At Gold Coast Auto Body in Chicago, the conversation about a possible insurance shortfall happens before the car comes apart, according to Drew Plischke.
Plischke is director of client/insurance reconciliation at Gold Coast Auto Body. He said the shop tells customers early in the process that it is outside any insurer network and works directly for them. Staff also explain that an insurer’s settlement position may come in below the true repair cost.
In a 2024 piece he wrote for Mike Anderson’s column, Plischke said everything changed after the shop ended its last DRP relationship with a major insurer. He also wrote that billing customers directly, while insurers settle claims separately, has worked for the shop.
Why the conversation comes first
Plischke said that close to 10 years ago, the shop began working to understand how its role as a repairer differs from the insurer’s role. He said that as vehicles changed, with advanced driver assistance systems, scan and calibration requirements, and newer vehicle substrates, the shop began getting pushback from the insurers it had long-standing network relationships with. Gold Coast first let go of smaller relationships, such as one carrier that accounted for only around 12 to 15 repairs a year.
He said walking away from the shop’s largest network relationship was a much bigger decision.
“It was still very scary because we did not know what was coming,” Plischke said.
Before making that move, Plischke said, the shop studied Illinois law. The state’s Automotive Collision Repair Act sets disclosure rules for estimates, consumer authorization, and invoices. Under the act, a shop may not start work costing more than $100 until the consumer gives specific approval following the required disclosures. When the vehicle must be taken apart, fully or partially, to write an estimate, the estimate must list the teardown cost in case the customer chooses not to go ahead with repairs.
“It gave us the peace of mind to say ... what, it’s in our best interest to let go of this,” Plischke said.
Plischke said the shop’s repair authorization used to run two pages. He said the shop learned the contract needed to be more elaborate and had to comply with the act.
Plischke previously served as the shop’s chief operating officer. He said co-owners Mario and Dominic Martino created his current role in part because he enjoys arguing and is a strategist. At a summer CIC panel, he described his job as advocating for, educating, and empowering the consumer.
“Of all the cars that we have in our facility ... all of them have two things in common. They’ve all been involved in losses, and we don’t own any of them,” Plischke said.
He said that message sets the table with customers.
What most drivers know about their policy
Plischke said most drivers know little about their own auto policy, and even less about another driver’s policy.
“The average driver ... knows three things: who they’re insured by, what their deductible is, and whether or not they have rental coverage. That’s it,” he said.
He said that gap benefits insurers. “They want to be handling an uneducated consumer, because then they can deploy their game plan, their tactics, their strategies, and the first thing they want to do is they want to influence right of choice,” Plischke said.
Many drivers don’t know they get to choose where their vehicle is repaired, he said. A Kansas City-area shop profiled in an earlier edition of The Advocate named the same misunderstanding as one it hears often.
Plischke said he sometimes deals with attorneys who understand the policy is a contract between the policyholder and the insurer. “Our insurance policies are legal documents. They’re legal binding contracts between two parties, and I want you to know that the collision repairer is not one of them,” he said.
He said insurers also try to cast a claim as a dispute between the shop and the insurer. The shop pushes back on that framing with both the carrier and the vehicle owner.
A blueprint built to avoid supplements
Once a customer signs the repair authorization, Plischke said, the vehicle goes through the same sequence. It is pre-washed, mapped, and pre-scanned, then handed to the blueprinting team.
He said the shop has three blueprinters and six disassemble-for-repair staff whose only job is taking vehicles apart and putting them back together. The shop sometimes rotates those assignments daily so the staff hold each other accountable.
Plischke said the shop researches OEM repair information whether or not it is certified for the brand. It has held Mercedes-Benz certification for close to two decades and Audi certification for nearly as long. He added that some automakers charge for access to their repair manuals.
“Estimate defined is open ended. We don’t want to be open ended,” Plischke said. He said an open-ended number can create delays, extra supplements, additional parts orders, and inefficiencies in production flow, for both the customer and the insurer.
“Our goal is 100% disassembly, no supplements, one complete part order, no delays,” he said.
When the insurer’s offer comes back
Plischke said that within two hours of receiving an insurer’s offer, the shop has audited it, put the information in front of the customer, and sent the carrier an advocacy email that lays out each difference.
The email includes a comparison table that sorts the gaps by category, such as parts, body labor, and structural repairs, he said. The customer is copied as the decision-maker on the claim. For labor rate gaps, Plischke said, the shop links to LaborRateHero, National AutoBody Research’s platform for posted shop rates, which is also the source of the Labor Rate Index.
When a carrier goes quiet, Plischke said, the shop keeps communicating with the customer.
“The silence, actually, in my professional opinion, just reinforces the trust with us because we don’t mess around,” he said.
Plischke said some insurers come back short and then reconcile once the shop presents its documentation. Even so, most Gold Coast customers still pay something beyond their deductible, he said.
He said some insurers have asked customers to pay the shop’s bill and then submit it for reimbursement of the shortfall. That way, the payment goes between the vehicle owner and the insurer rather than through the shop.
Weighing appraisal against the gap
When a first-party claim comes back short, Plischke said, the shop discusses with the customer whether to invoke the right to appraisal under their policy. Three of the four carriers common in his market include that option.
“I’ve never seen an insured invoke their right to appraisal and not prevail,” he said, describing roughly five to six years of experience.
Appraisal comes with its own cost, so the decision depends on the size of the gap, Plischke said. In one example he gave, a customer might pay $650 to pursue a $1,000 difference. He said most customers in that position decide it isn’t worth it.
Illinois’ new right-to-appraisal law takes effect July 1, 2027. It applies to auto policies issued, renewed, or delivered in the state on or after that date that carry first-party physical damage coverage. The law lets the insured invoke appraisal without the insurer’s consent. Each side pays its own appraiser, and the two sides split the umpire’s cost. The enacted law covers first-party claims only, and third-party claimants are not included.
Where smaller shops can start
Plischke said Gold Coast is larger than a typical independent shop and employed about 54 people before COVID. For the past two years, he has traveled Illinois with the help of the state association, teaching repairers the basics.
That starts with licensing, he said. Illinois requires automotive repairers to be licensed by the secretary of state, and state law requires them to prove they comply with the Automotive Collision Repair Act. Plischke said a large majority of repairers have never heard of the act.
“But I want you to know, 10 years ago, I didn’t either,” he said.
He said those sessions led to requests for in-shop help, which is how he started Authentic Auto Body Advice. His LinkedIn series, Truth to Power, and his writing, including a article for Autobody News, are aimed at shops rather than consumers, he said.
He said a shop that bills customers directly first has to repair vehicles the way it says it does.
“If you really want to hop into this billing the customer for the service that you provide, you better make sure you are who you say you are first and foremost,” Plischke said.
He said that often means a hard conversation with owners who don’t scan vehicles or look up repair procedures, who lack the right welding and pulling equipment, or who skip post-collision inspections. Some owners have told him to leave, he said. A few others told him they had been waiting for someone to be honest with them.
Size can also be a limit. Plischke said full disassembly is harder for smaller shops that are restricted on space and then have to wait, and that insurers know this.
“So, your question is valid, and I really don’t know what the answer to it is, except that the industry is definitely making a shift,” Plischke said.
He said insurance representatives have told him he is representing customers, which he disputes. “I’m not a lawyer. I’m not pretending to be in a lawyer. I’m not giving anybody legal advice. I’m just an educator,” he said.
How to set claim expectations before teardown
- Raise the possibility of a shortfall at the first conversation. Plischke said customers need to hear it before work starts rather than at the cashier.
- Explain whose contract the policy is. He said the policy is a contract between the customer and the insurer, and the repairer is not a party to it.
- Blueprint completely before submitting. Plischke said full disassembly aims for no supplements, a single parts order, and no delays.
- Answer offers quickly and in detail. His shop responds within two hours and sends an itemized comparison of each difference.
- Copy the customer on carrier correspondence. Plischke said the vehicle owner is the decision-maker in the process.
- Run the appraisal math together. He said the size of the gap decides whether the cost of appraisal makes sense.
- Confirm compliance first. Plischke said shops should be sure they repair vehicles correctly and follow state law before billing customers directly.
Want to share your shop’s advocacy story? Every edition of The Advocate profiles a collision repair shop that went to bat for a customer in an insurance dispute, total loss reversal, denied supplement, or claims confusion. If your shop has a story like this, email us at lisa@autobodynews.com to be considered for a future feature.
Lisa McArdle