The purpose of this report is to warn my fellow loss control consultants and put the insurance companies on notice that use cheap inspection companies like Preferred Reports it will cost you millions in the long run. Preferred Reports is the company you would prefer not to do business with if you value your business at all.
The following email conversation illustrates greed at its best. It begins at the bottom with my making contact to my client after realizing that I was killing myself for what turns out to be less than $10 an hour. I was not paid for time and travel expenses and was short paid $400 based on their low standard. I admit after reading the contract more closely that the interview was more of a bait and switch. I was kept so busy for a few weeks I it took me some time to realize what was going on.
My final pay was little more than $600. I did 19 jobs for this company. All but 3 or 4 were many many miles away from my base of operations in Shreveport, LA to include San Augustine, TX, Alexandria, LA, Texarkana, TX, Monroe, LA, Bastrop, LA Longview, TX to name a few. I did my last job in Rustin, LA but did not turn it in since they did not square their account with me. It was a school with children of all ages that had several hazards and they wanted to pay me only $40 to complete it. Additionally, I did a multi-story office building 2 hrs away that had complex calculations needed to determine the square footage which there was a discrepancy on between the city and insured. Part of the building was 2 story, 3 story and 4 story. Dimensions on large parking lot and additional building were also required. It took hours to complete documenting all the hazards also found and they paid me less than $80 and did not pay my travel.
I've done work with this company for months and they are fantastic. The pay out fees every week and are on time. It sounds like sour grapes from a guy who doesn't belong in the business. I mean who demands travel pay like that? Look it's a good company that pays well. They are a great customer for me.
PR is the usual low pay high volume work that can't even begin to support a standard of living unless you enjoy living in you mom's garage, or in a car or being homeless. But here is some disturbing trends that I see with this company which coincide with prior other loss control outfits in LA namely F.A Richards & Assoc's (FARA) York and York RMS's etc who by the way have many of the same players (Bart, Charlie,etc). EX.1 I do typical GL/Prop inspection of a sandwich shop which I had also done the year prior and see my 1st report attached to the work request, upon reading my original report I found many "unauthorized changes" which resulted in a false narrative and fraudulent recommendations for the insured to comply with not to mention "points" against them in their underwriting of the rates/premiums. One such discrepancy was that there was only 1 means of egress, a big ding against the liability coverage, however my narrative in the original report stated 2 means of egress remotely located from each other and included photos of each unobstructed exit equipped with emergency lighting and illuminated exit signs; I also marked the check box "adequate number and means of egress". Of course PR's injected a recommendation to install another exit.
EX. 2 is at the same account where PR's made a recommendation to install ANSUL fire extinguishing system and stainless steel exhaust hood with grease cleaning contract, however, as I stated in the narrative and provided pictures, there is no commercial cooking equipment requiring such protection. Again this adversely effected the insured insurability and premiums.
Upon my email to my supervisor Mr. Scott Russell Knight I got no response so, I followed up with a phone call and left him a voice mail to look into this before I schedule the second annual inspection, again no response. WOW, talk about risk AVOIDANCE!!!
EX.3 I get a Prop/GL work request of a local business I know very well. Again there is a copy of an old inspection report by another consultant from the prior year. Upon review I see the inspector miss classified the construction type as a 1/S frame structure encompassing 800 sq. ft. which is a joke because I knew it was 3 stories, consisted of 3 separate buildings and must be around 12,000 total sq. ft. So I call and alert my supervisor Scott Knight of the discrepancies and ask for a more reasonable fee schedule for the 3 buildings having 20 different business including restaurant and hotel. Scott denied me any additional pay and says "just copy the old report into the new and call it good. Meanwhile I'm thinking of life safety issues, fire suppression, hotels and restaurant exposures; and he wants a full report, diagrams and pictures for something like $55. WOW now I see why the last consultant did such a lousy job and got out of there.
SAD thing is I see this across the board with these Loss Control fee companies who hire subcontractors to work for pay that results to about minimum wage for an "engineering class of work involving life, safety health, property and $millions in coverage. The insurance carriers don't seem to care as far as I can tell. When I alert mu supervisor it has no change in outcome; alert the insured and they are dismayed at the discrepancies and the lack of professionalism and care. Alert the local agent and I get a mixed bag from thanks, to hmmm? to being black balled from the industry if you can believe that. WOW Make Safety and Loss Control Great for Once. Good job Bart, Charlie and the rest, I'll see your names around at some other future hack LC fee company. When some of these exposures result in multi million $ claims it only seems righteous to pay a consultant a wage where a 50 hr/week will generate $100K annually. I mean really, the consultant is the paying for the vehicle, auto insurance, gas and maintenance and depreciation, computers, software, virus protection and internet, phone, and 1099 payroll tax. I sum it up as a scam across the industry, meanwhile insured's pay top dollar premiums and then some more for fake reports with false narrative loaded with fake recommendations for hazards which don't exist. Minimum wage pays more and you can flip burgers in most cases for $15/hr., serve em a beer and get tips makes for a much more satisfying/gratifying income. With this type of employer one will not a any decent of life, family,or a retirement of any kind. No wonder Socialism is on the rise, these clowns are the culprits.
Carry on wayward son. One last bit of advise, "Ask and ye shall receive", "seek the LORD and it will be satisfied", "Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer, supplication and thanksgiving, let your request be known to GOD", "What ever you ask for by prayer, believe you have received it and it will be yours. TRUST GOD for everything and he will give you rest, restore your soul, prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies, love and grace will follow you all the days of your life.
Preferred Reports, LLC Reviews
The purpose of this report is to warn my fellow loss control consultants and put the insurance companies on notice that use cheap inspection companies like Preferred Reports it will cost you millions in the long run. Preferred Reports is the company you would prefer not to do business with if you value your business at all.
The following email conversation illustrates greed at its best. It begins at the bottom with my making contact to my client after realizing that I was killing myself for what turns out to be less than $10 an hour. I was not paid for time and travel expenses and was short paid $400 based on their low standard. I admit after reading the contract more closely that the interview was more of a bait and switch. I was kept so busy for a few weeks I it took me some time to realize what was going on.
My final pay was little more than $600. I did 19 jobs for this company. All but 3 or 4 were many many miles away from my base of operations in Shreveport, LA to include San Augustine, TX, Alexandria, LA, Texarkana, TX, Monroe, LA, Bastrop, LA Longview, TX to name a few. I did my last job in Rustin, LA but did not turn it in since they did not square their account with me. It was a school with children of all ages that had several hazards and they wanted to pay me only $40 to complete it. Additionally, I did a multi-story office building 2 hrs away that had complex calculations needed to determine the square footage which there was a discrepancy on between the city and insured. Part of the building was 2 story, 3 story and 4 story. Dimensions on large parking lot and additional building were also required. It took hours to complete documenting all the hazards also found and they paid me less than $80 and did not pay my travel.
Great company
I've done work with this company for months and they are fantastic. The pay out fees every week and are on time. It sounds like sour grapes from a guy who doesn't belong in the business. I mean who demands travel pay like that? Look it's a good company that pays well. They are a great customer for me.
Avoid at all COSTS$$$
PR is the usual low pay high volume work that can't even begin to support a standard of living unless you enjoy living in you mom's garage, or in a car or being homeless. But here is some disturbing trends that I see with this company which coincide with prior other loss control outfits in LA namely F.A Richards & Assoc's (FARA) York and York RMS's etc who by the way have many of the same players (Bart, Charlie,etc). EX.1 I do typical GL/Prop inspection of a sandwich shop which I had also done the year prior and see my 1st report attached to the work request, upon reading my original report I found many "unauthorized changes" which resulted in a false narrative and fraudulent recommendations for the insured to comply with not to mention "points" against them in their underwriting of the rates/premiums. One such discrepancy was that there was only 1 means of egress, a big ding against the liability coverage, however my narrative in the original report stated 2 means of egress remotely located from each other and included photos of each unobstructed exit equipped with emergency lighting and illuminated exit signs; I also marked the check box "adequate number and means of egress". Of course PR's injected a recommendation to install another exit.
EX. 2 is at the same account where PR's made a recommendation to install ANSUL fire extinguishing system and stainless steel exhaust hood with grease cleaning contract, however, as I stated in the narrative and provided pictures, there is no commercial cooking equipment requiring such protection. Again this adversely effected the insured insurability and premiums.
Upon my email to my supervisor Mr. Scott Russell Knight I got no response so, I followed up with a phone call and left him a voice mail to look into this before I schedule the second annual inspection, again no response. WOW, talk about risk AVOIDANCE!!!
EX.3 I get a Prop/GL work request of a local business I know very well. Again there is a copy of an old inspection report by another consultant from the prior year. Upon review I see the inspector miss classified the construction type as a 1/S frame structure encompassing 800 sq. ft. which is a joke because I knew it was 3 stories, consisted of 3 separate buildings and must be around 12,000 total sq. ft. So I call and alert my supervisor Scott Knight of the discrepancies and ask for a more reasonable fee schedule for the 3 buildings having 20 different business including restaurant and hotel. Scott denied me any additional pay and says "just copy the old report into the new and call it good. Meanwhile I'm thinking of life safety issues, fire suppression, hotels and restaurant exposures; and he wants a full report, diagrams and pictures for something like $55. WOW now I see why the last consultant did such a lousy job and got out of there.
SAD thing is I see this across the board with these Loss Control fee companies who hire subcontractors to work for pay that results to about minimum wage for an "engineering class of work involving life, safety health, property and $millions in coverage. The insurance carriers don't seem to care as far as I can tell. When I alert mu supervisor it has no change in outcome; alert the insured and they are dismayed at the discrepancies and the lack of professionalism and care. Alert the local agent and I get a mixed bag from thanks, to hmmm? to being black balled from the industry if you can believe that. WOW Make Safety and Loss Control Great for Once. Good job Bart, Charlie and the rest, I'll see your names around at some other future hack LC fee company. When some of these exposures result in multi million $ claims it only seems righteous to pay a consultant a wage where a 50 hr/week will generate $100K annually. I mean really, the consultant is the paying for the vehicle, auto insurance, gas and maintenance and depreciation, computers, software, virus protection and internet, phone, and 1099 payroll tax. I sum it up as a scam across the industry, meanwhile insured's pay top dollar premiums and then some more for fake reports with false narrative loaded with fake recommendations for hazards which don't exist. Minimum wage pays more and you can flip burgers in most cases for $15/hr., serve em a beer and get tips makes for a much more satisfying/gratifying income. With this type of employer one will not a any decent of life, family,or a retirement of any kind. No wonder Socialism is on the rise, these clowns are the culprits.
Carry on wayward son. One last bit of advise, "Ask and ye shall receive", "seek the LORD and it will be satisfied", "Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer, supplication and thanksgiving, let your request be known to GOD", "What ever you ask for by prayer, believe you have received it and it will be yours. TRUST GOD for everything and he will give you rest, restore your soul, prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies, love and grace will follow you all the days of your life.