[gautamkhadse]

Royal Sundaram, off late has gone to dumps . I tried to get a renewal quote for my nexon and their price was 7 k higher than the same Royal Sundaram quote available on Cover Fox . I showed them this and they said, Cover Fox has better margins than Royal Sundaram themselves which is so funny . If you buy directly from RS you pay 7 K more for the same insurance that you could buy from Cover Fox . I asked them , why should I pay 7 k more to buy from RS , direct and their sales pitch to that was , "Saar , you have been buying from us direct for so many years , its better you continue to do the same " . Within an hour I switched to ICICI .

Similar incident happened with Kia Seltos purchase , wanted a quote for the new Seltos , these guys had no clue that a car like Seltos existed .

[2000rpm]

Thanks for sharing. I personally will stay our away from Royal Sundaram for all my future insurance purposes.

Though I hope it never comes to a claim for me (touch wood).

Which is the best value for money insurer in your experience, my car is up for renewal!

[JithinR]

I actually chose Royal Sundaram as my insurance provider this year. A silver lining in this pandemic is the lack of need to travel (at least for lucky guys like me who can work from home).

It is coming up for renewal in October and I am definitely not going back to them.

[tharian]

Thanks for highlighting this on a new thread.

My Ford Aspire insurance is from Royal Sundaram and yes it was through the showroom and I remember them telling me clearly it has to be done through them or another insurer which too had a tie up with the showroom. They didn't even let me pass on the NCB from my previous car for the first premium. I finally got it done from the second year.

Time to move to a different insurer.

[VKumar]

I sail on my dealer's boat every year, and every single time. Going by my past experience, most of the times the dealer either managed to match the price outside, or offered the same policy to me for say 5% higher sum.

But I go with the insurance provided by the dealer only ALWAYS. I very strongly believe in the 'arm twisting' power one possess. and recently I have seen the same happening too. I was facing some issue with the Reliance as my diesel car has went for a repair in which even the ECU replacement is also needed.

I gave a call to body shop manager and told him that it's already 15 days, I have never seen such a delay in claim processes. He took the Reliance guy on the line with me, told Reliance guy to take his manager on the line. Now we 4 had conversation and the last two statements sealed the entire conversation:

Body shop manager (In full anger): Yeh hamare acche customer hain, 4 saal se koi claim nahi liya, tumko paisa de rahe hain har saal. Bhai tum aise hamare customers ke sath karoge toh hume bhi fir dekhna padega (This is our good customer, has been paying you since 4 years without any claim, if you will do this to our customers, then we will have to see)

Reliance Manager: Give me 10 min sir, I will check and get back.

After 10 minutes, entire claim worth over 2.1 lac was approved.

So, my point is rather simple, if your service station is giving them business worth lacs and even crores per year, they possess the 'arm twisting' power too. And if you have right relation with right guys - you are never going to face a headache at least.

Hence, it's not about what you pay - what matters is 'what you get in return'. For me, paying 5% higher has always resulted in a very smooth and appreciable experience.

Looking at this Royal Sundaram case, I felt sad. But the car is a Titanium with 16 inchers, maybe this time the dealership tied up insurer also has screwed up. But, we need to still look at the finer details, insurers also have the people with sound knowledge at times; and if they are insisting that it's a repairable case - the customer needs to talk to them once thoroughly in physical, and then move ahead with the decision.

[arnieshwartz]

This thread is an eye opener as far as I'm concerned. I renewed my insurance this year with Royal Sundaram, and have been with them for the past two years, but I will be looking for another insurer when renewal is due.

[Habanero City]

My experience with Royal Sundaram for Health Insurance was bad that too being with them for more than 15 years without any claim.
Once I had to escalate to the MD level for resolution.
Finally I changed the Insurance to National.

Similarly for cars, while renewing the insurance I ask for the all available options and then decide independently.
Once I was pushed to avoid a particular company by the dealer saying that they delay the payment.
But later I found that it was a prejudiced idea by the dealer to push another company of their preference.

It generally pays to stick with the service center dealers for insurance works, after all we have to depend on them in case of need.

[Amity]

Originally Posted by turbo

Here are two related threads that you might find useful

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-...dai-creta.html (Survivor's tale: Honda City jumps divider and flies into my Hyundai Creta)

Here the same insurer as yours, Royal Sundaram proceeded to repair the car, and the owner then decided to sell it, not feeling confident about it. Seriously, go through this thread, all of you. And boycott Royal Sundaram.

Just a small correction. I have not sold the car. I was disappointed with Royal Sundaram's (RS) decision to repair the car. However, I have kept the car and also, through a contact, got the car checked from Hyundai also. Just got the 50,000 kms service done last week and it has been almost trouble free.

I had got the policy from RS in first year (2018-19) as it was offered at Rs. 26,500(approx.) with Zero Depreciation, Consumables etc which was almost Rs. 35,000 lesser than the quote given by Showroom. Further, I continued with RS for second year in order to ensure that I can contact RS in case of any issues with repair work. However, thankfully it was not needed.

This year I contacted them for renewal for third year. However, they quoted Rs. 50,000 (approx.) even after including NCB. At this I wrote an e-mail to RS and got a call from their Customer Representative (CR). Shockingly, the CR told me that RS was offering discounts on insurance for Hyundai Vehicles earlier. However, in view of large number of (apparently) frivolous claims from North India, they had a meeting with Hyundai and consequently, RS has decided not to offer any discounts to high end vehicles of Hyundai in Northern India . I told him that this was an atrocious decision as how can RS bracket every person from North India as unscruplous and even if they were facing such claims, they could have decided on case to case basis at the time of renewal by using AI/Software. Also, I had not even made a claim in second year and was still being made to suffer. He didn't have any answer.

I have now switched to a PSU for insurance and in the near future, don't see myself taking/advising others to go with RS due to such discriminatory policies.

Cheers

[Sounak04]

I have to agree with everyone. Royal Sundaram insurance is really bad. Its probably the worst.

One of my colleagues had a Maruti Celerio and he met with an accident. The Frontal part of the car was completely damaged and he was also rear ended by another car. All the three cars involved in the accident, took their cars to the side of the road in order to not hamper the Flow of Traffic. There they clicked the photos of the cars of Insurance Purpose. However, when he went to claim the Insurance, Royal Sundaram clearly denied insurance for fixing the rear side of the car claiming that the Rear Side was damaged some other time. After some very angry emails and escalating the case to the IRDAI, that they finally agreed to pay for both the damages. It took close to 4 months for the Car to get repaired.

Its really unfortunate that such a big company plays such cheap tricks. Do not give up Sir. If required, take the Case to the Consumer Forum.

From your pictures, it is very clear that the car is beyond repair. Hope the issue gets sorted and please do keep us updated.

[pareekvirendra]

Hello,

I have a query here that might sound slightly off topic. My car (Toyota Corolla Altis) is 9 years old and i am thinking of shifting my policy from HDFC Ergo to Iffco Tokio as they provide zero DEP policy for upto ten years. I had a claim this year and had to pay half of the tital cost of about Rs. 120000.00 out of my own pocket (a dog jumped out of nowhere).

I am not really aware as to how responsive Iffco Tokio is. So, is it advisable to change the insurer just for Zero DEP policy?

My experience with HDFC Ergo hasn't been very bad either. It's just that they don't provide cashless at Toyota and they take a long time reopening a claim (they missed one page from my bill and short settled my claim).

As of now HDFC Ergo doesn't have cashless facility with Toyota showrooms and Iffco Tokio does, so thats another point in their favour.

Please advice. Thank you.

[aabhimanyu04]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

After reading reports like these, I'm glad I paid a premium and took expensive policies from Future Generali and HDFC Ergo for my cars..

Sorry to say this but for an unpleasant surprise, all this may still be futile.

I have had horror stories of sorts dealing with HDFC ERGO during my claim settlement process. I dont think there is any Insurance company that will approve bills without inspections and negotiations, afterall this is part of their job.

Here is a picture of my car that got a body shop estimate of close to 40K and other parts like the engiine mount and a damaged alloy that were not covered at all.


Multiple levels of escalations and phone calls were made following the right escalation matrix, no avail.

So the point I am trying to make is, your insurance company is as good as the relation of its inspection reps with your service centre staff.

In my many years of motoring, I have never come across an 'Ideal Insurance company'.

[Sankar]

I moved the Crysta to Royal Sundaram in 2019 from HDFC Ergo. The policy was comprehensive with return to invoice but unfortunately I forgot to add zero depreciation in the cover (i bought online from their website). Cashless claim was promised at the time of purchase for Toyota.

In the first week of december 2019 I met with an accident. The impact was heavy but the vehicle was driveable and no fluids were leaking. The next day was Sunday and I drove the vehicle to the Toyota Dealer and left it there, Sunday is not a working day for them. On Monday I went to the workshop to evaluate the condition of the vehicle and since some other things had to be taken care of with regard to the accident it was only on Tuesday the third day after the accident that I went to Royal Sundaram's local office to submit the claim. They said I need not have come and could have done over phone but I thought it was better to visit them and submit the claim. I had already sent an accident intimation through their web portal on Sunday But I do not know if it reached them as I got no acknowledgement.

A lot of nonstructural parts (bumper grille and a lot of plastic bumper parts behind the bumper, both headlights, both fenders, bonnet, intercooler - slight bend no leak, condensor - one plastic clip that holds it in place broke no other damage, engine room wiring harness - connectors broke off alongwith the headlight and indicator, one alloy wheel which was bend - not broken and not leaking air tyre MichP3ST 225/55 R17 was good still using same tyre) had to be replaced. Three high value parts (IC 45k, condensor 15k, wiring harness 25k) were replaced after I demanded it to be replaced else Royal would not agree to it. Royal was reluctant in replacing the wire harness but I didnt want any fire risk with jugaad connection and they agreed to it.

I was keenly following up with the repair process so that I could suggest/request as and when required as above. I wanted it back on the road as perfect as it could get.

Part of the reason why I think Royal agreed with me in replacing without much hassle was because I did NOT have 0 depreciation insurance and I was anyways footing part of the bill

All the work was completed by the Toyota dealer on 24th Dec and the vehicle was ready for delivery. But due to Christmas and year end holidays etc the payment from Royal was delayed. In the meantime I was advised to pay upfront but I declined since I was promised cashless by Royal and decided to wait for that. I was following up with their local office every other day regarding the payment and in the first week (iirc) of January 2020 Royal made their part of the payment to Toyota. After that I paid my share of the payment to Toyota Nippon the amount of Rs.75K (~30% of full payment) and brought home the vehicle.

From the date of accident to delivery it took 1 month - give or take couple of days. The delay made me cancel travel plans made for 2019 year end and had to be rushed in February 2020.

I renewed the insurance in June 2020 with Toyota Insurance with zero dep and return to invoice at 40% premium over Royal's renewal quote without zero dep but with return to invoice. The decision to go with Toyota insurance was mainly because of three reasons.

1. The ease with which replacements are possible the workshop can take the call as needed and decide.
2. The process is faster - from survey to payment. If i had Toyota insurance my travel plan for 2019 December need not have been postponed.
3. Royal did not allow me to include 0 depreciation during 2020 renewal using their web portal. They only allowed to renew the existing policy with only return to invoice.

I light of the above I would say that my experience with Royal Sundaram was good. I wouldn't mind purchasing their insurance again and will renew i10's insurance with them when it is up for renewal if they give a matching or better quote. It is currently on HDFC Ergo.

That said I would stay away from the new insurance companies such as Digit or Acko. They might do everything online but I do not have trust in any insurance company which does not have an OFFICE in my city. I hate to deal through only call centers and apps for something as important as insurance. I considered Digit (and several others) in 2019 for the Crysta and even gave me a better quote with all bells and whistles but decided against it because it was all online. I like the option of having a local office to visit if need be.

[MBA911]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Look at the mangled state of the Ecosport! Maybe escalation to the insurance ombudsman would be the next logical step?

Before approaching the insurance ombudsman, a complaint must first be raised with the Grievance Redressal team of the insurance company. The below link is from Royal sundaram’s website with the details.

https://www.royalsundaram.in/custome...ssal-procedure


More or less any insurance company can harass if they wish to come down to it. It is just so easy for them to manipulate and use twisted excuses and shamelessly wash off even genuine liabilities from their hands

[sirjokhi]

The way Royal Sundaram executive has replied is itself wrong. They should train the employees to atleast behave and talk in a respectful way. Looking at the car, I highly doubt it is repairable. I studied in Dubai and damaging the A-pillar would directly strike off the car. Here, we can clearly see the damage is massive especially to the A-pillar. I am deeply saddened by the way the insurance company is managing the situation. They are not only putting their customer's life in danger but also other people's lives on the roads too. I am also doubting the structural integrity of the car looking at the pictures. Please ask your friend to escalate the situation further and not in anyway get this car repaired. Take them to court if necessary.

[Sedate]

I have seen all the anger towards insurance companies - but are we to blame a bit on the body shops also?

Many a times when I had very minor issues with paint(bumper especially), a particular dealer used to refer me to claim insurance and get the repainting done. Last time, when a gate opened into my cars boot, leaving a small scratch with minor indentation, the quote I received for repair was around Rs. 15000. I left the scratch as is, bought my own body repair kit, finished the work by ordering paint cans and professional gear. All expenses came to around Rs.5000 including the purchase price of many tools which I can reuse.

If this is how body shops are charging insurance companies, I assume the hesitations even for a legitimate claim seems not very unreasonable.

These are the few things that is forcing me to go for self insurance, rather than paying 2-5% of IDV every year.

I am in now way condoning the response from Royal Sundaram and is also not justifying them. But thinking in an alternate dimension, about what is making insurers take these harsh business decisions which is alienating customers from them.