Ever since we started this blog I have talked about the windshield stalkers out there and have tried to inform consumers of their practices and to take action to prevent these stalkers from forcing them into filing a claim. Turns out at TeleGlass we are ahead of the curve.
Recently the National Insurance Crime Bureau has caught on and teamed up with our competition to run several short commercials in an effort to inform consumer’s of this practice. I’m not bitter or anything that they teamed up with our competition, just saying, I was talking about this over a year ago…
Read more from Rachel Letourneau.
System Process Manager, Rachel has been with Teleglass for six years. In addition to making a mean birthday cake, Rachel has an extensive grasp of the auto glass business. Find her on Twitter: @rachelcrocker.
At TeleGlass we are asked every day if a customer has coverage or not. Most people have no idea where their coverage for auto glass is, or how any of it works. Since it is so confusing, I am going to put my insurance adjuster hat (yes, I am a licensed property & casualty adjuster) on and lay it out for everyone.
First things first. Your auto glass coverage is bundled into your comprehensive insurance coverage. Comprehensive coverage is coverage for your auto that covers damage NOT caused by a collision. Comprehensive coverage covers a host of different things, such as auto glass, fire, theft, vandalism, damage from animals, damage from flying objects and weather (storm) related damage.
With comprehensive coverage you have a deductible, just like you have a deductible with your collision coverage. The deductible is your portion to pay when it comes time to pay for the claim. For Example, let’s assume you have a $250 deductible and need a windshield replacement. For this example we can say a windshield replacement will cost $400. The amount billed to the insurance company would be $400 (windshield) – $250 (deductible) for a total of $150 billed to the insurance company.
Read more from Rachel Letourneau.
System Process Manager, Rachel has been with Teleglass for six years. In addition to making a mean birthday cake, Rachel has an extensive grasp of the auto glass business. Find her on Twitter: @rachelcrocker.
Not all states offer glass specific policies, but Louisiana has joined the ranks.
Governor Bobby Jindal signed a bill that allowed vehicle insurers to offer specific policies to cover windshield damage. This sounds a lot like the coverage I had added to my policy when I lived in Arizona… and I loved that coverage. Made auto glass claims a breeze!
Read more from James Lee.
In 2009 he joined TGSC Group as the managing director of product development. James brings expertise in customer satisfaction and service delivery to the team. He guest blogs for TeleGlass and is an amateur photographer. Find him on Twitter @jronaldlee.
Did you know that your credit score can be used to calculate what your auto insurance rates will be?
It starts with the actuary. That’s a job title – this person is the math geek at the insurance company who tries to predict how much, on average, people just like you will cost the company in claims per year. For example, take all the men between the age of 24 and 29 who have one minor driving infraction over the past five years, and using a series of calculations that can best be described as multi-dimensional calculus (I’ve studied this a bit, and it’s hard), you figure out what the average guy in that group will cost the company. Then you add factors like what kind of car he drives, how far he drives, how many days a week he works, whether he has more than one kind of car, whether he wants full glass coverage on his vehicle, and you add it all up to come up with the rate he will pay for auto insurance.
If the actuary can prove, statistically, that if that guy has a credit score below 500, he is more likely to be in an auto accident, the insurance company can charge that guy more for insurance.
There doesn’t have to be a causal relationship. There just has to be a demonstrable correlation.
It’s like this – storks don’t bring babies, but before electricity, homes with new born children were more likely to run the fireplace constantly, making areas near the chimney consistently warm. Storks are smart, and when they choose places to build their nests, they figured out that a chimney over a fire place that runs full time is a better place to raise baby storks. People saw storks nesting near chimneys of homes that have new born children, and 300 years later we have the story of storks bringing babies.
Storks didn’t cause the babies, but there was a predictable relationship between babies and storks on the roof. Statistically, if a home had storks nesting near the chimney, the home was more likely to have a baby in it.
Insurance is the same way.
If you have a low credit score, regardless of the circumstances that led you to that point, you’re now part of a population that is slightly more likely to create an auto insurance claim. That means some insurance companies use this to raise the rates of people with lower credit scores (and lower the rates of people with high credit scores). Worst case scenario, some companies might even cancel a policy.
Some states are doing something about it. For example, New Hampshire just passed H-1236, which prohibits the credit score of a policy holder of being the determining factor in canceling a policy. Insurance companies can still use it as part of the decision, but it cannot be the only reason.
It’s a confusing topic… what do you think? Should your insurance company use your credit score when it determines how much your coverage should cost?
Read more from James Lee.
In 2009 he joined TGSC Group as the managing director of product development. James brings expertise in customer satisfaction and service delivery to the team. He guest blogs for TeleGlass and is an amateur photographer. Find him on Twitter @jronaldlee.
I think the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety makes a very good case for limiting “low speed vehicles” (LSVs) from the nation’s roadways.
While it’s true that they serve a purpose in some gated communities, once they join public roads, they become a hazard to their occupants. Take a look, and see if you don’t agree.
Read more from Blog Admin.
The Blog Administrator of Seeing Clearly. More of a collective intelligence than an actual person, the personification of a company that facilitates twentyfive thousand glass repairs every year. Find TeleGlass on Twitpic or on Twitter: @TeleGlass.
I routinely look around the web to see what people are talking about when it comes to auto glass. As such, I was not shocked to see a question about how to get rid of a scratch in a windshield that a Yahoo! user who calls herself countrygirl76 posted, in which she purchased a truck with a scratched windshield.
What I did find shocking was that another user advocated committing fraud to have the windshield replaced. Paraphrasing, this person said to file a claim with her insurance, and if she didn’t have the coverage, to add it to her policy and then file the claim.
We all pay
When someone does that, they’re essentially asking you to pay for their misfortune.
Insurance is a product that helps you manage risk. Every one of us that owns a car is at risk of damage to our auto glass. Cracks happen. Door glass breaks. You could have a golf ball come through your rear windscreen. You never know! If you don’t want to have to pay for your car’s glass repair when it happens, you can buy insurance to help pay to return your vehicle to its original condition. The amount you pay for insurance is less than the amount insurance would pay out in the event of a substantial claim, but it works because the risk is spread among several customers.
In this case, the original condition is a scratched windshield. That’s how the truck was when she bought it, so even if it were covered by insurance, she didn’t own insurance on that vehicle when it was damaged.
I suppose it’s all a moot point, as a scratch caused by a worn windshield wiper is normal wear and tear, and insurance typically does not cover this type of thing any more than your insurance will buy you knew tires. Still, I got worked up when I read this, so I had to say something.
Insurance fraud only works when it’s undetected (unlike other crimes, like a bank robbery, where the perpetrator of the crime can potentially escape with the money). Because of that, it’s hard to say exactly how much it takes place, but the Insurance Information Institute estimates that a staggering 10% of all property and casualty losses incurred are fraudulent. That’s about $30 billion a year!
Back to my original soap box point: insurance companies will not operate at a loss. They pass the costs incurred via fraudulent claims on to all of us – in the form of higher premiums.
I’ll get off my soap box now, and return you to your more cheerful TeleGlass posts tomorrow.
Read more from James Lee.
In 2009 he joined TGSC Group as the managing director of product development. James brings expertise in customer satisfaction and service delivery to the team. He guest blogs for TeleGlass and is an amateur photographer. Find him on Twitter @jronaldlee.
Today’s Ask TeleGlass question was not asked by one specific person, it is however a question we are asked constantly by consumers. “If a windshield is not cracked, not chipped, but has tiny pits all over the windshield, is that something that is covered by insurance?”
The short answer to this question is that each insurance company has their own criteria as to what they will cover and you would be best off checking with your insurance carrier to answer this question.
The licensed insurance adjuster in me would tell you that your comprehensive insurance coverage (which is where your auto glass coverage lives) covers the auto glass when it is broken. In a nut shell, your insurance company insures you against things out of the normal course of events with your vehicle, and the insurance company would make your vehicle whole again after a loss. For example, some crazy kids go and vandalize your vehicle and break your door glass and you have comprehensive coverage, well that is covered. You didn’t plan on that happening, and there was nothing you could have done differently to prevent this from happening.
A pitted windshield however, is one of those things that does not happen overnight. Pitted windshields, or sandblasted windshields, look like little diamond specks all over the windshield, especially when it is sunny out. Pitted windshields occur over time and are often considered normal wear and tear on the vehicle. For insurance coverage, you can view a pitted windshield like you view rust on a vehicle. Rust on a vehicle is an occurrence that can happen over the life of your vehicle, and rust is something that would not be covered under your insurance as it is normal wear and tear on a vehicle.
Even though pitted windshields are often considered wear and tear on a vehicle, at TeleGlass we can still help you replace that windshield by providing you with a great price and a quality shop to get that windshield replaced.
Read more from Rachel Letourneau.
System Process Manager, Rachel has been with Teleglass for six years. In addition to making a mean birthday cake, Rachel has an extensive grasp of the auto glass business. Find her on Twitter: @rachelcrocker.
Rachel has written a couple of posts about the creepy windshield stalker. That guy who says you have a free windshield coming to you. It’s free, you already paid for it when you bought your insurance, just sign here and I’ll take care of everything…
I’ve helped with wording on one of those posts, because it’s a subject that is near and dear to my heart. Growing up, two of the authors that influenced me were Robert Heinlein and Ayn Rand. In Heinlein’s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, he popularized the acronym TANSTAAFL – There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. Rand’s Atlas Shrugged is pretty iconic. Whether you agree with her politics or not, it’s hard to argue with her sense of personal accountability. I think both author’s would agree that someone that works hard, displays strong personal ethics, and is responsible with how they spend their money is someone who has bettered society. I could probably write several thousand words on this topic, but this is, after all, a blog about auto glass. I will stop myself before I digress too much.
A non sequitur?
I listened to this week’s This American Life program on my way to work this morning. The hour long radio magazine this week is titled “Someone Else’s Money.” It’s an hour of very thoughtful commentary about the health care debate that is going on in our country. Again – what does this have to do with auto glass? And why would I bring up health care in a blog that is decidedly non-political?
First, I think it was an hour well spent, and would encourage anyone who is curious about the economics of health care to listen (you can download it for free for the next couple of days by clicking the link above). More importantly, the economics of insurance in general was discussed, and a point the program made was that when you are completely removed from the economics of a decision, you don’t always make the best economic choices.
That’s where Rachel’s creepy windshield stalker comes in. If your insurance covers the cost of your windshield repair or auto glass replacement, it’s easy to not be too concerned about who does your auto glass repair. Some state regulations even allow the auto glass company to persuade you to use them through the use of gifts. I’m not faulting the hard working auto glass companies that give away gift cards when you choose them – there are a lot of great company’s out there fighting hard to run a quality business, and my friends in the business work hard to earn your business. Sometimes that includes a gift.
My question to you is this: Who pays for this?
Your insurance company, right? But here’s where Heinlein would remind you that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. The insurance company doesn’t sell policies because they have some sort of altruistic goal of helping you avoid risk. Sure, that’s the benefit you get, but there is an economist working for the insurance company who crunches numbers all day long to make sure that the company doesn’t lose money. If the price of windshield repair doubled tomorrow, everyone’s rates would go up when their policies renew.
That’s where I think TeleGlass, and its parent company TGSC, come into play. We manage tens of thousands of auto glass repairs every year, helping your insurance company manage their costs so we can keep your premiums lower. This Web site is dedicated to furthering that cause. We feel like we’re really good at what we do, and want you to be able to avail yourself of that expertise. When you book your auto glass appointment or get a windshield repair quote on TeleGlass.com, you’re tapping into expertise that we’ve spent a long time developing, making sure that your autoglass is repaired by local service providers in your area that have made a commitment to using quality parts and industry leading techniques to make certain you get the best repair possible at a fair price – whether you’re paying out of pocket or your insurance company picks up the tab.
After all – there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.
Read more from James Lee.
In 2009 he joined TGSC Group as the managing director of product development. James brings expertise in customer satisfaction and service delivery to the team. He guest blogs for TeleGlass and is an amateur photographer. Find him on Twitter @jronaldlee.
It is with great pride that TeleGlass National embarks on a new relationship with QBE Regional Insurance companies as of today, September 1st. We have been named one of two prefrerred providers for auto glass repair and auto glass replacement for the companies’ insureds.
QBE Americas Regional Insurance is comprised of several companies referred to as their Pillars. These pillars include General Casualty including Southern Guaranty, National Farmers Union, Unigard and Agri. As the previous primary vendor for General Casualty we are excited about the opportunity to expand our relationship to include the other companies.
We are confident that our continued relationship based on high quality service will translate into a win/win for all parties.
Read more from Sheila O'Toole.
Managing Director for TeleGlass National. Having spent almost two decades in Auto Glass, I truly enjoy the dynamic, fast-paced culture the industry provides. Every day I get to help people out which is truly fulfilling.
This week’s Ask TeleGlass question came from a fellow named Jim on Monday, and I had to send it out with a quickness as we get many questions about auto glass deductibles, where and when it applies and it is always good for a refresher.
Auto glass deductibles fall under the comprehensive portion of your automobile policy. If you have a deductible on your comprehensive coverage (which all of us who have this coverage do) then you would think you would be subject to that deductible in all auto glass cases. However, this is not necessarily true. Certain states have auto glass waivers that apply towards your deductible when you have a windshield replacement or any piece of auto glass replaced.
Read more from Rachel Letourneau.
System Process Manager, Rachel has been with Teleglass for six years. In addition to making a mean birthday cake, Rachel has an extensive grasp of the auto glass business. Find her on Twitter: @rachelcrocker.
Ever since we started this blog I have talked about the windshield stalkers out there and have tried to inform consumers of their practices and to take action to prevent these stalkers from forcing them into filing a claim. Turns out at TeleGlass we are ahead of the curve.
Read more from Rachel Letourneau.
System Process Manager, Rachel has been with Teleglass for six years. In addition to making a mean birthday cake, Rachel has an extensive grasp of the auto glass business. Find her on Twitter: @rachelcrocker.
Read more from 
Read more from 
I listened to this week’s This American Life program on my way to work this morning. The hour long radio magazine this week is titled “
Read more from 
