The owner of Christchurch business Clearview Autoglass, Tony McClelland, says car owners want to support local businesses, but the large insurance companies are “steering” customers away towards their preferred repairers.
McClelland said people want to support local tradies.
“Eighty per cent of the time I get a phone call back from the customer who wants to use me, saying: ‘Sorry, I can’t use you, I have to use Smith & Smith and Novus’,” McClelland said.
He says some customers incorrectly believe that only repairs done by their insurers’ preferred repairers are guaranteed.
“Every single glass company gives a lifetime guarantee,” he said.
Sue Kuiti from Kiwi Windscreens Group told the Sunday Star-Times she wanted the commission to investigate whether the insurers’ behaviour breached Commerce Act provisions, which made it illegal for a business with a substantial degree of market power to engage in conduct that had the purpose, effect, or likely effect of substantially reducing competition in a market.
Kuiti said about 80 per cent of auto glass repairs were done with insurance claim money.
“When Sanitarium won’t sell Weetbix to the Warehouse, they can jump in there and sort things out,” Kuiti told the Sunday Star-Times.
Kuiti has fought to get the commission to investigate for 20 years and in 2006 it did take legal action, which resulted in IAG being fined $127,000 for breaches of the Fair Trading Act for misleading policyholders into thinking they had to use its preferred repairers.
“I just think the Commerce Commission can’t be bothered. They are too busy. They’ve got stuff coming at them left, right and centre. That’s no excuse for me.
“We’re not asking them to protect us, we’re asking them to stand up for the Commerce Act,” she said.
