FTO AUSTRALIA

Anyone here into smash repair?

Curious about one thing. Do smash repairers charge people for preparing a quote? Whether its to claim insurance or private?

Depends on where you go. But most should give free quotes.

I was looking for quotes for my wife new civic. Someone bump into her at the parking lot but no evidence.

Then the smash repairer tried to charge her $50 to prepare a quote. That's unheard of

Not entirely unheard of.
It depends how far in depth you ask for the quote to go.

eg. They can spend time ringing around to find exact prices, give a break down on labor and give a thorough quote, bar anything they cannot see.
As this takes time to prep, they will charge something.

If however you get a beater to look over it and not dig too much and say based on average, and not write anything down, then it would be 100% free.

Personal experience.

It's their way of saying "go somewhere else there's not enough money in it for us" some places only do insurance jobs and other places don't like insurance jobs

They got sick of people "getting 3 quotes" and going with the cheaper one for cash jobs.

Most places will charge $50 for a quote, and if you do the work through them, they either refund the $50 or take it off the bill...

Becoming a common practice. Started back in late 90's early 00's ...

It was also used for shops to say cause they didn't want to get involved in cash jobs...