State Farm / PartsTrader Program Creates Heated Controversy

[Joe Marconi]

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[mmotley]

Let the private insurance company operate how they want. Just like any shop owner has the right to refuse to work on certain cars or refuse to use certain parts. You can also refuse to work on cars that fall into this situation. Just like John Eaves did, the guy heading up the lawsuit.

 

To quote John Eaves from the article

"Shops have ongoing business relationships, and this program is designed to destroy them. And that’s against the law.”

No, it is not against the law. It is perfectly understandable from the insurance companies perspective to dictate what parts you can and can't use to repair cars under their policy. This sounds a lot like aftermarket extended warranties, which everyone here seems to dislike (for the most part), but nobody is heading up a lawsuit against them.

 

If the program was as terrible as Eaves makes it out to be, I would think there would be more pushback from other shop owners, and State Farm would drop the whole idea.