ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. – When conflicts arise about product liability, safety, counterfeiting, fraud, deceptive, misleading and unethical business practices, and violations of product and service quality assurances, then ‘protection of the customer’ is the critical issue when striving for customer satisfaction. “What must not get lost in this scenario, both legally and in quality terms, is that ‘trustworthiness’ of the ‘expectation’ of the product and service (and its trademarks-intellectual property involved) must be preserved for the customer. That ‘customer’ is not restricted to the intermediary customer/participants in a supply chain, but MUST include the CONSUMER – defined in total quality management and contracts as the end user consumer/customer,” says William Hindelang, President of MQVP Inc.

Recently the collision repair industry has reported numerous situations to notify consumers of risk in attempts to rectify a situation. These reports include press releases and publications from trade associations, government agency or regulatory bodies, newsletters and magazines, OEMs, independent manufacturers, distributors, insurers and other service companies. These risk situations include the gamut from reports of fraudulent airbag repairs, to body shop/repair and distributor rings of unethical to illegal activities, to defective parts causing national defect recalls, to controversy of misrepresented product quality and quality assurance services. (See recent Collision Week reports, press releases and publications.)

“MQVP Inc. has upheld from its inception that consumers, intermediary customers and legitimate supply chain participants in its program deserve and MUST be protected by both law and actions in the marketplace. Industry participants should cooperate and collaborate (under contract) to establish and assure the trustworthiness of high level quality parts – and in the recent case, aftermarket crash parts,” furthered Hindelang.

In response to the recent industry risk reports, actions of the courts and some trade organizations, MQVP Inc. says it will take steps to protect the consumer by counteracting the perpetrators and causal agents of these risk scenarios. The individuals and companies that have vested interest to combat the unethical/illegal factors in the industry should also support MQVP Inc.’s efforts. “We must not let the unscrupulous few destroy the reputations of the legitimate, ethical many,” Hindelang says. To launch this effort, MQVP Inc. has begun implementing a seven-point anti-fraud campaign as follows:

1. MQVP Inc. will use every available legal recourse in current and future lawsuits to protect the consumer by prosecuting the perpetrators of fraud, counterfeiting and any illegal activity that damages the trustworthiness of the aftermarket crash parts industry, in particular the Manufacturers Qualification and Validation Program (MQVP).
2. MQVP Inc. will protect the consumer (insured vehicle owner) by working with the insurance companies that contract to become part of the MQVP. Changes to estimating software and databases, and GOCERTS Web enabled tools to be able to validate legitimate MQVP transactions from fraudulent misrepresentation of MQVP parts available will be pursued.
3. The GOCERTS and GOcertsPILOT applications will be integrated with new functionality and immediate product releases that will enable the MQVP participants and the body shops to instantly identify legitimate transactions of validated MQVP traceable parts from the counterfeit MQVP parts and labels/stickers promoted through unethical distributors.
4. MQVP Inc. will launch an educational campaign through mailings, seminars, CD’s and websites to assist in protecting both consumers and the legitimate collision repair supply chain.
5. MQVP Inc. will complete development, currently in progress, to bring to market product identification and package labeling technology from the OEM industry to assist its program participants to break the counterfeiting rings in the automotive aftermarket and restore the good reputation of the industry that has suffered from the behavior and acts of a few.
6. MQVP Inc. will review any legislative and market initiatives which will protect the consumer and support the legitimacy of the ethical, high quality supply chain of crash parts. This includes appropriate anti-fraud, anti-counterfeiting legislation, President Bush’s administration’s initiatives involving Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs, and other law enforcement agencies, to detect and prosecute violations of the MQVP and related service marks/trademarks and service level agreements.
7. MQVP Inc. will engage, on an independent basis, the collaborative legal services of relevant entities including legal forums, state level consumer protection authorities, trade associations, and OEM and non-OEM brand protection departments.

“This campaign is apparently critical and necessary. However, it is nonetheless uncomfortable. While some industry players may think that the collision repair industry has always had elements of fraud, counterfeiting, deceit, and its better to remain silent and allow special interests to effectively operate a cover-up, MQVP Inc. doesn’t subscribe to the ‘no news is good news’ approach because it simply doesn’t protect the consumer,” says Hindelang.