An Indiana body shop owner is accusing Farm Bureau Insurance of violating H.B. 1024 by insisting that aftermarket crash parts be used on vehicles less than five years old.

Greg Lobsiger, president of Loren's Body Shop in Bluffton, Ind., cited two recent estimates for a 2007 GMC Envoy and a 2008 Ford Edge. On the Envoy estimate, Lobsiger claims all parts needed were written aftermarket by Farm Bureau. On the Edge estimate, five of eight parts listed were written aftermarket.

Lobsiger claims that Farm Bureau's stance is that if the aftermarket price figured on the estimate isn't on the OEM dealers' aftermarket parts price match program, then they'll do a supplement for the full list price.

"I told the claims manager that this is unethical and a pure abuse of all of the participating manufacturers' aftermarket price matching programs," said Lobsiger, emphasizing to the claims manager that these programs were set up for vehicles that insurers can legitimately figure aftermarket parts on – vehicles from model year 2005 and older. "Along with that, I told him we're also losing profit because of the lower list price."

Lobsiger claims that the appraiser responded by saying that Farm Bureau was just trying to lower costs and didn't necessarily want to put aftermarket parts on their insureds' 2006 and newer vehicles. Lobsiger also claims that the appraiser told him he was the first shop he had heard complain about this policy.

"I'm sure there are some shops that don't want to mess with the price match program or are not aware of how it works," said Lobsiger. "With that being said, I'm sure that some of the 2006 and up Farm Bureau insured vehicles are getting aftermarket parts put on them. And [Farm Bureau] is not putting any line notes in these estimates stating that we should be using the OEM price match program."

Lobsiger explained to the appraiser that each dealer only has so much credit to participate in the price matching program. He also told him that Farm Bureau was the only insurance company he saw pursuing such a policy. Lobsiger said the appraiser told him that if he could come up with some kind of documentation to support the manufacturers' stance on matching aftermarket prices, they would stop writing estimates this way. 

"I personally have Farm Bureau Insurance and do a boatload of work for them," Lobsiger said. "I have known the claims manager for 15 to 20 years, and we have a high level of respect for each other. But I have been tolerating this for almost two years and am now fed up. I don't want to bite the hand that feeds me, but in my opinion this is just wrong."

Lobsiger is now busy contacting OE parts vendors and the Society of Collision Repair Specialists to get written documentation to support his position. 

Read the text of H.B. 1024