Welcome to Titan Paintless Dent Repair
Since 1994! Expert Hail Damage Repair
830-998-1357
Locally owned and operated in Fredericksburg and the Texas Hill Country
It hailed on my car! What now?
First thing's first
What about my deductible?
First thing's first
Call your insurnace company and file a claim. Set up an appointment for them to come out and look at your vechicle. Some insurance companies require you to get estimates for them, so call us! Remember, insurance companies will be flooded with calls, so you want to be a quick as possible.
A hail damage claim does not count against you to raise your premium. Widespread and repetitive damages over the same geographic area CAN raise rates for everyone across the board.
Why File a claim?
What about my deductible?
First thing's first
With extremely light hail (ping-pong ball or smaller), and depending on the volume of hail you received, insurance won't be required if your deductible is more than what the estimate will be. Many customers are surprised at the amount of damage that initially looked "light" and only on "a panel or two" ends up being more severe than they thought. It's always a good idea to consider involving the insurance. While PDR saves time and costs less than conventional body repair, it's significant enough to warrant insurance in most cases. Getting an estimate from Titan PDR is always free, and we'll let you know if insurance is necessary
What about my deductible?
What about my deductible?
What's the process with insurance?
The deductible is the set amount you agreed to pay towards the repair of the vehicle at the time you set up your insurance, and the insurance covers the rest. It's the same as a copay at a doctor's office. It's the amount you are responsible for paying in addition to what the insurance paid when you pick up your completed, repaired car.
For example, if the total cost of repair is $5,000, and your deductible is $500, the insurance provides $4,500 and you are responsible for paying the remaining $500. On your insurance quote, the very last number line is what you receive from the insurance company once the deductible is taken out of the total payout. It's a shared responsibility. If you have a $0 deductible, then you owe nothing out-of-pocket when you pick up your vehicle.
What's the process with insurance?
What if Titan's estimate is higher than the insurance estimate?
What's the process with insurance?
Once you file a claim, with many insurance companies providing online portals or apps to do so, the insurance company will contact you to continue the claim process. Most companies will schedule an appointment to physically put eyes on the damage, often at your place of choosing. It's important to provide a shaded place for them to do so, as assessing dent damage accurately in direct sunlight is difficult.
Some insurance companies will set up a location for you to bring it by locally if there is widespread damage in the area you live in. These are manned by Cat (catastrophe) teams and are more efficient in cycling estimates in and out.
Other insurance companies will give you an initial general "quote" without ever looking at the damage or may request photos from you of the damage to provide a still-general quote, as there's no way to correctly assess damage without proper lighting. These quotes are usually much lower than the quote you'll get from any legitimate PDR shop and only serve to have a document to file a supplement to (more on supplements below). From there they'll instruct you to either schedule with a shop of your choice for repair or at least secure a quote from a reputable shop. At that point the shop will handle the supplement process. Some insurance companies will take the copy of the quote the shop gives you and write the supplement directly from that. We try to involve the customer as little as possible to keep the process worry and stress free!
* By law you have the right to take your vehicle to any repair facility of your choosing. While insurance companies can have preferred repair facilities, you are not required to use them. Their choice in preferred shops does not reflect repair quality or service whatsoever.
RENTAL INSURANCE
Some insurance policies provide for car rental. Check your insurance policy to find out. We will work with your insurance to work out a proper timeline for the rental period, and we'll give you a solid time estimate to let the rental company know ahead of time.
Titan does not offer car rental services at this time.
What's the estimate process like?
What if Titan's estimate is higher than the insurance estimate?
What if Titan's estimate is higher than the insurance estimate?
Estimates from Titan involve carefully inspecting each panel for damage with the same LED strip lights we use to repair dents. They're specifically made to bring out every detail and flaw in the panel. These are a must to properly assess the damage. Insurance companies that come out to inspect damage use a collapsible "board" with striped lines so they have a background to see the dents. The lines' distortions show the damage. While these are a great for portability, they aren't optimum, and the appraiser may miss a few or several dents, lowering the estimate total. This is one reason they allow for supplements, since they are often trying to assess in less-than-ideal lighting situations, often having to assess many cars a day.
Some insurance companies will require you to conference call them, as you go over the car video-wise with them to assess the damage. This is not ideal at all since there are so many different lighting situations and connection issues. Again, this is also just a first-step scenario and will almost always require a supplement.
Titan's estimate process generally takes from 1-2 hours depending on available estimators, amount of damage, and the cleanliness of the vehicle's exterior.
Since we have to circle or mark every single dent, ideally the vehicle needs to have a clean surface. If not, we take the time to clean the surface with a non-scratching product. This adds considerable time to the estimate process, so it's ideal to bring us a clean vehicle, but definitely not required!
We circle each and every dent with a non-marring marker so we can photograph each panel and send the photos to the insurance company for inspection along with our final estimate. This involves methodically inspecting each panel from all angles in relation to the reflection of our light(s). Each light is positioned optimally to see the damage, and moving/adjusting them several times throughout the process is required.
After (or during) circling up we count up the total dents per panel and input it into our estimation software, where we have already set up your personal and vehicle information. This software is matrix-based, which calculates the number and size of dents per panel, panel material (metal or aluminum), and factors like ease-of-access behind the dents, oversized dents, extra steps not normally needed for regular damage, etc. A small number of small dents on one panel is a certain price, and the same number of larger dents on a panel will be more expensive to repair, etc.
Any damaged parts, such as window molding, glass, or any other trim that was damaged as a result of the hail is also documented and included in the estimate. This can also take time, since parts can be a tricky part of the document process. Parts are also tricky to receive, as often they come in damaged, requiring us to send back and wait for a replacement, and some end up on backorder, taking even longer to receive. At Titan we don't like making our customers wait for their vehicles any longer than necessary, so in certain cases we will release the vehicle while we wait on parts and have you bring it back when the parts arrive. Most of the time this only requires a few minutes to a couple of hours of your day.
Once we complete the estimate, we thoroughly clean off any markings we made from the estimate on the vehicle and return it to you.
What if Titan's estimate is higher than the insurance estimate?
What if Titan's estimate is higher than the insurance estimate?
What if Titan's estimate is higher than the insurance estimate?
This is actually more normal than not. As mentioned earlier, initial estimates from the insurance company are almost always lower than any eyes-on estimate from a reputable shop. At this point our estimate will be submitted to the insurance as a supplement, and we will work out the difference with the insurance company, which could take from the same day to several days depending on their claim load and quite honestly, the individual appraiser/adjuster. The important thing to realize here is that you'll never owe anything more than your deductible. We will handle the whole process and work with your insurance to get you taken care of. Some customers prefer to deal with the insurance company themselves and that is perfectly fine as well!
The supplement includes all documentation as to the differences between the quotes. Most of the time it's not an exact match in the end, and at that point, if we're close enough, we'll come to an agreement with the insurance company and schedule your vehicle for repair. They'll either send us the supplement check directly or send it to you, which you put towards paying the final total upon picking up your vehicle from us.
If your vehicle is financed or you have a lienholder, the insurance may make the coverage check out to you and the lienholder. In this case you have a couple of options. Upon completion of the vehicle, you get the lienholder to endorse and then you endorse and pay us. This can involve you having to take the car to a location the lienholder requires or provide proof of repair. This can mean locally or sending the insurance check and our invoice to the lienholder to sign. This can take a couple of weeks or longer.
The other option is to request from the insurance company a reissued check made out to Titan, or to you and Titan. Most adjusters will accommodate this, and this cuts the time down to a few days.
How long will repairs take?
How long will repairs take?
How long will repairs take?
Repair Times vary depending on a number of factors, including severity, vehicle size and complexity of parts removal and installation. In order to access the underside of the damaged panel, some interior and exterior pieces need to be removed. Each manufacturer assembles and engineers their vehicles different ways, so this contributes to total length of repair of the vehicle.
Parts availability and condition also play a role, and in some instances panels such as hoods and decklids (trunks) need to be replaced if they are too severe for us to fix with PDR. In this case we do our best to time these things accordingly but often we're at the mercy of the body shop's schedule.
Many can be done within a day or 2, but more heavily damaged vehicles could take up to a couple of weeks and very rarely 3 weeks. We've never had a vehicle in our shop for more than that.
Do you offer a warranty?
How long will repairs take?
How long will repairs take?
Titan warranties all repairs for the life of the vehicle or until the next hailstorm. The reason the latter is that we cannot be responsible for damage occurring from another hailstorm.
The Paintless Dent Repair process, when properly performed, leaves no detrimental trace that could cause or develop into any damage after repairs. Since 1994 we have been providing top-quality, honest work for hundreds of customers and businesses. We 100% stand by our work and will address any issue with compassion and professionalism. Ultimately the Golden Rule is our most important goal: Treat others as you want to be treated. We will do our very best to make sure you have a pleasant experience dealing with Titan Paintless Dent Repair!