California Bureau of Automotive Repair Executive Director Patrick Dorais on Thursday discussed topics like customer communication, vehicle technology and teardowns throughout a VeriFacts Guild 21 webinar appearance.
Communication
Dorais’ agency regulates about 5,000 auto body shops in what’s arguably America’s most significant collision market. He said the California collision market is accountable for about 1,000 of the 17,000 consumer complaints the BAR receives annually.
About a third of the auto body repair-related complaints involved allegations of shops failing to obtain authorization for work and/or making false or misleading statements, based on Dorais. He explained consumers regularly tell the BAR they think misled concerning the amount of a collision repair and don’t know what work is happening on their own vehicle.
It’s been easier to help keep customers informed and also to obtain authorization since 2021, when the BAR started to permit customers to give consent electronically by means including text.
“Any estimate or revised work order presented to the client shall be licensed by the customer or the customer’s designee in written, oral, or electronic form,” 16 California Code of Regulations 3353.1 states.
“… When the customer provides an electronic authorization, the automotive repair dealer shall record the authorization by documenting around the estimate the date, time, name of the person authorizing the repairs, and the phone number or electronic mail address contacted, if any, or produce this information on documents relating to the authorization that supplement the estimate.”
However, Dorais also advised shops to preserve communications. “You need the documents” to defend yourself, and it’s also required under California law, based on Dorais. He explained the BAR requires records remain for three years, but the California Autobody Association recommends 4 years.
Three-party interactions
Dorais also advised shops to think of what his presentation termed “3-Party Transactions,” defining the 3 parties because the shop, the customer and also the insurer.
He said the BAR is drawn in to these transactions by customers who’ve faced a “breakdown in general” between your shop and insurer.
Dorais called collision transactions not the same as other automotive repair because the party since the cost was “often not the customer. We all know that.”
Customers seek a lot more than they really are due, Dorais said. “That happens a great deal,” he said. Body shops focus on the insurer, for “they’re the ones make payment on bill,” he explained. Insurers try to cut cost, he said.
“This dynamic results in the consumer being excluded from the repair that belongs to them vehicles, quite often,” Dorais said. This prompts complaints towards the BAR, he explained.
Dorais said the BAR thought that repairers and insurers “should always work to develop a productive relationship that’s based on mutual respect, professionalism, reliability , trust” to aid their mutual customer.
“That’s vital that you us,” he explained. “And it'll save us from being involved in these transactions.”
Vehicle technology, shop standards
Dorais said about half from the complaints to the BAR involved shops which allegedly damaged an automobile or were “negligent within the repair process.”
“Technology within the vehicle structure and safety systems will simply get more complicated,” a presentation slide stated.
Moderator George Avery proposed that few customers would “scour” a quote and recognize issues like a corresponding lack of weld-through primer on their vehicle. But he asked Dorais if advanced driver assistance systems would create a “dramatic increase” in complaints.
“Without doubt,” Dorais said, recounting how his children were reliant on the backup camera technology instead of turning their scalp to physically look rearward.
He said he felt “more and more complaints” would arise related to such technology.
Dorais also said the BAR sought to amend the lists of equipment and trade standards required of auto body shops. Regulators will first update the equipment rules — the BAR already workshopped the idea in 2021 — and then proceed to revamp trade standards, based on Dorais.
The BAR’s current equipment list goes back to 1997. 16 CCR 3351.5 states:
The BAR’s current collision industry trade standards also date back to 1997. 16 CCR 3365 lists two requirements but says this list isn’t all-inclusive:
Teardowns
Dorais also made a case for teardowns, defining them as disassembly to the stage permitting the creation of an itemized estimate “to carry out a complete repair.”
Teardowns assist in avoiding needing to revise estimates. “We have seen that a lot in auto body,” Dorais said. “More specifically,” he explained, a teardown prevents a scenario where thousands of dollars of repairs are completed — simply to have the shop submit vitamins which sends the bill into total loss territory.
“We really think the teardown is a really important oral appliance feature that’s called out for in our laws,” Dorais said. “… We really impress upon that.”
Finally, teardowns permit “a far more realistic timeframe” for vehicle repair, which Dorais said he considered “really key” to keeping a consumer informed.
16 CCR 3353 states:
The next VeriFacts Guild 21 call will take place May 13 at 2 p.m. ET.
