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Well, there it is! The grand finale to carrying a ladder clear across the country. In fact, for those with the old wooden Stapletons or whatever their called now, chop them up and use their chips for firewood. And the Cougar paws, don't buy anymore. It's a whole new brave world. Tomorrow I'm going out to change my name to Apu John Wayne and start talking with a Bombay accent so I can fit in with the rest of the folks working a call center desk in Bumfuzz, Arizona for $7.75/hr with all the bitterly cheap coffee I can guzzle while sharing the Hindu prayer sessions in the break room.

You think I'm teasing about the Hindu prayer sessions in the break room, don't you? I have been there, boys. Just wait till you do too.

Sincerely,

Operator 7 aka Ol'Ghost

Hey, hey, Bobby. What about all those bushel baskets of patents Eagleview has? Especially the one about the super-dooper magnifying glass that can focus down to count the grains on the shingle face?

I do hope your recognize my sarcasm here, it has always been one of my favorite personal traits. The point is, the tried and true, customer effective claims practices are disappearing because the incompetent heads of the companies have swallowed the, 'WE CAN SAVE YOU MONEY!!!", sales pitch from the computer software and hardware vendors. At my last gig, the company was paying the field adjustor fee plus paying me $35.00/hr plus time & a half over 40 hrs for 11.5hr days, seven days a week. This means the idiots were saving money by paying double for each claim processed. This rings true when you realize the closure rate was about 2 a day given the extreme moronic difficulty of the companies claim management system.

You and I are actually agreeing with each other. This increasingly depersonalization of an intensely personal situation is flat out wrong. Insureds need to be treated as if they were real people, not a revenue source and sometimes indemnification target. I was not raised that way and neither were you nor anyone else reading this. But, such is the brave new path we trudge down and end our call center phone conversations by saying in a high pitched South Asian sort of way, "Thank You! Call Again!"

Ol'Ghost

Posted By Ol' Ghost on 05 Mar 2009  
...This increasingly depersonalization of an intensely personal situation is flat out wrong. Insureds need to be treated as if they were real people, not a revenue source and sometimes indemnification target. 

Yep, 5.4, we could really rock &/or roll with that one. All because it was a tool that was an extension of ourselves rather than us being an extension of it.

Ol' Ghost

I have been puzzled for yrars that the wind and flood carriers did not contract with a service to provide photos of before and after landfall of a hurricane in about 4 frame per hour. This should stop many of the TV lawyers and most of the tornado affidavits from the stay behind eye witness. If we have the tools why not use them ?

Posted By Bob Harvey on 04 Mar 2009 12:21 PM

I have seen contractors submit Eagle views, and on the files I reviewed they were the correct house and actually seemed pretty darn close to what the field adjuster measured.  I have never used them myself, and was surprised yesterday when I was talking to a claims examiner for Allied that mentioned he used them if the roof was too steep for an adjuster to climb.  I kinda felt like I was being cut out of a job.

 

Today Roy put a link to a news story on the home page.  I underlined a comment that was interesting.  
I will paste the info here in case the link changes:

 

EagleView and Xactware Team Up to Revolutionize Roof Dimensioning

<!-- #BeginEditable "release" --><!-- Render Story Content --> WOODINVILLE, Wash. and OREM, Utah, March 2 /PRNewswire/ -- EagleView Technologies and Xactware Solutions, Inc. are teaming up to offer insurance adjusters, contractors, and roofers a streamlined method to quickly generate sketched roofs. EagleView and Xactware announced a new technology integration that will allow Xactware customers to access EagleView's breakthrough roof measurement capabilities via XactAnalysis - the Property industry's foremost network for sending and receiving structural and contents estimates. The agreement will enable insurance adjusters and roofers to automatically create detailed roofs in Xactimate as part of the everyday claims process.  "We're excited to have our detailed roof measurement reports embedded into Xactimate," EagleView CEO Chris Barrow said. "Many of our current customers have been asking for this functionality. This will provide seamless access to our reports for insurance companies and adjusters who use the industry-leading Xactware product line."  Xactware users will be able to send measurement requests for a particular roof to EagleView from Xactimate. Using aerial photography and patent-pending software, EagleView accurately calculates measurements for the roof's ridges, rafters, valleys, slopes and more.  Xactware users can then take advantage of the new technology integration to electronically import the roof measurements into the Xactimate Sketch module and view the completed roof layout in both 2D and 3D. From there, users can graphically add shingles, ridge caps and other roofing material to the sketch. They can also graphically estimate costs to repair damages to complex roof structures.  The process saves contractors and roofers hours of time spent measuring and scoping a roof.  "This is the next logical step from Xactware as we continue to look for innovative ways to service the needs of our customers," said Jim Loveland , CEO of Xactware. "EagleView provides key technology for insurance adjusters and service providers using our products within the reconstruction and remodeling industries."  About EagleView Technologies  Headquartered in Woodville, Wash., EagleView Technologies, Inc. is the industry standard for aerial measurement services. EagleView invented the concept of measuring from the sky and developed its proprietary software (for which multiple patents are pending) which provides detailed measurements that are more accurate and more precise than any other method. With EagleView's system, insurance adjusters, roofers and solar installers significantly improve measurements' accuracy, dramatically reducing costs and time, while increasing profitability. For additional inquiries, please contact EagleView Technologies at (866) 338-1841 or contact us online at http://www.eagleview.com.   Big Red was testing this during Ike using a laptop and wireless internet at the risk. I'm all for it. Especially on roofs that a goat would not be on. The damage still has to be verified and the repair/replace decision has to be made.

Posted By Les Lammers on 12 Mar 2009

Big Red was testing this during Ike using a laptop and wireless internet at the risk. I'm all for it. Especially on roofs that

a goat would not be on. The damage still has to be verified and the repair/replace decision has to be made.

Hi Guys,

I work for EagleView, if any of you have any further questions about the product let me know. We're also looking for suggestions and feedback on our reports so please, if you have any comments at all let us know.

Thanks.

Why does the above post from Will@EagleView remind me of the movie scene where the hangman inquires of the condemned, "I value your feedback, so please complete our service survey and accept with our compliments this token of our appreciation for a job well done."

Ol' Ghost

Well I thought this was coming. Many years ago when I was a staff adjuster we would do a sample of a large area and find out the size of the damaging hail and then zone it down to total losses by zip code etc. The days of the roof thumpers are getting near. The inside guys are taking over. Stop the license schools we dont need any more warm bodies. Its day rate and getting lower by the day.

That's very flattering that you guys think EagleView will be taking over adjusting roofs in the future, but if it's ever possible it's still years down the road. EagleView can't verify damage because the our pictures are 6months - 2 years old. Let us do the hard part by measuring the roof for you. We're very accurate and trusted by Insurance companies all over. Plus an EagleView Report pretty much ends all arguements with the contractor. We just want to help you guys in the field get more done in a day.

10 adjusters could scope thousands of roofs by zip code in a metro area in one day and be correct on 95% if the hail was larger than inch and a quarter. Eagle view could measure the roofs and one inside adjuster could approve payment on 50 dwellings on a 12 hrs tour. Now who needs roof thumpers by the thousands, when the carriers can get free help in the form of QVP contractors to reinspect. Vut, we will still need reinspectors to inspect the inspectors and 2nd guess the first wave, therefore 10% of the top pro's will always have a job.

Why don,t you folks zoom in on wave wash claims when the hurricane comes ashore for 24 hours and document which came first?

Just a guess, Ray...but there's probably too much commotion in the atmosphere for the satellites to get good ground level pictures in that 24 hour period.  I lean toward strapping Applebee's parking lot guys to poles at varying heights, with moisture probes & wind chimes attached to their bodies.  Electronic devices could then transmit the findings to a central data station.   These individuals would be provided of course with the best of safety equipment, and well compensated for their heroic efforts of which tales they can pass down through the generations and in parking lots of other well known eateries.  It could turn into a new career path for many, with seniority earning one a higher position on a pole with greater tensile strength and less potential debris from the windward side.

And the hangmans final homily to the condemned, intoned with the greatest of professionally friendly and courteous sympathy, " I'm here to aid your transition thru this most personally difficult phase as you seek the quest for efficient achievement".

Ol' Ghost