[mclaren1885]

Well if the accident itself had a quite a horrendous impact on us , the troubles with insurance werent by any means less horrendous .. All i can say is that these Insurance guys suck to the core ...

From the very 1st post its quite obvious asto when the accident happened .. Since the day all the legal procedures were dealt with and copies of all the documents were handed over to the police and the insurers all that my dad has done is just run around from one office to the other ..

First the surveyor makes fuss saying that the car is reperable and doesnt declare total loss and sends a letter asking us to get it repaired .. Then on further negotiations and showing him the status of the car and requesting that the car will never be the same since the chassi has gotten damaged too he unwillingly budged .. Now he asks us to draft a letter requesting the insurers to accept total loss and letters submitted to both the regional manager and the surveyor ..

Now the regional manager starts making us run around by arguing that he cant declare total loss and blah blah (here the blame the other games played to waste time) .. Another 1 month goes by and no progress .. Then on one final day the surveyor calls up and says pls hand over the car and documents to the salvager , im sending him over to the showroom .. Kindly sign a few papers and handover the car to him and collect 1L from him and once the transfer is done the rest 50k will be paid ..

Immediately my dad , mom (on whose name the car is) and myself reach the showroom , meet the salvager discuss the terms and conditions .. Then i had a word with Mr.Patil who was kind enough to look into my issue and waved off the parking fees amounting to almost 5k .. So we paid for the towing charges from the police station to the showroom and the estimate bill charges which amounted to around 4k .. Collected my neons , strobes , front components etc which still lay in the car (could be taken out as the doors were jammed).. Signed the papers , took the cash and handed over the car to the salvagers and walked out ...

Almost 3 weeks later dad goes to the insurance company to get the total loss letter from them so asto pay up the bank loan and get the hypothecation cancelled and also obtain the the 1L cheque the insurers were supposed to pay us .. To his dismay he realises that the regional manager was never informed that the car was sold to the salvager by the surveyor himself and now expects dad to buy back the car and get it repaired... Disgusted and frustrated dad takes a stand that he would indeed buy back the car get it repaired and sell it off even if it went for just a lakh or more .. Shows his disgust to the regional manger and walks out fuming .. Imagine the sad state of affairs here .. The regional manager isnt informed that the car was sold to the salvager by the surveyor himself and now we had to bear the brunt of their lack of communication ..

Another month or two go by without any news from the insurance agency , but at the same time the salvager kept calling to find out the status and thus put us through more trouble .. Finally irritated , exhausted and disgusted dad approached the insurance agency and said he wanted it settled asap or else he would have to take strict action .. After a lot of arguments and talks the insurers finally agreed to declare total loss and gave us the letter but refused to hand over the cheque for 1L and said that we had to pay up the bank loan on our own , take the letter from the bank that the loan was paid up and only then they would hand over the cheque (again trying to bide time??) ..

Another month goes by , finally yesterday dad gets a call from the insurance company requesting him to kindly collect the cheque .. The whole of today they made him run around for some NOC it seems .. That said and done he is now extremely happy that the entire ordeal is done with and he vows no longer to get any of our cars insured with national insurance again .. With the expiry of the 1st years insurance on the baleno we are definitely shifting over to another insurance company for my family has had enough with this company to last this life time ..

Some interesting facts here :

The insurers didnt want to declare total loss as they wanted to allow the showroom guys make some money by repairing the car and also grab a quick buck from both the parties ..

Surveyor doesnt bother to inform his manager that the car has been sold .. For reasons unknown till date ..

The manager expects us to buy back the car and get it repaired inspite of all this ..

They refuse to give the cheque and ask us to pay up the bank instead ..

Just goes to show that people in our country would go to any extent to make a few additional bucks by sorting to such acts ..

If it takes a insurance company almost 6 months to close a claim on a vehicle just goes to show the efficiency and proffessionalism with which they work with ..

PS : Sorry for the rather long report , just thought it was necessary for each of u to know how the state of affairs are in our country .. And this is issue has been sorted out rather quickly because we used quite a lot of influence from the very beginning .. For a common man who knows none wonder how long it would have taken ..

PS 2 : Mods could u pls change the title of the thread so that everyone gets to read abt the insurance hassles ??

[MrBoombastic]

If you think these guys are crazy, just wait till you have to deal with ICICI for even a minor claim... They not only take the cake, but the baker too.

Bottomline: They are all (or at least most of them are) BAD!

[F50]

Settling of claim depends upon which company you getting it insured from, is it private or government. If government then develop patience to deal with them, cheques dont come easily from them, they are damn smart people. And for private companys, some are really good and some are bad. I know companies which settled claim with 5 days and this happened during 26th July when Mumbai was shaken and stirred. And some took more then 8 months to settle.
Otherwise you should have contacts or the insurance agent should have that much of contacts that he can pull money from the company.
Carefully choose your insurer.

[purnendubagchi]

Originally Posted by F 50

Settling of claim depends upon which company you getting it insured from, is it private or government. If government then develop patience to deal with them, cheques dont come easily from them, they are damn smart people. And for private companys, some are really good and some are bad. I know companies which settled claim with 5 days and this happened during 26th July when Mumbai was shaken and stirred. And some took more then 8 months to settle.
Otherwise you should have contacts or the insurance agent should have that much of contacts that he can pull money from the company.
Carefully choose your insurer.

There are thousands of people like me who go for insurance of their vehicles because it is mandatory.But it is a lifetime experience if one has the opportunity to verify the efficiency(or, lack of it) of the insurance companyat the time of need. And only few have that experience.So, it will be immensely helpful for others if the people who have dealt with the insurance companies kindly share their experience. May be a separete thread can be opened.

[humyum]

Had a bad accident with my 800 while it was new some 8 years back when my friend(------fill in the expletives)put it under the ground floor gallery of the building with my mom inside the car:(fortunately both of them were fine.Bonnet gone,right side fender gone,glass gone,headlight gone and a pillar was bent and a big hole in the area above the bonnet.
The insurace company did not have cashless option that time so had to pay for the damages from our pocket which amounted to around 13k and after about 6 months got the check from insurance company.Just shows how they work.