numbers were from Exactimate and I never took advantage of the relationship nor did he except to cover his rear with the insurance company.)

For more sneaky "down in the trenches" ideas on success in restoration (I got most of them from Chavez) just go to:

http://www.strategiesforsuccess.com/174 ... n-business

The download is free IF you live outside of Alabamer ...

 

[Supersucker]

Oh nevermind