[mickd]

After crusty cott's complaints , I had a squiz at who they are.
Gemini belong/belonged  to an Aus company called AMA.
AMA Panel section produced 329 million profit last year with an equity of 538 million.
AMA is selling the panel section to an American equity company for 530 million.
AMA has bought out another Acc repair chain and profit looks to drop to 40 million.
AMA shares are trading at about 1.10.

I think your level of service will depend upon your relationship with your repairer.

[beerman]

and Suncorp is bringing theirs in house.

It will get to the point that you won't be able to get private work done, and smaller insurance companies will struggle to get work done unless they can find a network themselves. It will be difficult for them to support an independent shop with small work volume (or they get a spike of work and the repair time blows out). Good for premium increases for the big guys, not so good for you.

This is an old article but it explains what is going on fairly well and why the default standard is low, given a fair proportion of the population won't bother to complaign.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/business-spectator/panel-beating-the-panel-beating-industry/news-story/b1ec023f8e70293c569004a724ce53c3