Putting the dollars back in estimates
    

Estimating in dollar figures is a more logical means of computation than the insurer-promoted, often grossly underwritten “tenths-of-an-hour” or “time-units” method into which most of us were suckered when crash manuals became the norm, and computers became the means. Before that time estimates were written in dollar figures. This industry blindly joined the “billing in tenths” hordes because we were LAZY, not because it made good business sense to depend on a method of computation that could be easily tweaked by insurers to their own advantage.
    

At the time we couldn’t comprehend how our newfound friends, the crash information providers, could be so adversely influenced by insurers as to throw us under the bus to please insurer interests, in the process wringing virtually all reasonable profit from our labor, materials and parts. After all, writing more estimates faster equates to more profit, right? Wrong!

Working for the vehicle owner
    

In our shop it doesn’t matter to us what insurer reps think of our billing policies; we work for the vehicle owner. And we’ve found that for the most part it doesn’t matter much to vehicle owners, either. Now, from the beginning of our negotiations with them, the vehicle owner is made to understand that we will be billing fairly for all services we perform, and that all materials and parts required in the course of the repair, with reasonable markup, will be billed line-by-line in dollars.
    

We also make them fully aware that they - the vehicle owner - are responsible for every dollar the insurer finds excuses not to pay them. After all, it was the consumers, not us, that decided from whom they would purchase insurance.
Changing courses reveals surprising discovery
    

Venturing on this new track at first with fear and trepidation, we were somewhat surprised to discover that, with few exceptions, customers expect that they themselves will be financially responsible for any portion of the final bill that their insurer refuses to cover.
    

The vast majority of right-minded consumers realize there is no “free lunch” - that everything comes with its cost - and so most figure any costs of repair that insurers refuse to pay is merely a cost of their purchasing lowball insurance in the hope they won’t be involved in an accident. Others will pay the bill and then pressure the insurer for reimbursement, which is more often than not effective.
    

Paying the full costs of professional services figured in dollars is not foreign to any of us. The groceries we purchase are advertised and sold in dollar amounts, not in units of time it took the grower to produce the product, the trucker to move the product, and the grocery store to display the product. And, this side of the border, we would never even consider haggling over the dollar figure the grocer advertises.
    

The fuel we purchase at the pump (including a hefty 40+ cents average road taxes/gallon) is advertised and sold in dollars per gallon, which we’re told reflects all it took to locate and coax the crude from the ground, transport it, “crack” it, advertise it, and distribute it to us. And I’ve never been in the filling station that would let me have fuel for even a penny less than the advertised dollar price per gallon. Have you?
    

I don’t know how restaurants bill where you live, but where I live they have the nerve to advertise their culinary delights in dollar amounts, not in tenths of an hour it took to them to purchase, prepare, and produce their finished product. And if I were to haggle them over the dollar amount, I would expect, at the least, to be told to never again darken their doorstep. If I believe the price of something I would like to consume is too expensive in a fine restaurant, I can always go to Mickey Dee’s …where I will be required to pay in dollars even before being given opportunity to decide if I like what they serve… which I don’t. The nerve!