Proper Repair Procedures: Humanizing the cost of repair? Priceless

LAS VEGAS – Since the inception of the Collision Industry Conference, the forum was designed to bring all facets of the collision repair industry together – collision repairers, vendors and insurers.

The concept was to have the ability to share concerns, challenges and opportunities to find solutions within so that the finished product was always delivered back to the consumer with the same vehicle integrity as pre-accident.

Earlier this year, CIC started off their forum with an empty chair.

“This is one person that we have forgotten all of these years,” newly appointed Chairman Jeff Peevy said then. “This empty chair represents the consumer or customer.”

At the CIC Conference on Tuesday, the chair was filled with a “customer” that quickly created a new mood in the audience – a Texas couple who barely survived a crash after alleged faulty repairs.

Matthew & Marcia Seebachan spoke during the CIC Conference on Tuesday.

Matthew Seebachan and his wife, Marcia, were involved in a near-fatal, Dec. 21, 2013 crash that resulted in them being awarded – after a four-year legal fight – more than $40 million in a lawsuit over alleged shoddy repair work.

Their horrifying story was shared during Tuesday’s CIC Conference as a reminder of the importance of repairers and others following strict Codes of Ethics.

Suddenly, all three industries were immersed with personalization of collision repairs and humbling the crowd.

“Hearing their story and the changes it made in their life should be a constant reminder to our collision repair professionals the OBLIGATION they have to their customer,” said Ray Fisher, ASA’s executive director. “As Marcia stated being a social worker, ‘we have to abide by a Code of Ethics that is supported and proven, as to why you did it.’

“Everything you do should be evidence based, which is why we support the need for following OEM repair procedures. Our repair industry must maintain and commit to following the very Code of Ethics that ASA members wrote so many years ago.

“Today, the dollars of liability became a moral obligation to reduce the trauma that ignorance could cost. Let’s honor Matthew and Marcia by focusing on what we committed to do – repair the vehicle using OEM Procedures with the skills, tools and education required. If you don’t have a procedure, don’t create one, investigate it and find one from an authorized source,  it is the least we can do!”