From time-to-time all body shop operators are faced with requests from car owners to "bury the deductible" where automobile damage is covered by collision insurance.

At this point, the car owner should be advised that before he takes his car around the corner "to a guy who will," he should consider the following points:

1. Conspiring to "bury the deductible" is committing a fraud upon an insurance company and it's against the law.
2. Insurance company appraisers know the cost of repairs, as well as body shops, and cannot be fooled by inflated estimates.
3. If a shop agrees to "bury the deductible," it has to take short cuts in making the repairs, and the owner will get a second-rate job, which depreciates the value of the car at trade-in time.
4. A body shop willing to cheat and insurance company will be equally willing to cheat the car owner. A body shop never really absorbs the deductible. The value is taken right out of the job, and it is the car owner who still takes the loss.
5. If the body shop decides to cut corners on the job and it ends up second-rate, the owner has no one to complain to if he conspired to "bury the deductible."

The smart thing for an owner to do is protect his investment by getting a first-class job from a first-class shop and to be glad that all he has to pay is the deductible.

IT IS THE ONLY WAY HE CAN WIN.