At last, they have the balls to do it !!!
This article is taken from The Star Online >> http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/1/15/nation/16574765&sec=nation
Insurer boycott by mechanics (15 Jan 2007)
By AUDREY EDWARDS and LOW BOON TAT
SEREMBAN: Mechanics who are members of the Federation of Automobile Workshop Association of Malaysia (FAWOAM) are boycotting a insurance firm for “unfair treatmentâ€, its president Cho Chee Seng said.
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Cho: Says move would affect 100 vehicles daily
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He said a major complaint was that the insurer continued to give “lump sum repair offers†which meant that items like parts or labour data were not itemised.
“Members feel unfairly treated by the insurer. We end up doing jobs that are sometimes insufficient or difficult to cover. And the consumer ends up feeling that we have cheated them,†he added.
“Cost shifting occurs during the process of preparing an estimate or final bill for repairs. This may involve adding unnecessary procedures or exaggerating labour time or costs in one area to offset costs not included elsewhere in the damage appraisal or final bill.
“It can be perceived as fraud by consumers or regulators, even if the final payment by the insurer is deemed reasonable by the workshop.â€
Cho said that members would continue to service existing cases at their workshops. However, for new cases where vehicles were towed to the workshop, a vehicle owner would be given 48 hours to remove their vehicle if it was insured by the said company. They would also have to pay the towing charges.
He said that if the consumers wanted their members to repair the vehicles, transaction would have to be in cash and they would be able to submit a claim to the insurer for reimbursement.
He said that the move would affect about 100 vehicles daily.
There are 1,200 FAWOAM members who are involved in repairs of vehicles involved in collisions.
The federation’s total membership is about 3,200.
Members also complained that the insurer had insisted that all third-party motor claims must go through its panel workshop system while the consumer was not required to use such a facility.
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Foooh… at last these people have the balls to strike. A check with a local Klang Valley workshop guy, I was told that they are boycotting one particular insurance company in Malaysia. The biggest motor insurer. Yeah…. thats K Insurans Bhd.
I’ve been listening to almost every workshop operator dissing this insurance company since the day I join this industry 4-5 years ago. Same shit everytime. Now they (the frogs) have came out from coconut shell and they’re doing something for themselves, for their business, for the economy, for the livelyhood of everyone.. at least in the automotive industry.
I wish them luck. STRIKE! STRIKE! STRIKE!
Better check your car insurance… is it with K Insurans Bhd ??? Then, hope you dont get involved in road accident anytime soon… unless you send your car to franchised workshop.
so what u means now, those car that under K insurance, the workshop will not accept the case or how?
in case of an accident, they will tow tow your car. But after that, they will check your insurance details and if it’s K Insuran, then you have 2 days to tow your car away. They not gonna entertain you.
Unless, you pay cash first and later claim it yourself.
doesnt it mean that cars under K insurance when kena accident, because parts are not itemized, sometimes workshops have to make do (many additional charges), thus the customers are victimized…To customers it may seem that the workshop fellas are being crooks..but really it because of the insurance company. Even in this genre, automotive industry is still so chinaman style, many automotive parts have no proper part cost breakdown…..the labour charges and SOP ought to be fixed and standardized.
Sometime when there’s no itemized list, workshop don’t know which parts to replace or repair. Like this, suppose a fender is replace by workshop but insurance company had it in their assessment sheet that the fender to be repaired… and the final offer letter is not itemized…. can you guess who is in the loss?
Having an itemized list is good and its transparent. In the event of a dispute on poor workmanship, non-original parts and etc, car owners can have a list to check and see which parts were approved to replace or to be repaired.
Also bear in mind, workshop gotta pay commission to their salesmen (callmen with their walkie-talkie who appear out of nowhere when an accident happened). How much? An average of 10% from the insurance’ offer. Another thing, expenses at police station? You get what I mean, don’t you?
Unless you go get the documents yourself and you car at the workshop for a month or more….. before the insurance approves it…. just for an average collision.
Labour charges is another subjective thing.
So…. at the end of the day, the person who gets headache is the middleman who have to do the on-field loss assessment. Even middleman’s boss will be in the insurance’s camp in order to secure his business.
Worse, there was a fucking corporate CEO who had his fucking Audi A6 hit the front portion up to the radiator and get a whole car respray-painted at Audi Glenmarie. What if a Kancil (EX660 K1) owner, who have no money, who just wished the excess or betterment imposed to be waived? Fuck off. Either they go and suck the GM’s cock/tit at the insurance’ claims department, they will never have such privilege. This is life.
Any dispute, the middleman is the negotiator. Middleman have to clean up shit be it created by themself, theire boss, workshop or insurance co.
really there ought to be a std pricing by car model! Then there’s no way for them to overcharge us or shortchange the middlemen… Automotive suppliers are now compulsory to submit spare parts pricing (itemized)…it should not be difficult to impose this to workshops and dealers…
Complicated!
Lee, sure it is ! As long as you dont buy K Insurans you’re on a SAFER side.
tihtahpah: thats a very hard thing to do in Malaysia.
it’s already happening ler…
Proton and Perodua all start itemizing now..
Honda and Daihatsu also…
I know they all have their own pricing databases.
For insurance people like me its hard to get a complete price list A-Z. Then, there’s the local parts, Taiwan parts, used parts…
For old car (more that 5 years), we need to recommend taiwan or used parts.. whichever is lower. The cheapest. Or else, the car owner gotta bear the betterment percentage as stated in the motor policy, for franchised parts.
some of us now, we get the direct pricing from the suppliers and SUB-Suppliers…no choice la..or else sure kena potong wan…as long as you know the price THEY are quoting, you can negotiate better the price that the car owners have to pay. once u get the Bill Of Material of one model (with name of suppliers -overseas and locally), you more or less know the price of similar models. best is to hookup with the Purchasing/Procurement people in the same industry. They are usually very eager to share
Lee… I agree with you.. it is complicated…
So what the conclusion?
but on the insurance point of view, we just wanna know the price the workshop is getting. We dont really care of the local/oversea suppliers because we deal with the workshops and the car owners.
Even if, say a front bumper of a proton, the cost may be RM 15-20 for the factory, then the wholesaler gotta earn a little bit therefore they sell at RM 30-40. Then, workshops gotta sell to the consumer/car owners/insurance companies at a price around RM50-80.
And sometime, these workshops the are on credit term with the wholesaler and they gotta charge a little bit high to cover their cost.
So, there’s no conclusion to this. Maybe we can propose that insurance company provide the spare parts to the workshop for their policyholders and the workshop can charge only for the labour and miscellaneous costs. Then, adjusters will have a peace of mind.