| Author |
Message |
just asking
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 01, 2002 - 9:53 pm: | |
can anyone shed any light on this question..... has an adjuster by the name of Frank Lambert ever worked for Pilot in any capacity and if so what capacity and how long. |
Steven W. Ebner (Medulus)
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 31, 2001 - 10:12 pm: | |
I just got this year's materials from Pilot. There seems to be no change from last year. I can't tell you how disappointed I am. |
David Pierce (Davpierc)
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 19, 2000 - 11:43 pm: | |
Pilot Catastrophes
I also have the one dollar check framed on my wall. Although I did sign the contract for 2000 due to just wanting to work in any form or fashion in this business. I was suposed to attend your school for new temp employees, I called and scheduled a class date, talked to your people on the phone and made arrangements to stay in arlington for the week. I was told to look for a packet and waited and waited. Two days before I was to leave for your class I called and was told they had no record of me being registered. This really bothered me about your company. I had the highest expectations of a mutually satisfying experience working catastrophes with your co. I was under the impression your company was one of the best and most effecient in the business. Maybe I am just naive, but if I cannot even make your class without complications and getting dropped with no explanation, I feel like maybe your contract was a way for you to tie up a lot of newer adjusters witout giving anything in return. If I am in error with this posting please correct me. As of yet I have not recieved any correspondence from your company.
Thank you
David Pierce
Davpierc@aol.com |
Steven W. Ebner (Medulus)
| | Posted on Monday, December 18, 2000 - 2:20 am: | |
Dear Pilot Catastrophe Services:
My home office has a framed photocopy of a check for one dollar from Pilot Catastrophe Services issued in the first year I went independent. It was the first dollar I made as an independent adjuster and was the consideration for signing your contract that year.
I have not yet received your contract for 2001. But when I am on assignment, I have a significant delay between when my mail arrives at my post office box and when I actually receive it. Therefore, this letter may be too late. I hope it is not.
I didn't sign the contract I received from Pilot at the beginning of this year. Let me tell you why.
Most of the discussion on this site earlier in the year centered around the non-compete clause. I found the clause unclear, but that is not my primary reason for refusing to sign the document. The lack of clarity centered around the meaning of "same catastrophe, in general". In 1999 I left an assignment in Virginia Beach working on Hurricane Floyd and went to work for a different company in Philadelphia working on Hurricane Floyd. I was hardly in competition handling claims several hundred miles from the previous location, but I might have been in violation of your contract had either of those companies been Pilot Catastrophe Services. It is just unclear how the word "catastrophe" would be defined in your contract.
That aside, my main problem with signing the contract has to do with the arbitration section. I know you are now embroiled in a lawsuit, which I understand involves catadjusters who expect to be paid overtime. My jaw drops every time I think about that concept. I am quite happy to let those who expect to be paid overtime go find some flunky job that pays by the hour. I am quite happy working on commission and making far more than I would ever hope to make working for an hourly wage. I admit to not really knowing much about your legal troubles or even having much interest in them, unless it changes our industry for the worse. It seems that this particular lawsuit has that potential. But, as I wrote, I don't really know much about the lawsuit.
I have never sued anyone yet, even though I have had good cause a time or two. But if I work for you and you do something so heinous that I am finally moved to bring suit against you, I refuse to accept that my only recourse is to file for arbitration in the jurisdiction where your company is headquartered. It seems to me that this section of your contract was an over-reaction to the above lawsuit.
Additionally, the general tone of the letter that accompanied the contract and the materials that accompanied it seemed to be in the nature of gaining a tighter control on the adjusters who work for you. If I were the type of adjuster who showed up drunk for inspections or committed other acts that were unprofessional in the commission of my duties as a catadjuster, I would expect to be sent packing. And I would only be kicking myself for it. But the primary reason I do not work as a staffer is because I feel, at this stage in life, I must be in control of my own career and destiny. I avoid anything that smacks of control by others and particularly of excessive control by a corporation. My experience has been that when a corporation has too much control over my life, my career, and my actions it is to my detriment and to the squashing of my own ambitions. When I was a pastor, I was at one point ready to move to a different church. I asked for one thing from the denomination, that I be moved to a church within reasonable commuting distance of my wife's work. There were over a hundred churches to choose from that fit the bill. I was offered a church two and a half hours from my wife's workplace. This is just one example of several that are flooding my mind even now. When I have put my future in the hands of a corporation, it has resulted in disappointment of my own ambitions. I am an independent for the express purpose of having a modicum of independence and self determination.
Fortunately, not signing the contract this year did not hurt me because I had all the work I needed or wanted this year. It was difficult, however, to close a door I would have rather left open. Oddly enough, though, I was called for standby three times this year by Pilot even though I did not sign the contract. Each time I was called I was already working and therefore I turned down the requests. But I would have had to turn them down even if I had been available because I'm sure you would have expected me to sign the contract before working for you.
I hope I am not too late to request that an acceptable contract be sent this coming year. Although I have not yet worked for you, I would like to think that I might some day. I made it a habit in previous years of notifying you as soon as I was available and every time I was available. Some of the brightest and best of our profession also abstained from signing the contract this year. Their reasons may coincide with mine or they may be divergent, but I can't help but think that you did both us in the adjusting community and your company a disservice with the packet of materials which included the contract for the year 2000.
Steve Ebner |
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