NRMA Insurance says it has been forced to blacklist car repair shops due to fears for its staff’s safety, poor quality repair work and in some cases outright fraud.

Several NSW panelbeaters, most notably Sydney business Atlas Motor Body Works, have accused NRMA Insurance of “bullying” customers into choosing authorised smash repairers from its network.

But in an unusual twist, the head of the Motor Traders’ Association (MTA) has backed NRMA Insurance while taking a swipe at archrival Suncorp.

MTA CEO James McCall said the association has a good working relationship with most insurers, including NRMA Insurance.

“When they put their new network together we only asked they make the criteria open and transparent,” Mr McCall told insuranceNEWS.com.au. “We believe it was open and transparent.”

Mr McCall says that unlike NRMA Insurance, Suncorp’s “two quote” system of selecting a panelbeater is “unsafe and potentially dangerous”.

“You get desperate [panelbeaters] who will quote less than what the work really costs, and consequently take shortcuts and do shabby work,” he said.

Responding to Atlas’ allegations of bullying, NRMA Insurance says its employees have been victims of intimidation and says it is protecting customers from fraudulent and unqualified panelbeaters.

Atlas and NRMA Insurance have been engaged in a bitter stoush for the past eight months after the panelbeater served the insurer with a summons for documents that it alleged supported claims NRMA Insurance was misleading and deceiving customers who wished to use Atlas for repairs.

NRMA Insurance provided the requested documentation and the case was subsequently dropped.

Other smash repairers have made formal complaints to the NSW Small Business Commissioner over alleged bullying tactics by insurers, including NRMA Insurance. Senior Stakeholder Manager Eleanor Raftery declined to comment.

NRMA Insurance spokesman James Rickards told insuranceNEWS.com.au the company upholds its customers’ right to choose their repairer. However, it will not authorise work or provide a lifetime guarantee on work from certain repair shops.

“Where we have identified major quality, safety or fraud issues pertaining to certain smash repairers, or we fear for the safety of our employees who attend certain smash repair premises, we do not authorise work with those repairers and we do not provide a lifetime guarantee on the repairs,” he said.

“We make no apologies for promoting our own partner repairers to our customers. They partner with us to provide quality, safe repairs, excellent customer service and get our customers back on the road quickly.”

NRMA Insurance has not accused Atlas of bullying its staff. Atlas has never been a NRMA approved partner, and was not among the 400 repairers who applied to join the insurer’s partner network during the most recent intake last June.

Atlas spokesman Pierre Kayserian is currently overseas and was not available for comment.

NRMA Insurance has more than 180 authorised car repair businesses in its network, including four in the Artarmon area on Sydney’s North Shore, where Atlas is based.