Belron Is Coming

[repare-brise]

And they hit hard and below the belt! One of the largest insurance companies here in Quebec sent $40,000,000 to belron last year, the reason they sent ti to them was that at the end of the year they got a $5,000,000 thank you note in the christmas card! Here they own 2 companies, Lebeau and Vitroplus. They even provide an inspection service for the insurance companies for when customers purchase a new(used )car, this service insures that the insured doesn't screw the insurance co out of a WS. Here they also run a call center for the insurance co's, not only do they force us to charge there asking price, but add $50 to the bill before sending it to the insurance co.

They can however be played with, but as others have said, quit the school yard squibbles, this is our home team against theres(and they are much bigger than we are) and as we know in the end of the film the underdog's alway's win, get the girl, and the cool car to boot(we have to dream a little). The best solution is to form a co-operative of independant WS professionals that are self policing as to technical competance, ethics, pricing, and professionalism

The way I have(along with my franchisee's) started against them is suttle(we all know they are monitoring this right?) but effective. Yes they try for the monopoly, but they don't always get what they want. We have managed to get a few indipendant(regional) insurance companies to use us as they first response team(we do only repairs, and only mobile), if the Ws is not repairable then we refer the customer for a replacement. We also engage without shame in steering practices, we steer the customer away from making a claim(last fiscal year I did 1200+ repairs with only 33 claims), this has the insurance brokers giving our cards to there customers.

I know that this next point will encite a little contoversy, but we are all allowed our opinion. State Farm is on the right track with there experimental policy of the WS being a commun wear part on a car. The positive effects of this for us is now the customer pays from his/her own pocket. No call centers=no steering. Also it has the effect that the customer will not wait for the Ws to crack out before repairing(a commun practice).

Merci

PS I know my spelling and grammer are not up to snuff, but all the programs on my computer are in french(spell check freaks out when I give it an english text), so I must rely on my english as a second langusge skills to compose in english.

[John62]

Hi Yvan,
Thank you for the reply.
I have dropped earlier my personal opinion on State Farm.
This is GOOD!
It will be a great opportunity for repair only guys when insurers stop paying for repairs AND replacements. It will make the motorists more aware. Since 85+% can be succesfully repaired, we will win this easily.
I know that this is not possitive for all of us, but it is the best possible solution. The ws industry must develop into a cash market. Any insurance company should stop paying for ws repair and replacement.
Motorists are not stupid, as soon as they have to pay themsleves for replacements, they will start to look for a repair only guy.
At the same time, the greedy ws replacement companies look stupid in front of the insurance industry.
Every ws replacement company should have a minimum repair ratio of 60% ...... that figure is easy to perform for them, but they don't for obvious reasons.

[sag canada]

i've been a belron employee for about 7 years now and their a great company to work for, at any time you can contact the president or c.e.o and they do respond to your concerns, they are huge but i dont think id open my own shop to compete with them, there always are franchise possibilities just about anywhere they pay good and have had me all over canada to run shops for them, if you know how to do your job and can talk with a customer honestly you have your career set in front of you, i like it

[Windshield Guy]

Any other tips to steer the consumer away from a claim repair-brise ? Thanks for the info.

[repare-brise]

WSG

I prefer to not call it sterring, it has a negative connotation to it, I prefer to educate my customers. We educate them about the pitfalls of insurance claims, yes a WS repair claim is minor but eventually it may catch up to you. I use 2 examples one is if an insurance company spends $50 it's becauce they are recieving $75 somewhere else, so your "free" repair is not free at all, instead of claiming this repair might I suggest no longer insuring your WS instaed, you will save upwards of $100-150 per year, have a reduced risk portfolio, therfore even lower rates eventually. The money you save every year will more than cover repairs and the odd repalcement(if you procrastinate on the repair).

I also use an example of what happened to one of my technicians a few years ago. 6 years ago he had a WS repair claim, 4 years ago he changed insurance companies, when doing so he was asked if he had filed any claims in the last 5 years, forgetting his insignificant WS repair he said no. 2 years ago his car was stollen, when he approached the insurance company to pay they declined, stating that he had lied on his insurance application, ommiting to state his prevoius claim history, at that point the WS repair was all but erased from his memory(but not the insurance companies computer). So his $50 dollar "savings" had suddenly turned into a $20,000 dollar loss. Needless to say he has never filed an insurance claim for his customers.

Another simpler example I use is StateFarm, I state that in a few test markets SF is no longer covering glass, now treating WS's as a normal wear item(your hood is full of stone chips, I don't see any insurance companies paying for that when you return your leased car). Then I say the better get used to it and just pay the $50 and get on with life.

If all else fails do the claim, and you may have another true life example to give your customers in the future.

Enjoy

PS SAG I have nothing against Belron, and especially there employee's(they send alot of business my way), I just feel they would do better if they got out of WS repair and concentrated on there strenghts, replacement, alarm systems, radios, remote starters, mags, and other accessories, and leave the repairs to people who are better equiped to do repairs.

[sag canada]

repare prise, have you got an english site? my french is pretty poor, i'd like to read what you have to offer.

thank you

sag

[repare-brise]

Sag

We d'ont have our site in english yet, but it is in the works. What we offer is WS repair, glass polishing and plastic restoration. All services are done on a mobile basis(we pay no rent), we deal with retail, wholesale, dealers, and fleets(if it's glass we will fix all that is logicaly repairable). If you have any questions please flle free to call me.

Yvan

[I_Hate_Butyl_Tape]

I might not make any friends by saying this, but whatever. I work at a Belron owned glass shop. I think that some of the accusations in this thread may be a bit misguided.

A few facts about belron... They have thousands of locations under various banners in 28 countries. In 2004, they purchased and installed over 4 million glass parts. This number is about to significantly increase due to the recent acuisition of Trans-Canada-Glass (TCG), another international mega company.

The independent shops, by the way, are a problem for us, as much as we are for them. They try to undercut each other's prices to the point where nobody makes money.

We charge $29.95 for a rock chip repair. We have for years. There are others as low as $9.95. There are shops that do DW1217 's for $165. Our price is $185 - $195. And we are NOT the reason why DW848 's have damn near no mark up at all. So now EVERYBODY has to do 3 times as much work to make the same profit.

We have to compete just like anybody else. We get the most work because we have the best reputation, not necessarily the best price. Most of our commercial clients choose to deal with us exclusively. We strive to expand our shop's productivity all the time, mostly by establishing new clients. That's what makes the difference between a successful business and the ones that aren't.

If you don't want to get bought out or "run out of town" then you need to establish a solid market for yourself. If you're in business you should be doing that anyway.

I have worked for some independents and competitors in the past. I have to say that no other company I have worked for has been more involved with training, upgrading, and ensuring that every employee does high quality work every time.

I spend a lot of my time (feeling bad) charging money to re-do or repair the shoddy work that an independent did. (Hence my screen name).

As for railroading insurance jobs? I do not know of any system Belron has in place where they operate call centres for insurance companies. (Do you have a phone number to back that claim?) If they are, then I agree that it is an unfair process.

I can only speak for my area when I say that we have no such system. Where I am, the law states that the owner of the vehicle gets to choose which shop does work on the vehicle, not the insurance company.

The insurance company may, however, recommend one. Sometimes it's us, sometimes it isn't. Usually the customer calls every glass shop in town looking for their deductible to be waived, which is against the law and against our policy. We lose a lot of insurance work because of that.

As for "benefits" for insurance companies, how about not ripping them off? I quote the same price to insurance companies that I do to any other customer. Most shops have an "insurance price" that is often double or triple the normal retail price. If you had an insurance company that bought millions of dollars worth of glass per year, what glass company would YOU recommend?

Belron is not the evil monster you think it is. Any company should do what is necessary to continue and expand it's success. The ones that don't simply disappear or sell out.

Survival of the fittest. That's life.