Team-BHP - Cashless Insurance - Only if insurance bought from dealer?

Friends,

I just received the below email from OSL Exclusive - the VW dealer in Kolkata.

This is in response to a query I had raised with them when they said that you have to buy the insurance from us to get cashless facility.

They are claiming that they will provide cashless facility only if the insurance is renewed/purchased through them.

Someone from VW from their Pune office called me yesterday and said "we have tie up with Bajaj Allianz and you can only get cashless facility if you get insurance from BA. the dealer may have additional tie up with other insurance providers". However the dealer goes one step forward and says that they will provide cashless facility only if I get insurance from them.

Isn't this violation of our rights as buyers. What do you guys suggest? Is there someone to whom we can complain?

This is my 5th year renewal for the Polo and I still have about 1 month's time in hand.

Quote:

Dear Sir,

Greetings from Volkswagen Kolkata!

This has the reference to the query you have raised regarding the cashless facility.

The cashless benefit is a facility provided by our dealership to our customers as a exclusive measure only when the insurance is done through our dealership and with select insurance companies. This facility is exclusively offered by the dealership and is not extended to insurance policies being done independently by insurance companies and not through our dealership.

We hope we have been able to explain our procedure we follow and request your understanding.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sadnabrina (Post 3754098)

The cashless benefit is a facility provided by our dealership to our customers as a exclusive measure only when the insurance is done through our dealership and with select insurance companies.

Cashless is a feature that is provided by specific insurance companies which usually have tie-up with the car manufacturers in a specific region and with specific set of garages e.g. in Kolkata Maruti Suzuki has tie up with Royal Sundaram (RS) and Bajaj Alliance (BA) and specific set of garages which have tie-up with BA and RS are bound to provide the cashless service if I buy insurance from RS or BA.

However I do not agree with the statement that cashless facility can only be provided when insurance is bought from the Dealer.

The statement could also mean that in case you take the car to the garage owned by the dealer you would be eligible for cashless only when the insurance is taken from them but I am sure VW would have tie up with several garages in Kolkata and in that case you should be able to avail the cashless facility in any of these garages and you would not have to be dependent on the garage owned by this dealer.

SD

Quote:

Originally Posted by SwiftSD (Post 3754112)

The statement could also mean that in case you take the car to the garage owned by the dealer you would be eligible for cashless only when the insurance is taken from them but I am sure VW would have tie up with several garages in Kolkata and in that case you should be able to avail the cashless facility in any of these garages and you would not have to be dependent on the garage owned by this dealer.

SD

In Kolkata VW has only 1 dealer who has 2 service centers. I have not seen a garage who has tie up with VW. Moreover availability of VW spares outside the dealer's service center is practically zero in Kolkata. I think they are trying to take advantage of the situation.

This is a clear case of arm twisting tactics by the dealer/workshop. The higher commission lure is the only reason I can see when the dealer says that Insurance has to be bought from them if cashless to be availed. Now the surprising part is VW supporting the dealer. If the dealer provided Insurance quotes are matching with the online quotes from the same Insurance co, then it helps taking the Insurance from the dealer. The only way out is to show the comparison of the quotes obtained from VW dealer and the Insurance co online if the quotes are way too different.

This is not new - every dealer nowadays says this. Even my Mahindra dealer had told this to me - if you get insurance from us, we can take care of everything - no hassle to you. But if its something outside, we may not honour the cashless claim. When asked many questions, the answer was - if they are the same providers whose assessment officers we know, no issues. Else it can take more time for us to coordinate with your insurance and that would be an issue for you. Delays basically.

I think it's a non issue. As long as you have the insurance company responding to you in timely fashion, why would you care if it takes a day or two extra than expected?

In my case, I just simply tell them - I will pay and get the reimbursement from Insurance, the old way. Because I know I don't claim insurance so easily. When I do, I will be fully prepared for taking up delay/ cost anyway. I have by the way 6 years of NCB accumulated so far! Moving to second car the same.

Quote:

Originally Posted by speedmiester (Post 3754791)

Ask the dealer to inform this in writing and shoot a mail to the manufacturer and the IRDA.
This will bring some sense to the dealers.

Best option is to ask for the dealer which insurer are they dealing with. You can later buy the policy online from the same insurer for lesser cost.

Unfortunately IRDA does not have any control on the dealers/workshops but only on the Insurance cos offering Motor insurance and any thing related to the product offered. Manufacturers too have given a freehand to the workshop to manage their own Insurance portfolio. That's the reason workshops keep changing the Insurance co for cashless or non cashless tie ups based on the commissions they receive in return. Workshops generally don't face any issues with customers who are ignorant of the Insurance formalities, for such people having an Insurance is all that matters thereby have a blind faith on the workshop/dealer.

To be on the safer side, it is better to opt for the Insurance from the co which has a national tie up with the manufacturer. For Eg Ford has national tie up with Royal Sundaram, Fiat has with Future Generali etc. Insurance can be bought friom such Insurance co either through dealer or online.

This is a marketing trick, please don't fall for it. Just make sure that your choice of insurance company has a tie-up with this dealer.

Also note that we're talking about two different business departments within the dealer. The one that sells insurance and the other is the highly profitable workshop department. No workshop is going to refuse the business of repairing a damaged car.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mi2n (Post 3754155)

What I generally follow as a practice before insurance renewal is call up my SA and ask him to text me the names of Insurance providers with whom the service center has a cashless tie-up.

clap:clap:

So, what do I lose if my insurance does not have cashless tie up with my dealer?

That I would have to first pay the repair bill out of my own pocket and then make a claim?

How long will the insurer take to settle the claim?

Won't the claim payment be ready by the time the car is due out of the garage?

Background: I am trying to buy insurance for a new Jeep Compass, and the difference in premium is more than 40K. Dealer provided option is twice that of insurance outside.

I want to find out whether the money saved is worth it.

Thanks in advance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by civic-sense (Post 4385610)

When you purchase the policy, look for the add-ons available. Recently I bought a Tata AIG Auto Secure policy which has every kind of cover included in it and it has the cashless facility too.

EDIT: Just had a word with my dealer, I have purchased the policy on my own but they said that the cashless facility is available and depends on the policy type too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VKumar (Post 4385625)

The question is more like if they don't have a cashless tie up, how does the claim process work, and whether it is too much of a hassle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by civic-sense (Post 4385642)

The question is more like if they don't have a cashless tie up, how does the claim process work, and whether it is too much of a hassle.

I had a recent experience of this. My brother-in-law had a small accident on his 3-month old RC390 causing shattered crack case. Since he had taken insurance directly from United India insurance, he had to complete the process all by himself. Following are the steps he followed:

1. Took the bike to nearest KTM service center for repair.
2. Got an estimate for repair including parts, consumables and labour.
3. Filed a claim with insurance office submitting copies of license, RC, insurance letter etc.
4. Surveyor visit was arranged by KTM service center as courtesy who inspected and validated the damage.
5. Once the bike was repaired, surveyor visited again to verify that parts, consumables and labour is as per the estimate. (This part I am not very sure of since service center did this step on their own)
6. Payment was made in full to service center and bills were submitted to insurance office.
7. United India reimbursed about 80% of amount filed in the claim. I guess deduction was made for consumables, mandatory deduction etc.

The whole process wasn't exactly a big hassle factoring that brother-in-law studies in Latur, bike & insurance was bought in Aurangabad while repair was carried out in Satara. The actual reimbursement by United India took about 2 months though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by civic-sense (Post 4385610)

So, what do I lose if my insurance does not have cashless tie up with my dealer?

Other that a bit of time, nothing. It will also help if you have cordial relations with the service advisors or managers in the service center.

Quote:

Originally Posted by civic-sense (Post 4385642)

The question is more like if they don't have a cashless tie up, how does the claim process work, and whether it is too much of a hassle.

It'll be same as the cash-less except for one difference. The insurance company will release the payment to the policy holder rather than the garage. If the service center is an authorised one, or one of the larger ones, there won't be much difference to you. Payment is released only after the final invoice is received by the insurance company. If there is a difference in the estimate and actual, there will be a survey as well. So money will be disbursed after your car is ready. Depending on holidays / weekends, this might take a couple extra days.

When my car was undergoing some repairs under insurance, my FASS didn't have cashless tie-up as it was a new set up. My SA offered to keep the car with him till my insurance (Future Generalli) paid me the money. That way I didn't have to pay from my pocket and then wait for the money from insurance. It took them 4 days after the car was ready to transfer the funds to my account.