New type of insurance fraud?

[Syndrome]

Those involved with the auto crash repair industry know very well how hard the insurance companies try to squeeze everything for costs savings. As a result the repair industry try to claw back some ground. A new method is for repairers to order genuine parts for a vehicles repair, get the paperwork with the part, then make up some bull**** excuse to return the part saying it is not needed. They substitute the genuine part with a lower cost version but have the paperwork of the original genuine spare part ordered to show both the customer and insurance company.

[Trump]

It isn't new, it has been happening for a while now. There are variations on it, they quote genuine and order second hand or aftermarket parts and pocket the difference.

[Stefan]

Corporate greed in every industry I guess, insurance companies squeeze repairers, increase profit for shareholders, CEO Gets massive bonus.

Coles Woolies no different.

Working for a multi-national builder its starting to happen as CEO salaries are linked to share value, they start to squeeze every bit of profit out of the company. Reduce staff, increase workload, squeeze our suppliers.

Not good me thinks....

[HO 3]

More than likely it is something thats not new and has been around for a long time, similar to the practice of Cobbing on high end restored cars before sale, that's not new either, unfortunately..............buyer beware.

Cheers Mick

[Blue Shadow]

Originally Posted by Syndrome

Those involved with the auto crash repair industry know very well how hard the insurance companies try to squeeze everything for costs savings. As a result the repair industry try to claw back some ground. A new method is for repairers to order genuine parts for a vehicles repair, get the paperwork with the part, then make up some bull**** excuse to return the part saying it is not needed. They substitute the genuine part with a lower cost version but have the paperwork of the original genuine spare part ordered to show both the customer and insurance company.

Theres nothing new about that been going on for years

[xisled]

One reason why Suncorp own a after market parts supplier.


http://www.nationalcollisionrepairer...-of-acm-parts/

[LTDHO]

Originally Posted by Blue Shadow

Theres nothing new about that been going on for years

Exactly.

Or new part is charged to the insurer whilst a second hand or original part is used.

[Blue Shadow]

Originally Posted by LTDHO

Exactly.

Or new part is charged to the insurer whilst a second hand or original part is used.

Or a cheaper quality aftermarket part, also check your PDS most insurance companies call for A/M parts to be used, mostly when out of factory warranty.

[Cav]

I heard from a mate who has a friend who told his sister in law that the NRMA wants used parts on older cars

[LTDHO]

Originally Posted by Cav

I heard from a mate who has a friend who told his sister in law that the NRMA wants used parts on older cars

Your mates friends sister is right

[efirestorer]

Another variation from my wifes'shifty insurer , sent her to a panel shop a long way away for an inflated quote , then approached other driver half at fault , got half the inflated quote from her and told us that if we wanted to could go to a local panel shop which we did ( much lower quote from the local - about half ) , insurer paid the half ( inflated quote half )from other driver to get full amount of repairs.

[Crazy Dazz]

Sorry, but nothing about that makes sense.
Insurance companies go with the cheapest quote. They don't care what you "say" is in the quote, they care about the $$$ at the bottom.
Obviously they utilise 2nd hand parts wherever they can. Why do you think we have wreckers?

[mike_nofx]

Surely this 'scam' can only be done a certain amount of times before raising suspicion from the dealerships?

That is, once a panel shop has ordered genuine Ford/Holden/Merc etc parts from a dealership and returned them on 10 different occasions they will start not supplying that panel shop?

[mike_nofx]

Originally Posted by Cav

I heard from a mate who has a friend who told his sister in law that the NRMA wants used parts on older cars

I think this is fine as long as the replacement part is of equal or better quality.

[Blue Shadow]

Originally Posted by mike_nofx

Surely this 'scam' can only be done a certain amount of times before raising suspicion from the dealerships?

That is, once a panel shop has ordered genuine Ford/Holden/Merc etc parts from a dealership and returned them on 10 different occasions they will start not supplying that panel shop?

No they keep supplying

[Blue Shadow]

Originally Posted by mike_nofx

I think this is fine as long as the replacement part is of equal or better quality.

All of them do, once a car is out of warranty anything goes look ay your PDS

[DoubleTrouble]

Originally Posted by Loud_Noises

It isn't new, it has been happening for a while now. There are variations on it, they quote genuine and order second hand or aftermarket parts and pocket the difference.

If a part is quoted new & repairer is caught using second hand and gets caught out then legal action can be taken against them.

[Blue Shadow]

Originally Posted by DoubleTrouble

If a part is quoted new & repairer is caught using second hand and gets caught out then legal action can be taken against them.

The Insurance company would can him. A lot of workshops mostly suncorp/aami, racq, nrma give an accredation to a workshop and they do their work on an average repair cost basis, so tgey might get 20 jobs per week at an arc of $1800 per job

[DoubleTrouble]

Originally Posted by Blue Shadow

The Insurance company would can him. A lot of workshops mostly suncorp/aami, racq, nrma give an accredation to a workshop and they do their work on an average repair cost basis, so tgey might get 20 jobs per week at an arc of $1800 per job

Correct, also a lot of repair shops come & go which would speak for itself.

[Blue Shadow]

Originally Posted by DoubleTrouble

Correct, also a lot of repair shops come & go which would speak for itself.

Only the small ones that didn't get an insurance sign

[something wrong]

This is not new it's been 10yrs since I work as a parts interpreter, with our biggest panel shops we got sick of having returns for Items which Ford / BMW charged a restocking fee or items we would never sell.

So we struck a deal we would quote the repair parts and the panel shop would do their order and they would highlight the items they wanted to appear on the invoice but didn't want, we would just do a stock adjustment for those items, saved us $$ and kept the panel shop happy.

For 10yrs I did panel quotes in the dealership and at panel shops and I never sold 1 seatbelt, plenty of pre tensioners.

A lot of panel shops and a few wrecking yards are hurting now NRMA have their own wrecking yards. NRMA have the market covered , Insurance, Mechanical, Panel Repairs, Wrecking yard, vehicle inspections and auction sales.

The rest of the insurance companies are following suit , so much for competition

[Blue Shadow]

Originally Posted by something wrong

This is not new it's been 10yrs since I work as a parts interpreter, with our biggest panel shops we got sick of having returns for Items which Ford / BMW charged a restocking fee or items we would never sell.

So we struck a deal we would quote the repair parts and the panel shop would do their order and they would highlight the items they wanted to appear on the invoice but didn't want, we would just do a stock adjustment for those items, saved us $$ and kept the panel shop happy.

For 10yrs I did panel quotes in the dealership and at panel shops and I never sold 1 seatbelt, plenty of pre tensioners.

A lot of panel shops and a few wrecking yards are hurting now NRMA have their own wrecking yards. NRMA have the market covered , Insurance, Mechanical, Panel Repairs, Wrecking yard, vehicle inspections and auction sales.

The rest of the insurance companies are following suit , so much for competition

Who is the nrma wrecker

[something wrong]

Each industry has its short cuts, you should see some of the crap in the construction industry, there is no way in hell I would buy a new hi rise apartment built by some of the builders.
I have worked in the construction industry for nearly 10yrs and the current shortage of skill trades and labourers has lead to some shocking work which gets covered up in the name of productivity on some of the tier 4 builders, not that the well known builders don't also have their issues.

[something wrong]

Originally Posted by Blue Shadow

Who is the nrma wrecker

My understanding is its part of their repair business, the dismantle and keep all late model vehicles for their own use.

The only things they send to auction are older cars or wrecks.

[Blue Shadow]

Suncorp/aami have a joint venture with lkq. Lkq are a global used and aftermarket parts giant, in australia they are called acm parts. Its not late model cars only cars out of warranty.
Written off cars get sent to acm where the parts are sold to panelbeaters.
Cars under new car warranty, should get oem, dealer supplied parts, out of warranty you could oem,used,aftermarket or parallel parts.
The issue the op is talking about is workshops orderind oem parts getting the invoice, then returning that part and using a used, reconditioned or aftermarket part of a lessor value and claiming the oem part.

[Smoke Pursuit]

Or they just repair the original part.

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

This was going on back in the 80's, so not a new scam at all.

I remember repairers asking if you had insurance or not and give you two completely different quotes for the exact same repair.

They used to quote new parts and then source panels from wrecker to repair the car, in some cases customers even used to get a cut of the difference.

All this stuff been going on since Jesus was a boy, but each generation thinks they found something new

[ebv8]

my old favourite panel beater who used to paint all my bikes got done big time for winning a big contract to paint lots of trucks and after painting 3 just buffed the rest and said they were painted

[Blue Shadow]

Originally Posted by Smoke Pursuit

Or they just repair the original part.

Yep....

[Stefan]

Originally Posted by XB GS 351 Coupe

I remember repairers asking if you had insurance or not and give you two completely different quotes for the exact same repair.

That's not a scam, it's just a reflection of the cost of dealing with the insurance companies, providing life time warranty etc.

Same as building sites, if I get a painter to paint my 31 story commercial building it cost $25+/m2, same paint on a resi 3 bedroom house for Ma and Pa Kettle will be $10/m2.

But I want a 150 page contract signed, which includes unlimited damages clauses and indemnity clauses, I take 5% retention, pay 45 day from invoice, I need a 20 page progress claim and stat dec signed by JP, inductions, work method statements , MDS, daily safety prestart, 10 year warranty that I novate to the building manager etc etc etc.

I'm sure panel shops are no different when dealing with insurance companies and they add the $$$ to the quote accordingly.