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Meg,  Let me see if I have this correct.  Say I work a hail storm and work 200 files that all have damages between $2,000 and $10,000, and have to use this program through the internet for the vendor involved.  Are you saying that for that storm and that amount of work, I'll not only have to pay the monthly or quarterly fee for the program, but get hit with a bill of $3,390 on top of that for sending these through the internet?  That is a pretty big hit for work that may take 1-1.5 months to do.

Thanks Meg,

Wow. Those fees could ruin your profitability. I am not familair with XactAnaylsis. Is this Xact's newtork (network but newtork seems appropriate) that ties in to the carriers?

Yes, Steve, according to the person I spoke with at Xactimate yesterday, that's correct. 

He told me that if one used XactAnalysis that although there was no additional charge for XactAnalysis, there is the upload fee.  So, you pay your subscription fees for the program, and if using the XactAnalysis, there are the additional upload fees.  Pretty scary actually IMHO, that you're incurring additional charges to upload your files.  Wondering exactly what the end result charge could be, given a large storm, IF mandated by the carrier that you must use XactAnalysis.....

Let's say a large hurricane hits and no one will work for that carrier what happens then? I would say know before you go will start hitting home with more adjusters. No milage, no photos, pay xact an upload fee, pay monthly subsciption for software,input insured info yourself, load onto cd when finished,contact insured when you finish your estimate and go over scope and coverage,decreased fees so vendor can get the account(but)they keep their admin fee of $10-$15 a file-you can't touch that-100%vendor's),how many files can you count on?,send a hard copy to the insured and carrier(time,ink and paper), This is what I ran into with my current assignment with a highly reputable vendor. Except for the upload fee. Hurricane season could get interesting if adjusters hold out or jump ship for the best offer. Some vendors may find they have written checks to carriers they can't cash. You get what you pay for.

What a rip off and Citizens will probably require Xactanalysis. That could run into the thousands of dollars. Dead sure I will not be working Citizens claims with all their rules, regs, and schedule and now this, no way.

It seems that every day we have a new cost inflicted upon the already diminishing fee schedule.  It also seems that people have a distorted view of the Independent Catastrophe Adjuster; they think we make boat loads of money, do very little work to earn that inflated pay check and it takes no training or education to earn the millions we're all supposed to make. 

The fee schedules remain the same even though the price of gasoline, groceries, housing, and all else has gone up.  Almost everyone in business now is adding surcharges, or delivery charges, or just raising their prices due to the extreme cost increases we're all seeing, yet the fee bills remain the same as they have for years, new costs are passed along to us, and it seems it will take an act of congress to even get a minimal fee for increased gasoline costs to the adjuster. 

I want to remind everyone out there how invaluable you are in the claims process!!!! 

If Independent Adjusters didn't exist the carriers would have to hire more staff in order to handle the claim volume, therefore increasing their bottom line to include vacation pay and health insurance, as well as sick leave and other various paid time off for employees.  We are treated as the "red headed stepchild" when in fact, IAs save the carriers untold thousands in salaries and other employment costs, including tax benefits.  We're afraid to raise too much noise because we know there are always others who are more than glad to step up and take the claims, but....BUT.....IF WE STOOD TOGETHER WE WOULD NOT FAIL!!!!!   We are an unorganized group of PROFESSIONALS who need to band together and be ONE VOICE!  We are essential to an effective, cost efficient claims process, and its time we all started thinking that way. 

THEY NEED US!!!

Yeah, Larry, I know....maybe I did get a little carried away, but everything I said was true, nonetheless. 

First of all I don't buy gas, I buy fuel, diesel fuel.  While I buy it from a local pump when I am around home, I use a futures market mentality when buying for storms.  Where do storms hit, basically along the coast, so stock pile diesel fuel at points along the coast. Also, I am a miles per dollar guy and I can tell you that buying something new and paying a high price to get 10 miles per gallon better fuel mileage is not productive.

A good used diesel pickup with a fuel tank in the bed will increase your productivy and increase the number of fuel sources when the power and phones are out and gasoline sources are down. In times past I have bought diesel from truckers and farmers. With the set up I use I can drive to stored fuel in LA or in TX and work for months on fuel I bought at a cheaper price and have stored.

In New Orleans we were set up, in the motorhome, on the West Bank and did not drive from Houma or Hammond, across the lake every day.

I'm not certain if this upload fee is anything new.  Back when I worked branch for a certain vendor, I recall being told that there was a "per claim" upload fee.  But I never saw that cost.  From what I understood, it was paid by the company and covered every upload you did throughout the course of the loss (1st report, photos, estimate & all subsequent reports).  Maybe Mr. Cupps can shed a little extra light on this.  Crawford is, afterall, one of those that requires the use of Xactimate as far as I know.  In their case, that uploading cost for claims they handle may fall upon the carrier and not the IA doing the field work.  Don't everyone get their panties in a bunch just yet, because this would have come up long  ago unless things have changed.  Meg...you may have been misinformed by a fledgling who did not understand from what position you were speaking.

I'm glad you posted that as I hadn't had time to get back to some prior notes I had on Citizens and their use of Xctimate and Xactanalysis. Here is the link I did just locate. I also think that possibly the person on the other end of Meg's call may have thought she was with a carrier or adjusting firm as they also have an Xactanalysis program for them (there are several options on the Xactware site). The link to the Xactanalysis info on their site says that it is free with your subscription but not sure whose subscription they are referring to:

http://www.xactcontents.com/product.../xasp.html

There are links to 3 different Xactanalysis products if you click on the last tab to the Products list you'll see three links to 3 Xactanalysis programs.

These can all be found on Past Board Meeting notes of June 14, 2007 on the Citizens website. Not only do these notes show their selection process where they evaluated the 4 major software estimate vendors but also their board approval for using Xactanalysis at a cost of 367K per year which it says expires in Oct 2008 at the same time the current award expires with Xactware. From the way I'm reading this, I am only assuming that the charge is on the carrier side not the adjuster side. Atleast it is hard to believe that they could charge a carrier this much and also charge those fees to an adjuster as well. Also when your reading the links on this webpage to the committee notes that you look at how much they paid for Xactware contract. It is truly an eye opener:

https://www.citizensfla.com/about/m...;when=Past

Also in the 6/14/07 meeting notes are great explanations about how they work with AYO (similar to WYO on flood) processes work between Citizens and carriers who have the HO policy when Citizens just has the wind coverage.

Here's some other link notes I had saved:

Here is where they rated the 4 major software vendors before choosing Xactware:

http://www.citizensfla.com/about/mD...;when=Past

(although this says May 2006- it's posted on the 6/14/07 board meeting as a document from the meeting. This next document says that is because the 06 board approval ran thru 08 and the new one is now through May 2009. Look at the huge dollar expenditure on this- 2.8 MILLION with an expected reassignment on cat files of 50% on a 300,000 cat claim storm)

http://www.citizensfla.com/about/mD...;when=Past

Add to it the cost of Xactanalysis at 300K plus:

http://www.citizensfla.com/about/mD...;when=Past

If anyone figures out this mystery as to any charges to adjusters definitely, it would be great to understand this.

This link should work to all documents presented at the June 2007 meeting:

https://www.citizensfla.com/about/m...;when=Past

You will see the agenda items on the left side of the link to the June 07 Board Meeting notes

Here's a copy of the email I received from a rep at XM8.  

Per our conversation, here is the different pricing options for Xactimate (Note: Xactimate is on a subscription basis only): 

ALSO prices will change on Jul 1^st 2008 

For contracting capabilities:

One-time sign up fee $250

12-month commitment = $1300/yr or 12 monthly payments $115/mo

Allowed 2 installs

Each additional install = $58/mo per install 

For adjusting capabilities (contactor can be added to this at no charge):

30-days = $230

90-days = $600

12-month commitment = $1300/yr or 4 quarterly payments $345/mo

Allowed 1 install

Each additional install = $115/mo per install 

Also I’ve included our different Training options and pricing below:

Xactimate 25 Basic or Intermediate Training CDs = $39.99 each

Online Training Course (with one of our Trainers) = $150 for 2 hours (various classes available)

Xactimate 25 3-day Regional Training Class (8 hours per day) = $750/person (or $550/person if taken in Utah)

Xactimate 25 Advanced 2-day Regional Training Class (8 hours per day) = $599/person (or $440/person if taken in Utah)

3-day On-sight Training (up to 20 students) = $5500

XactContents = $58.00 a month.

XactNet Assignment upload charges:

$0-$499  $4.95

$500-$1,999  $9.95

$2,000-$9,999  $16.95

$10,000<  $29.95

(paid by the adjuster)

For more details on training please visit www.xactware.com under the menu “Training” or feel free to contact me directly.

Please contact me directly if you have any additional questions or when you would like to place an order.

Thank you. 

TeleNet Sales
800.424.9228 x514

www.xactware.com

Well, here's the second response I just received to my question regarding the upload fees, a bit of a discrepancy regarding the pricing....

Your Question (non-technical support related) submitted to Xactware on 06-17-2008 regarding the following area has received a response:

You submitted a Question (non-technical support related) on June 17, 2008 at 1:03 PM:

Can you please supply me with the cost involved for using XactAnalysis as an adjuster.  What are the upload fees and any other costs involved.
Thank you
Meg

Meg, I don't know, Ive never asked the question specifically, but the upload charge may be for storage of estimates. It seems that was brought up with other software. There was no charge for recieving or sending claims, but if you wanted your claims archived on their system for future reference, there was a charge. Currently my Xm8 is supplied by a vendor, I asked him and he said he hasn't seen any extra charges.

JWG

Jim,

You're free to decide what you will, I've not only provided the information they gave me, but also included TWO responses from them documenting what I've been saying.  You or anyone else can decipher the written responses they gave me in whatever manner you choose, I've simply provided the information.  If you read the emails posted below you will clearly see that although both communications show different fees, they both clearly say there is an upload fee when using XactAnalysis, one also including the statement that the adjuster pays.  Believe it or not, I really don't care, I'm just providing information given to me by Xactimate and really don't want to have to continue to defend this.  Check it out for yourself and know rather than just guess.  All I have been trying to do is provide information that I thought would be helpful to my colleagues.  And at least I checked it out with the company, not guessing what might or might not be...

As Forest Gump would say "That's all I have to say about that".

Seems like many years ago the rule was the fee schedule included about 50 miles. However the fees havent gone up so based on the cost of fuel now the schedule should include about 12 miles.

good thinking and math, esquire Hines. Using you reasoning some of the regular fee bill schedules in have seen in the last two years, the carrier should owe the adjuster about 30 miles when the file is assigned.