Comments for WRHI.com

Comment on New movement detector could help seniors by Jeffrey

Jeffrey — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:14:11 +0000

This sounds like a great idea. Anything that contributed to seniors being able to live safely at home is good. At the moment Life alert or a cheap cellphone like the Tracfone SVC are the best options for a senior to call for help

Comment on 2012 Texaco Country Showdown by Karla Davis to compete on NBC’s “The Voice” | Interstate 107

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:09:19 +0000

[...] Voice” Posted by sjcaldwell on February 22, 2012, 11:09 am Karla Davis, who won a local Country Music Showdown at the Rock Hill Galleria in the summer of 2009 and went on to win the National Title and [...]

Comment on Senate bill referees small business vs. Safelite complaint by Gary

Gary — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 02:00:22 +0000

I am all for this bill I am an Auto Glass Company and have been in business for twelve years and Safelite tries to steer our customers into using them. They are selling glass to our customers and tools to our body shops. We have lost a lot of business because of Safelite. The Insurance companies never send us any work. The only insurance work we get are from perferred customers that request us and then Safelite tries to talk them out of it. We installed a new windshield at a body shop and before the vehicle left Safelite went out there and pulled our new windshield out and replaced it with theirs for the same claim. We lost that body shop because Safelite started selling them glass and several others. They are going all out to put us out of business. Something needs to be done soon. I was on another line with a customer and Safelite and Safelite told them they would not warranty our work and tried to get them to use them, but I told them I warranty my on work and Safelite told me I’ll fax that wright to you. If I had not been on that line they would have taken that job away from me. That was the second call. I don’t think this bill is enough and somehow Safelite will get around this as always.

Comment on Senate bill referees small business vs. Safelite complaint by Elaine P.

Elaine P. — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:54:44 +0000

The comment by Daveycrewcut is by far, the best suggestion. Make an insurer provide an alternate way (or the Independents may provide one) for an Independent to file a glass claim to an insurer. This is the only appropriate compromise to the steering that takes place daily.

The only problem with this idea is that insurers know that Safelite steers to protect their contract terms (also known as the Guaranteed Average Invoice – GAI terms). Once in place, this term creates the self-fulfilling “circle of steering.” In other words, the GAI keeps prices down… but Safelite needs to steer to themselves to guarantee the low prices to insurers. The comment by the Safelite employee in the hearings regarding “… We need the “volume”…” to provide the low prices should make complete sense to even a stranger to these proceedings.

It should now be obvious to the legislators that the auto glass industry at large DOES NOT set their own prices when these GAI/steering mechanisms are in place. Thus, they are being set by insurers/networks and NOT the way the Sherman Anti-Trust laws read they should.

Why these local legislators choose to ignore these facts, laws, and precedents is beyond me. What are they scared of? Who will find out what?

Comment on Resident to County Council: “I’ve lost faith in you guys” by Liz Pauline

Liz Pauline — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:38:15 +0000

I totally agree with Eric. Our County has sat back and done absolutely nothing. They have let Morningstar sit there all this time while the building decays even more. What will it take for the County to act. Did you know that if the County were to enforce the fines they stated at $465 a day., it would come to over $700,000 owed to the county. I say collect and use the money to take it down. Situation resolved.

Comment on Monaco Prince Pierre Casiraghi hospitalized after New York City bar brawl by Find the famous and infamous in your family tree | Tree Genealogy

Find the famous and infamous in your family tree | Tree Genealogy — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:46:38 +0000

[...] York City childhood and the tales he remembered from his parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents.After questions from his inquisitive daughter, Joan Ruffino's father wrote down memories of his… WordPress › Error html { background: #f9f9f9; } body { background: #fff; color: #333; [...]

Comment on Senate bill referees small business vs. Safelite complaint by Cliff Collins

Cliff Collins — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:28:34 +0000

I own a glass company in Alabama. I also happen to be a third generation glass man. My grandfather and I constantly discuss these issues that we a facing.
I use to work at a safelite facility so I am very aware that the last company that should be discussing warranty, quality, or customer satisfaction should be them.I was in a customers place of business where I over heard his insurance agent tell him, ” When you call your windshield claim in dont let them send you to safelite, they dont even seem to be able to do windshield repairs anymore.” This Particular agent was representing an insurance company that was a member of the SGC network.
What seems to be a little odd to me is the considerable differences in discounts that SGC associated insurance companies require VS. the insurance companies on other networks. i.e Lxnx. It has almost got to the point to where you cant even afford to do a SGC associated claim anymore because of the ridiculous discounts that I am required to give insurances companies on their network.
I have been in business for three years and I am yet to see one SGC affiliated referral. I dont think for one second that there is a “list” that they refer customers to. I would be more than happy to do an interview or a take a call of any kind regarding these issues.

P.S. To all business owners. One thing that you can do for the time being is not to support safelite in any way. DONT BY GLASS FROM THEM. THEY ARE YOUR WORST FORM OF COMPETITION!!!!!!!!!

Comment on Senate bill referees small business vs. Safelite complaint by Mike

Mike — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:35:53 +0000

The argument with Safelite is insurance premiums will increase. Safelite makes more than any glass shop and gets paid for handling the claim. They have been steering for years and use various tactics to scare the customer. They often times tell the customer an adjuster will have to come out and look at the glass when all they do is send a van and replace the glass. They make it a nightmare to file a claim asking questions that are completely irrelevant to the claim time of day,mile marker,and how many passengers. They do all they can to say they can’t verify coverage or the glass shop doesn’t guarantee work. Ask anyone in the glass business they will tell you they have had customers steered numerous times. Time for change and hopefully this will put the brakes on Safelite and give independents a level playing field.

Comment on Senate bill referees small business vs. Safelite complaint by Elaine P.

Elaine P. — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:52:37 +0000

We own a glass shop in a State other than South Carolina and Safelite behaves the same everywhere. What is being said here is true. How would any business owner feel if you had to call your direct competitor for permission to do the job (including how much you could charge)? How long do you think you could remain in business? Could you make any profit? Not really. It is only a matter of time before a larger competitor (with the “buying power” and “steering” influence they have from being the “First Notice of Loss” for a consumer or a shop to call to begin work) will monopolize a market or a country. It is shameful that legislators cannot read through Safelite’s effort to monopolize and then colonize the USA.

This is the only industry that operates like this. If Verizon had to call AT&T for permission to provide service to me (and was told what Verizon could charge me)… how long do you think the U.S. Attorney General would wait before they stopped it? 30 days tops.

When we call (on behalf of a customer who wants to use their insurance proceeds as payment for our services) Safelite… within the first minute Safelite (our competitor) is collecting the phone number, any other contact phone number (for a spouse/house phone), and their e-mail address. They then use this information to “back door” any repair or replacement job that isn’t immediately scheduled that same day. If I make an appointment for 48 hours later (because it is more convenient for the customer), I guarantee that Safelite will have made one or two efforts to contact my customer to find out if they can do anything to expedite the job. This is “code” for using the information they obtained from us to “steer” the job to themselves.

To illustrate an example from another automotive scenario (one my husband uses)… If I called the dealership and reported a problem with my car and they told me that it was covered under “warranty” thru the manufacturer and that they’d like to make an appointment to get me to the dealership to correct this warranty issue; do you think the manufacturer would be calling me at home or on my cell phone to verify that I was in fact, still going to the dealership in the next two days for my warranty work to be completed. No they wouldn’t… but Safelite feels that it is necessary to make inquiries even after my customer has made an appointment with me.

It becomes just a matter of time before a husband and wife get confused or angry or scared and they cave into the suggestion that “… we (Safelite) can have someone at your home in 45 minutes… to replace your windshield… we have one in stock.” This happens once a month to us without fail because of where our store is located (outside of the larger city limits).

Please help your local glass shops survive this ruthless effort to steal from your local glass shops. They already get every job where the customer has no preference… isn’t that enough?

Comment on Senate bill referees small business vs. Safelite complaint by Daveycrewcut

Daveycrewcut — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:20:19 +0000

Perhaps the legislation should be directed at the Insurance Industry.
Make it illegal for any Insurance Company to require independent businesses to file claims through one of their competitors or an affiliate of a competitor. Then if an insurance company wanted to continue to allow Safelite to administer their own claims they would have to provide an alternative way for independents to bill them.