Photos Aren’t Enough for Estimates

If you need auto body repair after an accident, one of your immediate to-dos involves getting an estimate from your insurance company. In many cases, the adjuster will visit you where the vehicle is parked to see the damage in person. In others, you might be asked to take photos yourself to spare everyone a trip.

Photos Alone Don’t Cut It

Smartphones have made it easy to streamline a lot of tasks and errands that used to demand large chunks of time and attention. Unfortunately, in the case of auto body repair, relying on smartphones alone does not typically result in an accurate estimate. Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but they don’t always tell the full story, as not all the damage resulting from a car accident can be seen. In fact, the damage to a car on the inside is often far greater than what you see on the outside.

Aside from simply not being reliable in conveying the whole story, photos taken at inexpert angles could easily distort the reality of the visible damage to your detriment.

In-Person Inspections are Comprehensive

Hammer’s Autoworks often gets asked if we will provide estimates from photos. For the same reasons we advise not using photos alone to submit your claim, we will only provide estimates for vehicles that our estimators can view in person. We know when we deliver the estimate for the repair, it’s accurate.

If you decide to skip the in-person inspection and simply upload photos for your adjuster to review, you will likely have a much lower beginning estimate because all the damage could not be seen, and you may be left with an unsafe vehicle.

In addition to providing an estimate, at Hammer’s Autoworks, we help by taking the insurance company’s requested photos (and since we work with vehicles, we know the sort of photos they need to get an accurate picture of the damage) and communicating with the company directly.

If You Submit a Photo Claim

You’re in an accident. There’s visible damage to your vehicle. You contact your insurance company and are encouraged to submit photos of the damage for assessment. You do all that, and then as you’re researching reputable area auto body shops, you find this blog and realize there might be additional damage you can’t see. So, what happens if the estimate your insurance provides is too low?

This actually happens often and is something Hammer’s Autoworks is happy to handle. Bring us your vehicle and the insurance paperwork. We will conduct our inspection, and upon finding additional damage, we will contact your insurance company to establish a supplemental claim. This often means taking additional photos, providing additional invoices and paperwork, but it’s also something we handle every day.

The best thing you can do for your vehicle and your pocketbook after an accident is take your vehicle to Hammer’s, where you’ll not only receive an accurate estimate but assistance in filing your claim. Our goal is to make sure your car is fixed correctly so that it not only looks as amazing but is as safe to drive as it was fresh off the assembly line.