ALL STAR PAINTLESS DENT REPAIR PRESENTS:

The Ultimate Consumers Guide to Auto Hail Repair

TOP 10 THINGS YOU MUST KNOW BEFORE GETTING YOUR HAIL DAMAGE REPAIRED

TOP 10 THINGS YOU MUST KNOW BEFORE GETTING YOUR HAIL DAMAGE REPAIRED ...

1.) Does my car have hail damage?

2.) Will my rates go up if I file a claim?

3.) How long do I have to get my car fixed?

4.) How much does hail repair cost?

5.) What is covered in a hail claim?

6.) Conventional repair vs. PDR

7.) What is PDR and how do we fix all those dents?

8.) Do I have to pay my deductible?

9.) Insurance estimates - All Star has your back!

10.) Will filing a supplement cause my insurance company to drop me?

1.) Does my car have hail damage?

Most of the time it’s pretty evident whether or not your car has been damaged by hail.

However, when the hail isn’t very large it can leave much smaller dents which are very difficult for the human eye to see in daylight. Also, certain colors (such as white) hide dents very well and make it even more difficult to know if your car has been damaged and to what extent.

If you live in an area that was hit by a storm and are not sure if your car has hail damage or to what extent, All Star PDR will provide a FREE Hail Damage Inspection on your vehicle.

Just bring your car up to the shop and we will walk you around the car with you, using our specialized PDR lights, and check every panel to see if you have damage and if so, to what extent.

If we discover your car has hail damage and you would like to get it repaired, just let us know and we can help you get the claims process started and get you into a rental car.

2.) Will my rates go up if I file a claim?

DISCLAIMER: We have not read your individual insurance policy and the information provided here should be verified with your insurance company.

If you are worried your insurance rates will go up as the result of filing a hail claim, you are not alone and we actually have some good news for you. In the State of Texas, you are allowed to file up to three (3) hail claims per year before insurance can legally raise your rates.

Hail claims fall under the comprehensive category and will not be held against you like a collision claim would.

That’s the good news. The bad news?

If you were involved in a large hail storm that caused extensive financial damage to your area, chances are your insurance company will issue a blanket increase for everyone living in that area. Even if your car wasn’t damaged in the storm, you might still face a rate increase on renewal.

As such, if you have hail damage on your car, you may as well go ahead and file the claim and get your car repaired immediately. At the end of the day, rate increases are out of your control. What you can control is getting your car repaired quickly so, as you’ll learn in the next section, you don’t face any of the many potential hazards of not getting your car fixed.

3.) How long do I have to get my car fixed?

Because we know it is in your best interest to get your hail damage repaired immediately, we will offer this bit of advice rather strongly…DO NOT WAIT!

To answer the question, most policies require you have the damage repaired within 12 months of your claim. That’s fine for folks in parts of the country that rarely get hail, but Texas residents need to take a much more urgent approach to repairs.

So why is it so important to get your claim filed and car fixed immediately? If you have lived in North Texas any amount of time, you know it hails here quite often. In the event your car was damaged by hail and you wait to get it fixed, and during that time it gets hailed on again, you are going to face the following:

Two deductibles (we can only cover one)
The adjuster having to sift between old damage and new (extremely difficult)
Your car will probably be totaled by insurance
If you are upside down on your loan and your car gets totaled, you won’t have a car to trade in, leaving you paying thousands out of pocket on a car you no longer own to make up for the negative

3.) How long do I have to get my car fixed (cont'd)

equity remaining on your loan.
Car shopping and coming out of pocket for down payment on a new car
Insurance rates may go up when purchasing a newer vehicle

It gets worse. If you filed a claim and received a check for the initial estimate and don’t get the damage repaired, you are subject to the “un-repaired damage clause” that exists in most insurance policies.

Simply put, if insurance writes you a check and you don’t get the damage repaired, all future claims will be denied until you have the damage repaired. To be clear, you don’t have to have it fixed for the amount of the check they wrote you, you just have to get it into a shop so they (we) can begin the supplement process and get insurance to pay the full amount of repairs.

You pay for you insurance on time every month. Insurance exists to make you whole again in the event of loss. Make sure you use your policy and get your car fixed so you can avoid the pitfalls of not having your hail damage repaired.

3.) How long do I have to get my car fixed (cont'd)

Final Thought: Some people try to “game the system” and keep the insurance payment without getting their car fixed.

If you do that, not only will you be subject to the “un-repaired damage clause” in your policy, you will soon find out that trading or selling your car with hail damage is extremely difficult.

New car franchises get away with it because of the massive incentives they can offer and frankly the false promises (aka lies) made to customers about the cost of getting the hail damage repaired.

(Most of those cars end up at the auction by the way.)

In reality, very few people purchase cars with hail damage and if you try to trade your car in with hail damage, you can expect to get about half of your cars true market value.

4.) How much does hail repair cost?

Several factors go into the final cost of a hail repair:
• Number of dents per panel
• Size of the dents
• Number of oversize dents
• R&I times
• Paint times
• Replacement parts
• Additional costs for specialized repairs (glue pull, double panel, aluminum, etc.)

When coming up with an estimate to get your vehicle repaired, we take all these factors into consideration. Estimates typically range anywhere from $3000 to over $10,000 depending on the factors mentioned above.

ALERT: Beware of anyone who suggests they can fix the hail damage on your car for substantially less than these numbers. I can tell you with 100% confidence, if you go with a company that offers “hard to believe” discounts, cash back (insurance fraud), operates out of a tent, body shop, or garage at their house...you are asking for problems and they will not have a written warranty or triple satisfaction guarantee to back up their work.

5.) What is covered in a hail claim?

When you file a claim with your insurance after a hail storm, several items are covered above and beyond the actual hail damage repair.

Your comprehensive auto hail damage claim will include:

Paintless dent repair of the entire vehicle
Rental coverage (if included in policy)
Any paint or body work that may be necessary due to broken paint
Any bodywork that may be necessary due to unrepairable damage
All parts damaged or broken by hail including your windshield
Labor rates for R&I (taking the car apart and putting it back together)
Any necessary supplements

All of the items listed are covered by your policy and will be paid for by your insurance company. On top of what your insurance coverage provides…All Star PDR will waive your deductible up to $500, provide a Rental Coupon for up to $350 for those without rental coverage, a FREE car wash and detail, FREE valet pickup and delivery service, a written Lifetime Warranty, and a Triple Satisfaction Guarantee!

6.) Conventional Repair vs. PDR

The paintless dent repair industry has only existed for about the last 25 years.

As the PDR industry has grown and progressed, those with auto hail damage now have two options for repair, conventional repair and PDR.

Conventional repair is the method used by body shops which breaks down into two categories…replace or repair. When replacing body panels, a new (aftermarket if your car is more than 2 years old, yeah it sucks, check your policy and you’ll see it’s in there) panel is installed in place of the old damaged panel and is then prepped for paint, painted in several coats, sanded, clear coat is applied, then more sanding.

When repairing panels, things start to get ugly. The damaged panel is stripped down to the metal, bondo or another filler is applied, the area is sanded down (rarely flat or smooth), the area is then cleaned and prepped for paint, paint is applied in several coats, sanded, clear coated, and then sanded again.

Sounds routine but there are some major issues with conventional repair versus paintless dent repair.

First, your car is being painted, which can substantially decrease the value of your vehicle. The first thing a dealer will look for when appraising your car for....

6.) Conventional Repair vs. PDR (cont'd)

...trade-in value is whether or not your car has any paint or body work on it. If so, you can be certain of a lower appraised value.

Next, painting a panel isn’t quite as simple as painting a room in your house. The paint has to match and many cars use a two or three stage paint which is quite a bit more involved than the explanation outlined above. Also, you have to “blend” any panels that get painted with the adjoining panels. So if we paint the hood on a car, we have to “blend” the fenders to ensure the paint will match.

Next problem with painting is mistakes get made quite frequently. When your car is painted at the manufacturer, it is painted in a clean room by a computerized robot which controls the amount of paint dispensed and applies it evenly across the entire car. When a human paints a car in a body shop, the shop is rarely clean (leading to what we call fish eyes or dirty spots in the paint) and it takes years of experience to apply paint evenly. Over-spray is a common problem as are paint drips which result from too much paint being applied which leaves visible drip marks on the panel.

6.) Conventional Repair vs. PDR (cont'd)

Due to the extreme heat of Texas summers, any bondo that was applied has a tendency to crack when exposed to extreme heat. In turn, the paint above the bondo will crack and leave your car looking ugly.

So to recap, having your car repaired using conventional repair methods instead of paintless dent repair could result in:

Mismatched paint
Single stage applied when double or triple is needed
Panels not blended to match
Paint/bondo cracking
Runs, drips, dirt, and fish-eyes in the paint
Substantial loss in vehicle value
Extensive repair times
Not easy to fix mistakes, have to start over, higher costs

All Star PDR will go to extraordinary lengths to save the factory paint on your car and avoid any trips to the body shop unless absolutely necessary.

An important aspect of what we do is help our customers restore value to their vehicles so not only are they once again proud of their car, but they also come out ahead financially and in the best possible position moving forward.

7.) What is PDR and how do we fix all those dents?

Over the last 25 years, auto body specialists have developed techniques for repairing dents and hail damage on vehicles without the use of paint or bondo. This repair method is called PDR, which stands for Paintless Dent Repair. The advantages of PDR over traditional or “conventional” repair methods are numerous…

Factory paint kept original
No bondo or fillers used
Less invasive than replacing panels
Most cost effective repair
Easy to fix mistakes
Fastest repair

So how do we accomplish all this with PDR?

In a nutshell, paintless dent repair technicians use specialized tools to massage the dents out from underneath the dent, leaving no trace the dent was ever there and your factory paint job intact and beautiful. Paintless dent repair also offers additional benefits over taking your car to a body shop for repairs…not the least of which is the maximizing the cash value of your car.

7.) What is PDR and how do we fix all those dents? (cont'd)

At some point, the day will come when you decide to trade your car in for a new one.

I can speak from many years’ experience working with dealerships, when they do an appraisal on your car, the very first thing they are looking for is whether or not the car has any paintwork on it.

There is a term in the car business, “no pick, no paint”, which refers to used vehicles that are in near perfect condition. If car dealers feel strongly enough about paintwork to use that term, it’s a pretty good indication how they feel about cars that have been painted.

By choosing to have your car repaired by a paintless dent repair company and saving your original factory paint, you are maintaining maximum value for your car when the day comes to trade it in for a new one!

8.) Do I have to pay my deductible?

Look, we know many hard working Americans don’t have extra money sitting around to pay a deductible in case of a hail storm. But here we are…your car has dents all over it and not only do you want to get it repaired for aesthetic reasons, you know there are long term repercussions if you fail to have the damage repaired.

Now, as a point of mutual contention…who came up with deductibles anyway? You pay your insurance premium on time every month, and if you’re like most people you rarely (if ever) file a claim. And then in the rare instance you need to actually use the insurance you pay for every month, they hit you for another $500 or more deductible (aka repair discount for the insurance company) in order to get your car repaired?

The good news is when you get your vehicle repaired at All Star PDR, repairs are done at no cost to you, so you can finally get the most out of that insurance policy you pay for every month without a financial setback to do so.

For individuals with deductibles over $500, All Star PDR can still help! Call us today @ 214-587-0277 for details.

9.) Insurance Estimates - All Star has your back!

Insurance exists to facilitate payment in the event of loss. However, given the immense size and power of the insurance industry, they often try to shift things in their favor and put downward pressure on providers (doctors, body shops, hail repair shops, etc.).

We’ve all heard stories of insurance companies ending up in court for denying or underpaying claims. The stories are real and we are forced to play their game every day, which we do quite well.

When you initiate a claim with your insurance provider, they will send you to a location to meet with an adjuster for the initial estimate.

We have kept track of initial estimates this year and found almost to an exact measure, initial estimates are half the actual cost of repairs. So if they wrote you a $3500 check after deductible, while that may seem like a lot, we can almost guarantee the true cost for repairs is around $7000-$8000.

Why does this matter to you?
Multiple reasons you probably aren’t thinking about or considering....

9.) Insurance Estimates - All Star has your back (cont'd)

For one, not all PDR techs are of the same skill level. In order to employ the highest quality techs, we have to pay them commiserate with their skill level, and PDR is a skill set that takes many years to develop.

Would you do your job somewhere else for half what you are getting paid now? Probably not, and since our techs are paid a percentage of the final estimate, it’s important to make sure we get every dollar necessary for each repair.

Next, you’ll probably notice when you take your vehicle in for the initial estimate, the estimate is preformed outside or without a PDR light, or both.

Proper estimates can only be done indoors, on a clean car, under a PDR light. Anything short of that will result in an inaccurate estimate, which will only lead to shortcuts and your car being returned to you with a cut rate repair.

9.) Insurance Estimates - All Star has your back (cont'd)

Parts, R&I hours, body shop and paint labor hours, total dent counts, ignoring specialized repair conditions, multiple stage paint jobs…there is a long list of things insurance companies leave off estimates to save money.

The sad part is, in doing this, they create a situation where one doesn’t need to exist. They also make a habit of giving the impression to policyholders that “if you just take this check to a shop of your choice they will fix your car for the amount written on the check”…which couldn’t be further from the truth as we file supplements on 99% of cars that come into the shop.

When you bring your car to All Star PDR, we will make sure your insurance company pays every dollar necessary to have your car repaired correctly. You have the benefit of having one of, if not the, top hail adjusters in the country on your side fighting for everything you deserve for being a good paying customer.

10.) Will filing a supplement cause my insurance company to drop me?

Absolutely not. A supplement simply means additional money is needed for repairs. As we stated earlier, 99% of cars that come into our shop need a supplement over and above the initial estimate.

Some folks we have talked to over the years are apprehensive about letting us file a supplement, so we figured this was a good opportunity to shed some light and get some questions answered.

To be clear, a supplement is not a new claim, it is simply an extension of an existing claim.

For example, let’s say you take your car in for the initial estimate and the adjuster writes you a check for $2400 after deductible. You bring the car to All Star PDR and we write our estimate for $6800. The difference between those two numbers is the “supplement”.

10.) Will filing a supplement cause my insurance company to drop me? (cont'd)

When filing a supplement, we simply fax a "supp request" to your insurance along with our estimate and they in turn send a field adjuster out to the shop to review the damage again with our in-house adjuster.

Once the amounts have been agreed upon, the insurance adjuster will approve the “supplement request”, issue payment to All Star PDR for repairs, and work on your vehicle can begin.

Supplements are a normal part of the process.

Book Your FREE Hail Repair Appointment Now!

We hope you have enjoyed the information provided.

To book your FREE Hail Repair Appointment, click the link below and you will be taken to our reservations page.

Once you have scheduled your appointment, we will contact you within 1 hour to confirm and answer any additional questions you may have.

BOOK MY HAIL REPAIR NOW

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