[sumeethaldankar]

Wow you guys are getting called up by insurance cos for quotes.I on the other hand faced a different situation.My Civic was insured with SBI.The policy was expiring in July plus i had fitted CNG in my car. In June I called up SBI and mailed them a dozen times asking for a new revised quote for the addition of CNG but these guys did not bother to send the new quotes at all.

Imagine i am following up with these to pay them money, i am in a situation where i have to give them money, not the other way and these guys apart from assurances they were not able to deliver anything .God forbid, but i wonder how many pillars and posts i would have to run to if i ever had to make a claim from them.Needless to say i signed up with another insurance provider who gave me the policy within a couple of days.

As for the pesky calls for insurance,i never had them ever as my no is signed up in DND.Also i had also given my no on various sites for quotations before and still never got any calls for insurance.Modern smart phones like from Samsung have a call block feature inbuilt ,if the call comes from the same no you can simply block it.

[turbodude]

Originally Posted by malgudi

However I am getting numerous calls from almost all insurance companies who are interested in renewing the insurance of my car & surprisingly, they have all my details like my Name, Number, Address, Car No, My last year's quote (I think this since I have NCB and they are offering that same % NCB to me as well).

Thanks a lot for raising this issue pal. I am also a victim of this. I ended up renewing with Future Generali instead of my original policy of Bharati AXA in Feb 2013. Realized my mistake only when Bharati AXA guys called up. Till that time I was thinking that Bharati AXA insurance has been stopped by dealer and Future Generali has been authorized by dealer to renew Bharati AXA policies .

Argued a lot with Future Generali lady and eventually gave up. She told me that it is standard marketing practice and we did not force you for that.

Stayed with FG because of good service they are providing. Dealer also recommended them because of less hassels.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Sheel

Any way to get rid of SMS's? Calls can be blocked, but Truecaller doesn't block SMS (in new upgraded version)

DND registry includes SMS. If you are registered, it is illegal for any company to send you spam messages.

If you use Android, you can block contacts entirely (calls & SMS, both).

[noopster]

Like GTO says, DNC Registry is the way to go! It works quite well, except one time when I foolishly logged into that online insurance retailer (forget the name- policybazaar?) and gave my Vento details and phone number for quotes. Turned out the "best" quote there was still higher than what my friendly neighbourhood agent was offering, so told them politely no. But I still get random emails reminding me to renew (thankfully no calls).

The fact is that these guys are just doing their job- there used to be a time I would get very upset at being distrubed from my important work etc. Now I just tell them to please get my number off their database and hang up.

[ajmat]

My uncle was getting pestered. He later found out that the information was being sold from within the RTO

[jinojohnt]

Originally Posted by alto99

2. Complain about every marketing call to your telecom provider and they are supposed to act on it after your registration in NDNC is through

Surprisingly, BSNL doesn't have this option! I once tried complaining about a marketing call, but learned from customer support that such a facility does not exist. There is also an SMS complaint number (1909), but you do not get any response after sending the SMS in the required format.

[sriku]

I don't have a solution to this either.
Had a Bolero which got stolen in 2011, I still get the following calls:
1. From a bunch of insurance providers to renew my policy.
2. From Mahindra service center cold calling to bring my car for a service.
3. From banks that are ready to offer me another car loan on the basis of my defunct loan taken for the stolen vehicle.

I am however, a patient man, and politely refuse each of these callers. That may not last much longer.

[alto99]

Originally Posted by jinojohnt

Surprisingly, BSNL doesn't have this option! I once tried complaining about a marketing call, but learned from customer support that such a facility does not exist. There is also an SMS complaint number (1909), but you do not get any response after sending the SMS in the required format.

I too have BSNL and had used 1909 to complain to BSNL and it used to work successfully proof being that I receive next to nil marketing calls. You can lodge a complain using BSNL website and /or on their facebook page.

[PetrolRider]

Originally Posted by lapis_lazuli

If a lady calls, aske her out for a coffee, the call will be disconnected immediately.....

You never know. It has happened to me once long back when I was a bachelor. She not only agreed to meet me over dinner also gave me her office address from where I should pick her up and also requested me to drop at her home after dinner. I chickened out . Never applied that trick again.

My cases, almost scolded by a agent of new India assurance for renewing my car with existing insurer and not with them. At last I told her this is my money and my wish. She replied I am fool to have such wish and hang up.

Case 2. Some poor lady in UP who owns a second hand maruti 800 registered my email address with bajaj. I am getting insurance quotes, policy renewal notices and policy documents in my email. Tried to unregistered my id, but asked to provide registered mobile number. It seems the mobile number mentioned in the policy document is not the registered number. Repeated request to bajaj customer care are not helping either. So still receiving them in my spam.

Case 3. OT in a reverse way. ICICI Lombard guys are kind enough to add a unnamed passenger insurance fee to my two wheeler insurance every year without a mistake. Then it is my usual ritual to listens to their add for 30 min on the toll free number to request them to remove that.

[ag408]

I had a printed letter hand delivered by two agents at my home! I wasn't at home, else they were ready to meet me and explain. I didn't go through the letter initially and I thought that they were from the Honda dealer (Apex Honda, Sion, Mumbai)

When I opened the letter and called them did I realise that they were third party agents who didn't even have a clue that I was insured through Honda Assure!

[classic86]

Being the head of an insurance broking firm, I completely understand the pain telemarketing firms/insurance agents/brokers put you all through...

In fact, I will confess that we shamelessly tried calling customers for a few months as the market headed in this direction and realised that the dealers are way ahead of us not just in selling customer data but also in offering a complete package. Nonetheless, we stopped this practice in 2-3 months after collecting feedback from our customers and seeing how I get marketing calls similar to you all, there is unfortunately no way out of this irrespective of your place in the value chain.

As for DND, it only works for toll free numbers and anyone can be contacted using a local number. Hence, I suggest you to avoid or threaten these callers to begin with and to avoid the dealer altogether for insurance renewal. Just my 2 cents!!!

[jinojohnt]

Originally Posted by alto99

I too have BSNL and had used 1909 to complain to BSNL and it used to work successfully proof being that I receive next to nil marketing calls. You can lodge a complain using BSNL website and /or on their facebook page.

Actually I got a return SMS saying "Complaint registration in progress, please wait for confirmation/tracking number". After that nothing happened. I also did not receive much marketing calls after that, but I don't want to take it as a proof that the "system actually works".
Do you have the link of the BSNL site where we can register the complaint?

[malgudi]

Guys,
Thank you all for the replies and apologies for not replying as was travelling. To Clarify a few points mentioned by members here :
- My Number is already registered in the DND or NDNC as it now called since 2012. However the callers care a hoot about the same. (Somehow Reliance was better at DND. The number of marketing calls have increased post me porting to IDEA)
- I have not registered my Mobile Number on any site for policy renewal neither did I check out any other place for insurance as I was clear in my mind to have Honda assure! Infact the calls are on my Personal No which I give out to my Friends/Family and my important accounts. I maintain a separate number for Office/Online shopping and such Use.
- I am apprehensive about Truecaller app as it accesses all your Contact details and stores it on their servers (I think outside India). What prevents them from selling the data in a similar fashion?

Like everyone I am almost accustomed to getting these Marketing, NGO calls. However these people know only my Name and Cell No.
However the calls I am getting from these Insurance agents is worrying because they seem to have my entire details including my home address, car VIN/Chasis details. How is it possible as this data is known only to Honda/ Honda Dealer/ RTO / Insurance company who has issued me the insurance? Do Insurance companies share all details in their central database? I thought it would only be Some identifier like PAN/Aadhar and no of claims made/claims amount if any to prevent misuse of NCB.

Update on the call that I logged with Honda is that Honda called the dealer and told him that Insurance is getting expired and they need to renew. The dealer diligently called me up asking about the same as it is showing renewed in his system. Call Closed by Honda. :-(.

[LionX]

Originally Posted by GTO

DND registry includes SMS. If you are registered, it is illegal for any company to send you spam messages.

If you use Android, you can block contacts entirely (calls & SMS, both).

DND is just for the name sake. One of my friend was getting calls & SMS even after registering in DND. Finally he registered a complaint with service provider (AirTel) and they closed the complaint after 7 days claiming that "the number belongs to a different service provider"

The worst part is TRAI website clearly reads they do not keep any track of complaints. Also each and every time we have to remind the marketing callers that the number is registered in DND, despite of the fact the DND stands for Do Not Disturb

Call Filter on Android may not be helpful if the marketing people are using VOIP service providers, which usually don't have the proper caller ID for calls.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by malgudi

Like everyone I am almost accustomed to getting these Marketing, NGO calls. However these people know only my Name and Cell No. However the calls I am getting from these Insurance agents is worrying because they seem to have my entire details including my home address, car VIN/Chasis details. How is it possible as this data is known only to Honda/ Honda Dealer/ RTO / Insurance company who has issued me the insurance? Do Insurance companies share all details in their central database? I thought it would only be Some identifier like PAN/Aadhar and no of claims made/claims amount if any to prevent misuse of NCB.

Selling of personal data is rampant in such places. Further if you make the mistake of using an agent to buy your policy the agent is often perfectly happy to sell all your details to other insurers.

The other thing is - if you make the mistake of using an "insurance policy comparison" site like several that are around - xyzbazaar, abcmart etc etc - then note that they all operate on a leadgen model. So they'll get a commission from the insurer whose policy you buy, and then pass your details to all the other insurers.

Their terms and conditions say they'll do this quite often if you bother to read the fine print - and given the rather loosely regulated advertising and data privacy environment out here, their terms needn't even say that, they'll do it anyway.

Deal DIRECT with an insurer, buy online or walk into their nearest branch office. Never, ever use an agent. Oh yeah - even when buying your car, never buy insurance from the dealer, tell him to delete it from his quote. Get your own insurance and mail the dealer an insurance copy. You'll end up saving 3..4 K at a bare minimum.