5 Costly Mistakes People Make When Dealing With Hail Damage

Say This is what most people do, and would seem to make sense; after all, you like your agent, and you’ve been with them for years! Just know this. Your insurance company has a conflict of interest in hail dent repair. On one end they want to keep you as a customer.(and they are contractually required to pay on the loss)  on the other hand they want to KEEP as much money as they can and they employ A LOT of tricks to do just that. After a hailstorm damages a large number of vehicles in an area, insurance companies are often inundated with claims. Sometimes you’ll wait weeks or even months before an adjustor actually inspects your vehicle, creates an “estimate”, and offers a settlement check. That initial estimate is rarely a thorough or professional estimate conducted in the proper environment with the right equipment. Therefore, it is not uncommon at all for the initial estimate to be 40-50% of the actual damages to the vehicle.  Keep in mind that many people will take the money and run… and the insurance company is counting on this. You might accept a check for $3,000 made out to you and your bank, and simply use it to reduce the amount you owe—many people feel this is a favorable option. The problem is, if in reality you have $6,000 in damage, and accept a $3,000 settlement… you just lost $3,000 and don’t even know it. You only find out later when you trade it in, or have another claim. Let’s say you understand the value proposition and you definitely want to repair your vehicle. Your insurance company is required to pay reasonable cost of repair to make you whole on the loss. 

Paintless Dent Repair is the preferred method to hail dent repair for catastrophic hail damage. PDR is a process of using specialized tools to manually massage the metal from the underside, restoring it to factory perfection, and without disturbing the original factory paint. This is the only way to retain your original factory finish, and restore your vehicle back to full book value. Paintless Dent Repair truly is an art form and to be executed correctly takas a technician years of practice. The benefits of PDR is no bondo, grinding, resins, fillers, primers and painting involved… where you need to sculpt it perfectly, accurately match the paint, blend it flawlessly in with the surrounding areas and panels, and hope you got a professional job that won’t start fading, oxidizing, or peeling away in a few short years. Sure, you can get a good job done, but it’s not going to be the factory paint. That’s why you want PDR if it’s an option. Sometimes damage is severe enough that traditional collision shop repairs may be required, including new body panels and paint. In this case, it is best to utilize  an expert PDR facility that also has the ability to provide conventional auto body repairs in a full-service, in-house operation and can complete all needed repairs correctly. When hailstorms hit, you will often notice tents pop up on corners and car lots around the city offering hail repair. Crews come in from out of state, following hailstorms and cashing in as much and as quickly as they can. Some of them do good work BUT YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING A TENT-REPAIR. There are also more established local shops available around the area.  a little research can save you a lot of time, headache, and/or money. A poor job, sadly, does not fully restore your vehicle’s value or appearance PDR is a craft that requires years to perfect. Pick the right shop and you'll never know you ever had the damage . Your wallet won't know either.