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CCarr
Canada
1200 Posts |
 Posted - 10/07/2003 : 21:52:39
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I've noted a fair bit of discussion about this fee schedule or that fee schedule, the last being today where someone suggested to another that they compare a USAA fee schedule to another before they headed out.
Would it be of any interest and help if we gathered up fee schedules currently at hand and did a spreadsheet comparison?
Like the last survey I tried to do, if people want to provide me with the fee schedules, I'll do the spreadsheet in a post to this thread, and continue to guarantee the anonymity of the suppliers of the information.
FAX ONLY the actual current fee schedule and any other corporate issued notes about it to me at 905-826-6849. Once I get a couple, I'll start the process and lay it out for you.
Might be an eye opener, but at least interesting. |
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CCarr
Canada
1200 Posts |
Posted - 10/09/2003 : 07:33:24
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I've received 4 fee schedules since Monday night, and some promises from others that they will send one or more soon. Two of them that I did receive appear to be older FWUA and NFIP schedules. Surely, the NFIP has updated its schedule since 1997?
I'm testing a framework template of a layout of what I have received, but do suggest this will be more meaningful if I had 10 or more schedules to crunch the data with.
If you are interested, fax your schedules to 905-826-6849 |
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CCarr
Canada
1200 Posts |
Posted - 10/09/2003 : 12:04:01
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I've been told now by a couple of people who are sending me schedules, that it is easier or more convenient to send them via email.
If that works for you, it works for me.
Send fee schedules to clayton.carr@sympatico.ca |
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CCarr
Canada
1200 Posts |
Posted - 10/14/2003 : 10:05:01
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Well, in one week I have received three different fee schedules.
Three schedules does make a comparative survey.
Perhaps I have misunderstood the level of any interest in any such comparison.
An ISO press release says there was a record 886,000 cat claims in Q3 this year (July - September).
Surely there are many fee schedules in play with this activity.
It doesn't take two minutes to fax or email a piece of paper.
If I don't receive 8 or 10 or more different fee schedules, I won't put the time into the comparison.
If it is of no interest or help, I apologize for raising the issue. |
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CCarr
Canada
1200 Posts |
Posted - 10/14/2003 : 21:03:39
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I need to communicate with one person who faxed me four pages today between 6.00 - 7.00 PM your time.
You went to almost great lengths to protect your identity in addition to blacking out the corporate names on the fee schedules you sent. I know from your fax header where the fax was sent from, but to protect your anonymity I can't identify you better here.
However, I can not use a fee schedule in this comparison if I don't know whose (corporate entity) fee schedule I am comparing.
It doesn't serve any purpose if we don't know which carrier or vendor we are comparing to another with these fee schedules.
Please, write the name of the vendor or carrier on each fee schedule and re-send or communicate with me and we'll try and sort it out. Thanks.
While on the subject, I don't understand the perceived "secrecy" of these schedules. We all have one or more or lots in our possession, and with your anonymity protected, I don't see the concern to share this information. |
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pilot48
USA
78 Posts |
Posted - 10/14/2003 : 22:32:09
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Clayton,
If you're just crunching numbers for an idea of fees, why do you need to know which company it comes from. Numbers are numbers, names are not important for data interrupretation, is it?
Besides, at this point in time, we all have already had enough beers and shared war stories of which companies are screwing us over, that data is not a factor now.
We all know Renfrow has tried to screw Glock, and now Renfrow is getting rear ended for their mis-conduct, that N&C Claims is on the edge of fraud indictments from the Va. Insurance Comm. office and the States Attorney office.
Your good will is noted, but unless there is some teeth to the data that benefits us all, it's just more gossip that doesn't produce results in the wallet.
Thanks for the ear. |
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CCarr
Canada
1200 Posts |
Posted - 10/15/2003 : 10:13:20
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Hi Lee, thanks for your inquiry.
Staying within the context of your comments, my intent is more than just crunching numbers to get an idea on fees. I am preparing a spreadsheet with a common demominator group of price points (gross loss), and then blending in the fees from the various schedules that are received. Therefore, in the end, a person will - for example - be able to look at any price point (say $3000 gross loss) and go across the page and see the many different fees in the survey at that price point and what vendor or company it is; or any other price point up to ">$250K". At this point I have 27 different price point ranges (gross loss), as the base for the survey. In addition, a brief summary is developing in two areas - "schedule charges include" and a separate summary for "photographs".
Personally, I see absolutely no point in doing such a comparative survey, if we do not know who we are comparing to each other. This is not the somewhat intangible but valuable "rate the employer" type survey as found within CADO. This is a very tangible analysis through a comparative survey of identified fee schedules. Perhaps it will be subjective material that will be helpful in each adjuster's consideration of vendors.
I have seen - too often in my opinion - adjusters inquiring through CADO, about what anyone else might know about this or that vendor's fee schedule; as bad weather developed somewhere. Perhaps this survey will serve as a starting point in having these concerns answered earlier and clearer.
While the apparent infighting and alleged misdeeds you mention among vendors is interesting and worthy to be aware of, there is no intent on my part to opinionate this survey; just the intent to lay out the facts in one common format with some summaries for all to consider. However, as you can see from this effort, there is a need to identify the companies whose schedule was entered into the survey.
Therefore, I do feel there will be teeth to the data to benefit "all". The material is factual, on a common platform, and the more schedules in the survey will result in a more meaningful comparison.
I can see each adjuster approaching their review of this survey in many different ways. Perhaps some will do it within the context of the size of claim they mostly or most likely handle, or most want to handle; then considering where the biggest bang for their efforts lies. Or, alternatively considering their percentage (60, 65, or 70%) that is offered by a vendor and measuring that in the survey to another vendor's percentage available to them.
Finally, of the four company fee schedules now entered into the survey - two from vendors and two from carriers - the differences are significant. At various price points, the differences range from 10% to 25% to over 40%.
Therefore, I have to suggest that this is not just more "gossip", and that this factual material in the form of a survey could be useful to producing results in the wallet.
So, as they say, the phone lines are still open, to fax or email. I've got the 5th identified fee schedule to enter, but need many more before the value of the project is measurable. |
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danmeler
25 Posts |
Posted - 10/15/2003 : 15:48:26
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| Crunching numbers would be of little value in my opinion if it didn't help me to make more money. What I want to know is: WHO is paying WHAT? THAT is info any business minded adjuster should want to know. Come on people, give up some carrier or vendor names!! |
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CCarr
Canada
1200 Posts |
Posted - 10/15/2003 : 16:47:05
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People are starting to catch on.
What you want to know - who is paying what - is what I am trying to get the information on, so I can give you a comparative survey.
Dan' said it better and in a lot less words than I'd been trying to do - this will be business information that any independent contractor should want to know.
Phone lines are still open - fax or email. |
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CCarr
Canada
1200 Posts |
Posted - 10/17/2003 : 08:38:46
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Well in 10 days I have received 6 fee schedules that are identified and that I can use, received from hardly 1% of those clicking on to this thread.
I wish the person that sent me 4 schedules that are not identified, would communicate or re-send; they would make an interesting fit into the few others I have.
Plus, there are 2 or 3 other people who say they will send a schedule or two, in a day or so or week or so.
I can't help but express my ignorance of the issue to why so few are interested in this survey.
However, it is not my intent to pull chains.
If this is all the interest in this project, I'll do up a summary of what I have and email the results privately to those 5 who took the two minutes to send me a schedule.
In the meantime, the phone lines are still open to fax or email a schedule. |
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Ghostbuster
476 Posts |
Posted - 10/17/2003 : 21:07:29
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Well, yeah, but Clayton's effort at analyzing and presenting it here for all to see at one time has a lot of merit.It would also stir the vendors stewpot to see themselves reflected in this light.
Ted, we also need you, as a roving correspondent, to post a report on the topic of who is screwing whom in the carrier/vendor/independent adjuster happenings of Isabel. What's this item blowing in the wind about Nationwide and a certain outfit from Birmingham, Alabama and then there's the alledged fraud charges by the Viginia Attorney General and what else?
As your Minister of Propaganda, I can't do it all. Your help is vital in getting the word out to all. Inqiuring minds want and need to know. |
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CCarr
Canada
1200 Posts |
Posted - 10/17/2003 : 21:48:13
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To the man who claims to hail from Colorado, yes my request does seem to be an exercise in futility; but I disagree that it is a fuitless endeavor.
I was probably the only chump that was willing to take all the schedules that I could get, and assimilate them onto one spreadsheet in a common format for an actual true comparison at standard price points; perhaps of no value to you but perhaps it is to others.
I think there are other reasons for the lack of participation, but to disagree with you more than once in a post has had disagreeable results in the past. But thank you for bringing the wall wandering adjusters to my attention.
Oh, by the way, can any of those corridor walkers, even with a handful of 10 different fee schedules, quickly tell us at which price point that there is a 64% difference in fees, or at how many price points that the range of fee differences is over 40%, or whose schedule at 60% is better than another at 65%; and other tidbits of fruitless information to some?
But like you, what do I know, other than the answers to those questions? |
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Ghostbuster
476 Posts |
Posted - 10/18/2003 : 11:46:05
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Or, how's this, I'll be the Lou Grant to your Ted Baxter? Or, for the younger crowd, Shepherd Smith to your Geraldo Rivera? Or even, Goofy to your Donald Duck?
I'm always open to interesting scenarios. |
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CatDaddy
USA
310 Posts |
Posted - 10/18/2003 : 12:02:26
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Clayton, if you were Jim, wouldnt you want to be somebody else? Being Ted is more like a lateral move than a step up but it still probably allows him to get a new charge account at the corner liquor store.
Maybe he is smarter that we think.
CD |
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Quaka
Cuba
17 Posts |
Posted - 10/18/2003 : 14:13:35
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I can add this , I averaged a whopping $ 125.00 a claim on the NCJUA schedule. Never again will I claim 3 story properties and have that kind of junk schedule. I think that if cat folks are so hungry to take any work at any cost then they have no room to complain. I on the other hand did my assigned crap fee schedule and took on to finding some commercial claims that paid great. So the point here is the same for everyone. 1. know before you go. and 2. The carriers and te vendors are our to squeak every last penny off of our back sides. I will no long work for crappy fee schedules, lousy promises, poor claim counts and lack of respect.
Let's hope for a great winter season, as I am sure a lot of folks will need it to get to the spring storm work. It gets harder each year to make a living at this, all the time while the fee schedules fall lower, lower and lower.
When the USA suffers a cat 3,4 or 5. The best adjusters and fee schedules will appear, until then , good luck to all in this mediocre industry.
GO YANKEES |
Quaka Mole |
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Ghostbuster
476 Posts |
Posted - 10/18/2003 : 15:30:22
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There ya go, this is the kind of feedback we need to hear. This is the kind of true reflection on the state of our industry that can bring about the changes that will benefit us all.
Let's hear some more of it, and send in those fee schedules to Clayton. The more we know, the better we can protect ourselves. |
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Fee Schedule comparisons
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