[stevegunn]

Got a call from long standing customer this morning husband had burst a vein in his leg blood everywhere,could I take a look.

In between going to next job dropped in,bit of a state but explained maybe insurance claim given that it had gone through to the underlay and onto the floorboard.Suggested she ring insurance company who told her they would send Rainbow out as that's who they deal with next week,now given I was already there the customer explained her regular cleaner was already here could he do it?
No once the blood is dry its easier to get out was their reply.

Where do these insurance companies get their information from?

[Mike Halliday]

can't the customers chose who ever they want to complete any work?

plus would'nt she be speaking to some spotty kid in a call centre.

mike

[Ian Rochester]

Steve,

Just had the same yesterday, got a call from a regular customer (B&B), a Red-ring hot water heater had burst in the attic room and ran for at least 4 hours before being noticed, the carpet (BW) on the stairs and hallway was soaked, ceilings had high readings and the paper was already starting to come off the walls.

We were there within 2 hours of getting the phone call, their local insurance agent was there as well.  We gave him a detailed assessment of the flood and the work required, both immediate and also the drying and restoration work that needed to be done.

The owner phoned his insurance company (Norwich Union) to get the go ahead, and they said they would send Rainbow out to do the job as they were their approved restorers

The lad working for me is an ex Rainbow Supervisor/Technician and even he said "Rainbow will milk this for all it's worth, and will charge between £15K - £20K, the whole place will be in a mess for at least 2 months".

We are now in the position with our staff and sub-contractors that we could have probably got the whole job done for under £10K and had them back up and running within 3 weeks.

Spoke to the owner today, he was really apologetic and told me to invoice him for turning up, Rainbow had turned up and put some dehumidifiers in, yet as yet had done nothing with the sodden carpet and underlay or the ceiling. 

[lands]

And yet they won't turn to an owner operator who takes pride in his her work, charges less, shows greater empathy to a distraught customer, gets their quicker, gets the job done quicker and all because (on paper) you don't have the national infrastructure they believe they need.

Oops, gap in Market? Possibly but in reality the insurers coud'nt give a toss. Know of a classic example today where someone (an owner operator) was told no for the above reason (inffrastructure) and the reality is this claims person could'nt have got it the wrong way round any more if they had tried.

shame

[jasonl]

By law , the policyholder has a choice as to who carries out work on thier property as part of an insurance claim , so long as the contractor is competant, and charges fairly.

I suggest returning to the customer , explaining this, andmaybe offering to settle thier excess for them as a matter of goodwill , it does not matter that Rainbow have already commenced works, they can be kicked off.

The reason insurance companies use larger organisations , rather than independents, is because , the have set service standards ,which the head offices can achieve , and the flow of management information is more reliable and standardized. The quality of the work carried out , is just one factor that insurance companies use in thier choice of how to settle claims.

[*paul_moss]

Jason is that true as I thought they had to use company policy.If your right then there is a big opportunity.

[jasonl]

Asolutely true , the same goes with all insurance claims , especially motor, they try and push you to big crash repair centres, who give big retrospective discounts to insurance companies , few people know that they have a choice.

[carpet guy]

Very interesting.

[Karl Wildey]

went to a job on new years day once, cos Chem-dry was shut. Went in, suck up, put driers in and the following day got kicked off job by insurance company.

the client HAS TO use their insurance companies contractors or the client can not claim for work involved. The insurance did pay me for my work I did on new years day, which I had now doubled cos I was ped off, so I made twice as much money in a short time.

Not fair on client or me.  considering Chem dry was shut, i don't think ins co had much to brag about

[Paul Kettless]

Very true what Jason has stated, and I am talking first hand.

I had chem-dry and John Youngs insurance services covering a water tank leak in my own property.

I was so disgusted with the service, and the bodged attempts at making good, I ended up getting my own building firm in to do the works, and the carpets and general cleaning where completed by my own company

Insurers asked for quotes, and cheques were paid to me to then pay contractors as and when necessary.  Incidentally, my insurer is Norwich Union.

[John Kelly]

Karl...it is as Jason says...both he and John have worked in this area extensively over the last 15 years or so.  After a particularly bad storm a few years back we had quite a bit of damage to our master bedroom, bringing down part of the ceiling and damaging fitted wardrobes etc.  When we notified our insurer they insisted on sending out their contractor.  We let them do this (without informing them that we were also in the trade) - it was not a particularly good experience with their 'expert' contractor talking a whole load of waffle as well as giving some extremely disturbing news...i.e. informing us that we were not covered as we had a 'flat' roof - which was, in fact, totally incorrect.  Now, if we had been an elderly couple, or someone as vulnerable, we would have been extremely upset by what he told us.  Instead, he was sent out with a flea in his ear and we were straight onto the phone to our brokers and to the insurance company.  We informed the insurance company that we would be appointing our own contractors as their expert did not meet the standards we expected from such an individual or company.  They immediately gave us the go ahead to get quotes, etc and the work was done within weeks (from replacing the roofing, ceiling, wardrobes, decorating etc).   The insurance company will try and frighten the Policyholder into using their designated contractors but legally they have no right to.  If you do choose to use your own contractors, and there are problems, it would be down to you, as the policyholder, to sort them out directly with the contractor as the Insurance Company will not want to know...that is the only downside.   The insurance company concerned was Norwich Union.
Lynn
(Mrs K)
P.S. The contractor, whether it be ChemDry, Rainbow or one appointed by yourself, is working for you not the insurance company.  That is why, at the start of every job, the contractor has to get a mandate signed giving the insurance company your permission to pay their invoice.

[lands]

I have sent this post to watchdog. Sounds like its right there street.

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

All policies state that it is the property owner's responsibility to minimise damage under a claim. Therefore if you get on site (especially ages before the approved contractor) then you have a very strong hand, for as has been stated earlier, it is the policy holder who decides who works for them and they are obviously trying to minimise the claim by calling you in the first place.

Sometimes I have then had to speak to the insurance company and as I know I will be cheaper than the approved contractor I have not as yet experienced a situation where the insurance company has tried to kick me off the job.

[*paul_moss]

I have sent this post to watchdog. Sounds like its right there street.

Pete have they started doing fire and flood too.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

My Missus used to work for Norwich Union she was (and still is ) a boss and she would advise friends to do their own management of repairs as alot of larger companies just think the work is easy money.

Shaun

PS John Kelly thanks for my sprayer

[Ian Rochester]

Just got back from a meal at the local, thought I'd better treat Sue as she's been on her hands and knees all day ...............................................................................................scrubbing out a church.

John K rang me whilst we were out and went through the above on the phone. 

The whole issue of who is allowed to do the work is certainly a jack in the box waiting to explode and I'm not sure what the answer is, I understand the insurers not wanting to give it to anyone without the right credentials, but I also know the frustration when you lose out just because you are not on their list.

I'm sure there are many individual businesses out there that could take on local work and do it better than the franchaises, however, the problem is the insurance companies want national coverage.   They want to make one call and know that with that one call the ball will be set in motion, that within hours they will have a detailed assessment of the damage, an estimate of the work required and a breakdown of costs, all on standard formatted proformas that they are used to.

Unless we, as individuals, join as a recognisable organisation, then we will  always be just taking the scraps from the main table.

We did an insurance job recently which I have already posted on here, it was a reasonably small job that we were involved with at the start and the insurers asked us to progress through to the end. 

It amounted to a good little earner for us, the client was delighted with the finished job and the timescale, the insurance have all their reports so they are happy and I'm sure our prices were a lot keener than they are used to.  They also have our details which will hopefully go on to some useful database ........... and I've been paid.  Why can't they all be like this

[lands]

Hold that thought Ian, plans are afoot

[John Kelly]

Having visited Chem-Dry's headquarters in Beverley I was taken aback by what they have there. A full office block with floor after floor full of claims handlers. As I have said before Insurance companies aren't in business to fix your house or car. That may sound daft but they are actually investment companies. Your premium is there investment money. They are also somewhat like bookmakers where they have to guess the odds on you making a claim so they can set their premium rates.
This is why they want the repair side of the business taken away from them as cost effectively as possible. They get a claim and it is passed straight away to either afranchise restoration company or a loss adjusting company. They hope they only time they get involved after that is to pay the bill.
They monitor the performance of these companies with reports on KPI'S. Key point indicators. I.E what time was the policyholder contacted, what time did they arrive, how long did it take to dry etc etc. Any organisation hoping to gain any substantial amount of work needs to have resources in place to gather this info or they won't stand a chance. There are a lot of small to medium sized companies carrying out isurance work but even these are finding it hard to break into the big contracts where the real money is.

[Ian Gourlay]

Organizations like National flood School , and more recentley Alttec Academey run courses. on restoration.

Who goes on these courses, because if you cannot break into the market it is a waist of money.  But if you could it would be worth it for The Young Lions amoung you.


It would be good if there was some official document regarding you can choose your own contractor because in the pass I have lost small jobs because i advised customer to contact insurance company where as if I thought the insurance company would pay me I would have gone ahead.

[John Kelly]

Ian, even though the the bulk of the work is taken by franchise companies, there is still a huge amount of work for independent contractors. The flood school has their own network, Disastercare, which I and a number of other contributors to this board carry out work for. Also the commercial sector provides quite a bit of work as sometimes their policy excesses run into thousands of pounds. You can also contact local councils, loss adjusters, utility companies and last but not least plumbers and builders are always flooding peoples houses especially the bigger companies who employ a lot of staff.
It is a different ball game from carpet cleaning and you do have to be pretty flexible, however the rewards can be quite high.