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CCarr
Canada
1200 Posts |
 Posted - 09/30/2003 : 07:31:40
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JWill, great post! I feel no need to void any fluids, and I am pleasantly amused by your down to earth post.
These are the actions of a true independent contractor who supplies adjusting services.
There is a tremendous difference in operating the way JWill has portrayed. I believe it is a win-win solution for all parties to that arrangement. For the independent contractor working within that framework, it provides all the benefits - physically and mentally - that JWill has explained to us. |
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catmanager
USA
102 Posts |
Posted - 09/30/2003 : 08:57:45
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| Sounds like a plan!!! |
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JWill
USA
28 Posts |
Posted - 09/30/2003 : 17:20:44
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| Thanks CCarr and Catmanager. It's works. |
J. Williams |
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dano009
46 Posts |
Posted - 09/30/2003 : 23:55:21
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| Way to go JWill. Vendors seem to just open their legs real wide these days and take whatever the insurers tell them there are going to pay. I’ve been doing staff and local independent work since Andrew. Man, have things changed for the worse for the cat independent adjuster. It seems now days, you have to look at 7-10 risks a day (and write them up too), succumb to a low daily rate or fee schedule, wait until the insurer pays the vendor before you get paid, have at least two or three different property software programs and so on. The bottom line is that the independent adjuster must bear more and more of the cost of working a storm. I truly see a need for an organization on behalf of the independent adjuster to deal with these issues. At 44 and after twenty years in this business, selling used cars doesn’t sound all that bad. |
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okclarryd
USA
106 Posts |
Posted - 10/01/2003 : 21:09:32
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| I thought this posting was to discuss a rather dismal fee schedule. This is why I keep coming back to read this stuff. You guys can change a subject faster than Superman in a phone booth. |
LARRY D HARDIN |
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TedPasan
82 Posts |
Posted - 10/02/2003 : 05:46:02
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You scored a field goal Larry.
Aren't you familiar with the Sunday afternoon armchair quarterbacks?
You came here to learn how to play real football?
Come on guys. Give him a helmet and pass him some popcorn. |
Edited by - TedPasan on 10/02/2003 05:56:11 |
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Ghostbuster
476 Posts |
Posted - 10/02/2003 : 08:09:17
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Only if he promises to not stink up my bathroom like the rest of you galoots do...haven't you ever heard of opening the window? Or, a little squirt of housespray? And, am I the only one who can put a new roll of toilet paper on the roller?
Since when was I elected to be the Official Mens Room attendent? |
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Noble R. Nash
USA
17 Posts |
Posted - 10/02/2003 : 22:13:20
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| I was superman in Hugo,lost my book of business locally.JWill made the point right from the heart.It took me a long time to build back up.My next run on a cane will be a big hit or Ill stay home and earn my loaf one slice at a time.I still say the claims are coming,everyone with a crack in the wall on the east cost will make one.Ghost,does the paper go over the top or from the back? Good luck,good hunting,be safe |
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cajunboy696
USA
15 Posts |
Posted - 10/04/2003 : 23:04:33
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From my point of view rr that schedule is for the birds, but there have been times when I would have been very happy just to work (on any schedule).
It seems that the carriers in this world have forgotten what a quality adjuster really does for their company. The only real contact that the customer ever has with the carrier is through us their adjuster. We are their number one form of advertising, and it seems they can't quite get this through their skulls.
Of course, productivity is quite important, as is an accurate scope and estimate of damages, but all of these pale in comparison to being able to quell an insured's concerns and to make them feel that we have their interests in equal proportion to the carriers in mind when we adjust a loss.
Most of the larger carriers (i.e. - big blue & big red -) don't understand what the mechanics of a loss are supposed to be; a policy is nothing more than a contract between two parties where one party (the insured) has already lived up to there end. When they file a claim all they are doing is requesting the other party to live up to their end with out predjudice! After all the insured doesn't contact the carrier every time a bill is due trying to force their premium lower.
But when their is a loss on the policy I can't count how many times a carrier I was working for tried to weasel their way out of paying something they clearly owed... Some carriers are better than others granted... but they all have the same attitude of let's get away with what we can and if the cust. screams (a lot) then we'll pay. It's no wonder why so many PA offices are popping up around the country.
Using their same philosophy with us they have beaten down our billing to the point that it's hard to make a decent living in this field. Sure we can bring home a couple hundred a year after taxes but only if we're on the road year round. The job we do every day is hard on the body, mind and the soul, but they don't seem to care. We get used, and abused then given a pentence and sent on our way until our services are needed again (which by the way, no one else but us can provide!).
I happen to be on the lucky side as far as schedule's go in comparison:
at 5000.01 -- 450.00 10,000.01 690.00 +pics +milege +phone etc....
%65
but even this is very low considering the service we provide to the carrier, I just don't understand this "will adjust for food" mentality that the carriers shove down our throats year to year... does anyone know how we can help change this perception of our industry?
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Ghostbuster
476 Posts |
Posted - 10/05/2003 : 03:41:31
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Sure...it's called the public relations department of our CADO Professional Trade Association if Chuck Deaton will ever get off his Arkansas tokus as the self anointed Grand Poo-Bah of the organizational committee to get this wagon up and rolling!
Image promotion to the public and the carriers of our sterling qualities is the Numero Uno priority here at your CADO Ministry of Propaganda. We know that in our role as the professional from out of town, it is our function to be the Hero in the White Truck, there to save Elmer & Ethyl Insured from the evil forces of nature, (hurricanes, hail storms, floods, wind, earthquakes, and fires), and the evil forces of humanity, (crooked contractors, Public Adjusters, and anal orfice claims supervisors). Promotion of you and your skills as Professional Adjusters is our raison-de-etre at all times, (even at 3:40AM on a Sunday morning). |
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CCarr
Canada
1200 Posts |
Posted - 10/05/2003 : 09:50:14
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It doesn't get much clearer than this. Kevin, the cajunboy, has very clearly portrayed our position as feed in the trough, or as a $1.98 pair of pliers at Walmart; all depending on how you see yourself being used.
He left a great opening for the G'buster, who again made the correct and obvious conclusions of the actions necessary to remedy the sad but accurate circumstances that Kevin has illustrated.
I really don't understand why independent contractors in the adjusting trade don't want or don't care to have their image and value elevated through a professional trade association. Such an association would still allow us to be "in business for ourselves, but not by ourselves"; with a collective voice dealing with our concerns. |
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catmanager
USA
102 Posts |
Posted - 10/05/2003 : 20:46:18
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| Amen!! |
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pilot48
USA
78 Posts |
Posted - 10/05/2003 : 23:12:00
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One serious question, how would you actually market yourselves to the claims community so that our interest would be protected, unless there was a statutory standard that had to be observed, the companies would do what they've been doing for years.........hiring just warm bodies to put out fires until the real adjusters showed up.
Until and unless we get protection by virtue of standards in practice, we're subject to just any old ex-roofer, who can't make a living in his own town, turned adjuster cutting us out of work, until they had a true coverage question, then of course their lack of education and experience would come forth.
Real answer to this situation, else it's only conversation that NEVER goes anywhere. |
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Ghostbuster
476 Posts |
Posted - 10/06/2003 : 06:49:50
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In fact, that is just what we are doing here and now. As the word of CADO spreads, our exposure grows. You are in the middle of the heat and smoke of the CADO professional trade organization gestation period. We are, by nudging and urging, showing that the coming together and working together of we very independent people as a group will not harm our spirit of independence. In fact, it will give us all a sense of home or belonging where we can then venture out from as members of a professional group.
Our industry has matured from the rambunctious days when storm trooping was a teachers summer job out running hail with only a clip board, ladder, and a station wagon. Just look around you at all the stuff that is needed to do the job. This ain't no small investment you're looking at. But, conceptually, our coming together as an association can best be likened to the soaring and independent eagle. Even they flock together ocasionally. So must we. |
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ddinspects
USA
2 Posts |
Posted - 10/07/2003 : 23:06:27
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Any professional cat adjuster understands there is a distinct difference between the part-time catter and the longtermer. The problem is convincing the Companies that you get what you pay for.
It appears to me, in order for cat adjusters to survive as professionals in the industry which would command respect, the direction and focus should be toward accredidation. At the risk of a reduction in overall CADO membership initially, this would mean standards, examination and enforcement. That would sell !
We all know about the self-proclaimed importance placed on specific carriers and their certifications, but at no fault of their adjusters, those carriers by & large use part-timers, who have the least professionalism.
The claims business is still a "people business," which requires experience and the professionalism to care. Now, convince the Companies ! |
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Feedback on Fee Schedule Please
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