Giant hail, rain, damaging winds and destructive storms are sometimes unavoidable.
When a severe storm hits, damage can range in severity from just several small hail dents on a few panels to severe damage including smashed windows and damage to the entire vehicle.
All vehicles must have the damage assessed by our Team of Specialist Repair Technicians and this is referred to Insurance Assessors for approval. In most cases, vehicles are restored to the pre-hail condition. However, if the damage is significant the worst-case scenario is that it may be deemed a “total loss” and not repairable.
In this article we are sharing our PHMS member journey step by step.
The PHMS Member Journey
1. Immediately after a severe Hail storm, PHMS begin setting up an Emergency Hail Repair Facility as close to the epicentre of the event as possible.
This includes:
- Locating and securing a vacant warehouse in the affected area/s (the storm size and severity are taken into consideration)
- Mobilising our team of experts
- Emergency Hail Repair Facility setup – constructing PHMS Light Tunnels, installing signage, office setup and more….
2. Claims are lodged via one of two ways, by telephone or Internet, once lodged they are then processed by the Insurance company and fed through to PHMS.
3. RACQ Motor Vehicle Assessments are performed at the PHMS Emergency Repair facility.
Platinum Hail Management Solutions have been looking after RACQ Members for over 10 years and are the Contracted Specialist Hail Repairer for RACQ. RACQ assessors are located across Queensland and are on-site for hail assessments when needed and use a fast, paperless process to get your claim moving forward quickly. In most cases repairs are authorised on the spot.
4. Drive-in Assessment: Upon arriving at the Emergency Hail Repair facility, members are greeted by friendly and welcoming PHMS staff and directed to the inspection area.
5. PHMS Light Inspection Tunnels are used during the assessment and again as a final quality control inspection after repairs have been completed.
The vehicle is inspected by a Specialist Repair Technician and an itemised estimate of the damage is completed. A repair booking date is arranged with the Member at the time of Assessment, the member also receives a PHMS information Brochure with the booking date noted on the back. The member can refer to this at any time and contact Platinum Hail if they need to change the date.
6. In-house RACQ Specialists: When the assessment has been completed the member is then encouraged to speak to the in-house RACQ Team.
PHMS provide RACQ with a designated area to facilitate face to face interaction to provide additional care and support to the RACQ member. The RACQ staff include assessors and claims team members who are happy to answer any insurance questions the member may have.
This is a snippet of the initial assessment stage and member journey. Continue following PHMS as we will be sharing the repair process to come.
At PHMS we pride ourselves not only providing the highest levels of member service coupled with high-quality repairs for a competitive price, but also specialising in rapid response to weather events – specifically relating to hailstorms – for insurance companies across Australia.