Monday, March 25, 2013

Vocabulary: The Estimate

In my last post we covered some of the lingo you'll hear when dealing with an insurance claim, but what about the repair? And the estimate? What is an estimate anyway!?

The estimate itself comes with a set of words and abbreviations that would be confusing to anyone that hasn't dealt with this before. When you're handed an estimate from a shop, the estimator should go over it with you line by line to explain what they'll need to do to fix your car, like we do here at Olsen Auto Body. Trying to read the estimate sheet on your own won't make as much sense as looking at it with someone who is experienced and that can actually show you on your car what needs to be done.
  
Here is a list of some of those terms:

Estimate: Usually the first step on your road to repair. An estimate is our best educated guess as to what is needed to be repaired, how long it will take and how much it will cost.

Supplement: Any additional damage found after the estimate, usually during the course of repairs. This can still be billed to the insurance company and we will handle that for you.

Sublet: Any part of the repair not done in house. We don't do a wheel alignment here at our shop, but we'll handle that for you as part of the repair. We take that to another shop and sublet the work to them. Then we cover that bill so we can bill everything out to you or your insurance company on one invoice.

The following is a list of abbreviations you'll see on your estimate and final bill:

Rpr: Repair, a physical repair of a part.

Repl: Replace, a new (or recycled) part put on the car in place of an existing damaged part.

Refn: Refinish, Paint.

Blnd: Blend Paint .

R&I: Remove and Install. Physically taking a part off a car to repair or paint the area around it, and then reinstalling that part after repair and paint is done.

Our next post will contain even more vocabulary, if you can believe it! We will go over more of the short hand that you'll see on the estimate and repair order and what it all means to you.

Email us with questions! olsenautobody@gmail.com

-Lanni

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