Denying Insurance Refferals

[ssbogger]

The situation is...

A few months ago I quit my job to do wsr full time. Two months later my old job called me back and asked me to come back to finish a job that would take approx 10 weeks. The old job is 4.5 hours away from home. I agreed. Now I am working 5 days a week 4.5 hours away from home and the location where my WSR is based. Some weekends I don't go home or am traveling to other locations to visit friends/family. I am only HOME for 4-6 days a month.

I have been getting 1-2 calls/week from HSG trying to give me a client but I am not able to take them due to my situation. I just tell the representative on the phone that: "I am out of town, won't be back for a few days and that I don't want to make the customer wait that long for a repair. Would you please find them another shop?"

Is this the way that you guys would go about this?
Can I call HSG directly and tell them to hold claims coming to my shop? I don't want to get 'blacklisted' by not taking claims.

[Dave M]

ssbogger,
Sorry to hear about your dilemma. It sounds like you are not quite ready to take on w/s repair as a full time business. You must have quit your old job on a good note or you would not have been asked back to complete a job. I have not been in your position, so take my opinion with a grain of salt! The way that you are handling it may be the best way. I'm not sure I would call HSG and have them remove you from their call list for 2 months. You must be losing other repair jobs as well? If so, how do you handle those? Maybe you should have a message on your phone stating that for personal reasons you are unable to assist them with the repair but will be back around January 1, 2013. If you expect your business to do well you must be there for your customers. I would put w/s repair on hold until that is possible.

[ssbogger]

ssbogger,
Sorry to hear about your dilemma. It sounds like you are not quite ready to take on w/s repair as a full time business. You must have quit your old job on a good note or you would not have been asked back to complete a job. I have not been in your position, so take my opinion with a grain of salt! The way that you are handling it may be the best way. I'm not sure I would call HSG and have them remove you from their call list for 2 months. You must be losing other repair jobs as well? If so, how do you handle those? Maybe you should have a message on your phone stating that for personal reasons you are unable to assist them with the repair but will be back around January 1, 2013. If you expect your business to do well you must be there for your customers. I would put w/s repair on hold until that is possible.

Thanks for the response Dave
The move back to my old company actually came at a pretty good time as I had just gotten set up with the TPA's and was getting ready to start "selling" WSR. My WSR business is still in the early stages and I hadn't started running around to the dealers, auto shops, fleets, etc yet so I don't have a customer base i.e. no one relies on my business as of yet. This to me seemed to be the perfect time to go back and make some more money that, in the long run, should provide me an extra 6 months or so of living without income if I needed it. In other words, the two months back at my old job will give me extra cushion in getting my WSR business set up and going. It will allow me to focus on WSR full time even when it's in the early stages and I'm not getting a steady income.
I actually did get some good info from one of the Delta Kits employees on how to handle HSG. I called them and asked to put my company status as "inactive" which will basically pull me off their call list. When I am ready, all I have to do is call back and request to be put back as "active" and everything is back to normal.

[ministry4u]

This is something I deal with from time to time. I have contacted other WSR businesses in the area and sub the jobs out. Something to look into. I try to make a few bucks but would rather sub it out at no profit than turn a job down. As far as making yourself inactive for a period of time, I did that for 1 weekend about 3 months ago for a specific town I cover and went from getting 2-4 referrals a week to 2-3 a month for that area. From now on I just sub them out so they're available when I want them. Places I've used for finding people is the delta kits list of people and I've used craigslist. I don't always go with the cheapest person. it depends on their training and equipment. For what that's worth. Just an idea.

[blind_squ]

I'll have to dig out my SGC, HSG, and Lynx contracts to find the specific wording but I'm pretty sure that at least SGC's has a clause that prohibits subbing out their referrals. I would evaluate the potential risk to the TPA relationship.
That said, I've seen a number of companies, small and large, that completely ignore it.

[candyman]

Good morning! I have several pokers in the fire at times. I normally tell HSG & Lynx that I cant do the jobs within a resonable time frame and to refer them to a shop that may be able to help the customer now. They put me back on rotation and that works for me. Sometimes I may get another call the next day or a week later. SGC calls when its something that they dont wont to go on or is remote, ie... one WS with three breaks for a fixed price of $65, 25 miles away from me and about 50 for them. You need to keep your shop active. The reason I say that is that I've gotten to the point I know some of the dispatch voices and have developed a little rapport with them. If they call other shops and have no luck they know they can count on me regardless, of where the customer is located or what the damage may be. The customers are giving positive feed back on my services. Dont pay those high fee's Lynx charges to process your claim either. Contact Korey or Brent and they may have some very helpfull information on that subject. When you start doing this full time again, visit your local insurance agents. They can provide customers that are not covered by insurance or dont want to file a claim.

[bill lambeth]

I am sooo blessed that I don't deal with this crap anymore ! I don't know why I still read but just a creature of habit!