PCTG Consumer Complaint Report Record ID#: 1372522656

Our customer stopped by our repair facility for an appraisal of damages on June 25, 2013. Our customer and his family have been long time customers of Crawford's Auto Center, Inc. Our customer scheduled his vehicle for repairs on July 8, 2013. Our customer signed our authorization to repair contract on June 25, 2013. Our customer called his Nationwide Insurance Company agent and requested a claim. Nationwide Insurance directed him to Grand Sport Auto Body for an estimate of damages. Nationwide Insurance Company advised our customer that for his claim to proceed he would have to take his vehicle to their claims estimator at Grand Sport Auto Body. Once at Grand Sport Auto Body our customer was steered into their repair facility for repairs. Our customer contacted us on June 29, 2013 to cancel his appointment with our facility because Nationwide had directed his repairs to Grand Sport where he agreed to have Grand Sport repair his vehicle. Not only is this a complaint for unlawful steering it is also a violation of the conflict of interest law where an "insurance appraiser Not have a conflict of interest in the making of an appraisal. This chapter and the act, and this section in particular, shall be strictly interpreted to protect the interest of the consumer and place the burden upon the appraiser to eliminate any conflict of interest in the making of an appraisal." This claim is a perfect example of how insurance companies illegally utilize their DRP contracted repair shops to coerce unaware consumers into their DRP repair programs. In this case Nationwide has forced their consumer into a breach of contract whereas the consumer's original choice of repairs service was Crawford's Auto Center, Inc. Please investigate this complaint and enforce the law and regulation written to protect the commonwealth's consumers. Our signed authorization to repair contract is attached. Thank you, Stephen Behrndt President Crawford's Auto Center, Inc.''