Insurance “Steering”

Imagine you’re driving the kids to school early on a Monday morning, still groggy from the long 3-day weekend before, when your lifeline of scalding coffee spills into your lap. You slap at it with a napkin, taking your eyes off the road just long enough to rear-end the car that has come to a stop in front of you. Your Monday morning has just gone from bad to worse. Accidents happen all the time, and whether or not you’re at fault, insurance companies are bound to be involved going forward.

What a majority of drivers don’t understand, and what the insurance companies don’t often tell you, is that you have the right to have your vehicle repaired at the repair shop of your choice. They may tell you to take it to a repair facility on their “preferred list”, which is an issue we want to address with you today. This is called “steering” and it is, in fact in violation of the law via the 1963 Federal Consent Decree. The reasoning behind why they attempt to do this in the first place varies in nature, but the fact still stands that it isn’t right and it could lead you to take your car to be repaired at a place that you don’t want to or that you didn’t choose.

Now, we aren’t trying to scare anybody with this information, we just believe that knowledge is power… and you should have that power. Know that the next time you are in an accident, the control is in your hands. You decide where you want your vehicle repaired, no one else! If you decide you’d like our shop to handle the repairs for you, we will do more than just that. We will deal with the insurance companies on your behalf, from start to finish, so that you don’t have to and can get back to living your life. Remember that you are the one who pays the insurance company, and so, therefore, they work for you, and it is you that is in control of the situation! Been in an accident and in need of repairs? Come visit JP and get an estimate to see if we are the right fit for you!