[dr.gk]

Hi everyone.

To all those who do not have the patience to read my lengthy post.

In short: If you have done your vehicle insurance from Bharti Axa via Online and their agent call, you could have been SCAMMED.

How: Their modus operandi is to intentionally alter the NCB (NO CLAIM BONUS) so as to give you the best deal. Once you receive the soft copy pdf through mail, you notify the agent over the call that the NCB percentage is incorrect, they smartly edit the pdf and resend it to you saying it has been corrected. Whereas it is not actually corrected in their system.

What will happen if your NCB is altered and wrongly put? (I am sure many of them do know about it but for those who do not): It simply means your insurance is termed void. This will only be done when an untoward incident happens and you go in for a claim. Your claim will be rejected. The insurance company will simply state that 'WRONG NCB DECLARED"
If it's a total loss too, you will not get a penny.
All this because their agent puts in the wrong NCB for gaining a customer and to get their commission.

To all those who got their insurance done via online/phone in agent. Please call the toll free number to check if everything is correct.

The above is based not just by my experience alone. but my son's as well. This is when i confirmed that it ain't a mere coincidence.
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Now coming back to my own experience.

Like anybody else, during the time of renewal of my car insurance, i check a few insurance companies for the premium, with Bharti axa being one among them.

Within 2 mins of entering my vehicle details and phone number, the agent calls.
Simply give them the Vehicle registration number and they will extract your car details. They also know when the present policy expires.
He(Mr Rajesh kumar): Ownership transfer in current policy sir?
ME: Not in the present policy but 3 years ago.
He: OK sir, whats the NCB in current policy?
Me: 20% NCB
He: Ok sir, this year you will be eligible for 25% sir.
Me: Ok that's right.
He: Premium is so and so.. i will send you payment link, pay immediately sir, while on call.
Me: Not possible now, call me later at night as i am away from my laptop. But send me the email.
He: ok sir.

Later at night his team-mate calls & confirms the same details. He gives the payment link and asks me to pay within next 15 mins.

The payment link is funny, you cannot view the details of what agent has filled in. its a direct payment link, you make the payment, that's it.
I did the payment 5 mins later and got the soft copy as well.

Here i was in a shock, the agent entered NCB as 50%
Immediately i put in the email. No response. The sales team are done with their job and no longer concerned.
Immediately also put in an email to the customer service as well grievance redressal team.
My policy hadn't started yet, and my complaint was lodged before the policy inception time stating that the agent has made a mistake and wrong NCB has been put, either rectify the mistake asap or cancel the policy and issue a Full Refund.


A screenshot of my insurance policy , notice the NCB given 50%



A screenshot of the complaint i had put in immediately after the purchase of policy and before the inception time.


From then on they sent me several emails stating just one thing
"Please share your NCB certificate or NCB statement of your previous insurer"

I asked is this a joke? on what basis did they even put 50%? did they have NCB statement/certificate back then??

They don't respond to this but repeatedly ask you to get NCB certificate/Statement.

Their agent has made the mistake, i am being made to work. Attaching the screenshot, 3 mails, and even the other 2 from Bharti axa were regading the same, though subject was mine for which they replied the same.





Thier only answer which they keep repeating.


Finally i write to my previous insurer TATA AIG, and they issue me the NCB statement, which i forwarded to Bharti axa
Now Bharti axa writes to me saying pay the difference amount of NCB and they will issue the soft copy again with the corrected one.


I mean, is there no accountability? No shame whatsoever to penalize the customer for the mistake of theirs??

[Raghu M]

This is shocking. Insurance is taken for peace of mind. These people rip it off and customers are left blank. I think you should lodge a complaint with the IRDAI. Please let AXA know that you will not leave things here and will pursue it further. Such shady practices by big firms.

[abhishek46]

Originally Posted by dr.gk

Hi everyone.

To all those who do not have the patience to read my lengthy post.

In short: If you have done your vehicle insurance from Bharti Axa via Online and their agent call, you could be have been SCAMMED.

All these scams can be avoided by avoiding the 'human' interaction in the process.

I always prefer to simply head-up to the Insurer's Website, and then renew/purchase the product directly 'online'.

If some Insurer does not allow 'online' purchase, then I promptly 'close' the browser, and head to some other Insurer.

There is a chance that a human, may offer some better discounts etc., but, why take the un-necessary risk?

[ruzbehxyz]

To avoid any fraud, I feel online purchase is better. You can see and feed in all your data correctly. Last insurance policy details should also be correct. If we reduce ot remove the human element and just focus on the machine i. e. Computer, I think everything will go right.

[Mr.Boss]

At least from my experience I can say this is not specific to BAGI, I'm finding in one way or the other every service provider is a culprit

Originally Posted by dr.gk

"Please share your NCB certificate or NCB statement of your previous insurer"

I asked is this a joke? on what basis did they even put 50%? did they have NCB statement/certificate back then??

They don't respond to this but repeatedly ask you to get NCB certificate/Statement.

I had to undergo similar situation to get my date of birth corrected, God knows from where they got a wrong D.O.B and then asking for Govt ID as proof to get it corrected.

Originally Posted by ruzbehxyz

To avoid any fraud, I feel online purchase is better. You can see and feed in all your data correctly.

Again, we cannot assure 100% error free.
In one of my policy purchased online (direct from the service provider) my occupation was mentioned as 'Student'. I rechecked by purchasing another policy, there is no where I could find this input column during purchase

In simple, it's our money and our headache to get the things checked twice immediately after getting policy copy, put all our efforts to get it corrected for our peace of mind.

[mangalore_guy]

Hi, After what @dr.gk went through and narrated is experience to me.

It suddenly alerted me as i had done my policy through Bharti Axa just a month ago.
Shockingly my agent MR Amit, had altered my NCB % as well. I had told him current policy has 25% NCB, he acknowledges it and says i am eligible for 35%.

While issuing the policy, he has simply altered it to 45% NCB





Since we were still in call, i pointed out the wrong NCB put for which he apologizes and says- "technical issue sir, don't worry, we will correct it and send the new copy ASAP"


He himself edits the PDF of the soft copy and emails me another copy.



I replied to the same email asking if the correction was done in their system as well, for which he replies affirmative.



I was happy i got a deal. Din't bother verifying it back with bharti axa until - Dr.GK encountered trouble with his.

Without wasting any time, i called up Bharti Axa toll free number. Asked them to check my policy & the NCB percentage it shows. To my horror they say 45%


I own a 2016 Elite i20 Asta (O) which comes with 6 airbags. This is the main reason i spent close to 13 grands to get a zero dep insurance.

By altering my NCB and by editing the pdf, they are taking customers for ride in both ways.
1. Making you believe you got a good deal for your insurance package, without knowing the insurance you have is simply not valid.
2. Earning both ways. This side they get premium amount and that side, they can simply reject any claim that raises saying "Customer declared wrong ncb"

Highly unethical practice.
After reporting my above case with the Bharti Axa grievance redressal level 1 and level 2, they got nothing to say but "We are sorry for the inconvenience, we will get back with the resolution"

After 24 hours, the only resolution i am told is to pay for the NCB difference amount!!!




Paying is amount is not a big problem. I am still having nightmares at that thought that - what if i had not known about this at all??

Just not sure about how many they have duped so far and from when.

[racer_7]

Dude I was in a similar situation last month for my 2 wheeler insurance. I went to policy bazar and got the lowest quote from Kotak. My current insurer was Tata AIG and the one before that was ICICI. There was only one option of 35% NCB to select on policy bazar site which I did. After a few days of buying the insurance I get a mail from Kotak that my NCB is actually 25% from AIG and I need to pay the difference amount. I then contacted AIG and they said that the previous insurer ICICI did not pass on NCB to AIG as I had taken a claim which was completely false! There was no way I could connect with ICICI guys again due to time constraints so I let it pass. Also, to prove my point to Kotak they asked me for the original NCB letter from AIG which they had to sent via courier and then I had to provide it to Kotak. With all the headache involved I just paid the difference of INR 50 which was worth the peace.

[meto]

Without derailing this conversation, I think insurance isnt a straight forward process in our country because of lack of liability. Many of the insurance agencies doesn't allow a clear process of check and verifications at an ongoing basis. I have Tata AIG and I couldn't just login to their website and see all the details at one go instantaneously.

I had brought a new Nexon in Oct 2020 and got the insurance from Tata AIG from the dealership itself. They probably had links with some agent who got the insurance itself. The insurance copy I received on the day of delivery looked fine. I logged onto Tata AIG website later to download a copy of the insurance again. It was a cumbersome process, but they sent me the insurance details a couple of days later which looked same as that of the dealership.

When I logged into their website on March, to my surprise, the vehicle details was changed to Tata Tiago instead of Nexon while all the insurance details including the IDV value remained the same as earlier . I had to follow up with them for the change but they couldn't update their system with the correct information, instead they could only provide me an endorsed acknowledgement for the change of the vehicle model.

[jeygani]

Please research/read/study before parting with your money and nowadays online payment is available for most of the insurance companies. I also feel, the whole insurance industry is not transparent, while paying to get insurance it is simple but while claiming there will be multiple checks, phone calls, follow ups etc.

I prefer third party since it is mandatory, and I get it from online, no agent involvement.
Fortunately, I never had major mishaps with my car apart from minor battle scars since I purchased my car 7 years back and no comprehensive insurance neither for car nor two wheeler. I have covered parking for my vehicles in my apartment and office.

[frewper]

Bharti Axa did something diifferent to me.

I converted my car to CNG by the end of 2019 and even completed my RTO endorsement. Now I had to make the change on the Insurance as well. Insurance was renewed on Nov 2019.

Now after repeated emails to Bharti Axa still they were not making the change.

First they asked for RTO change. Which I provided in the initial mail itself. Still repeats the process of asking me to submit the document.

Second asks for the Invoice, (Which should not be needed technically) which also I send over immediately.

After that no response. Even after repeated reminders they don't do any thing.

Emails go unanswered. Call center says they will resolve the issue and then that's that, no actions after that. Or they would tell me to come visit the office to make the change. Saying they need an inspection of the vehicle.

Yeah right when you want to sell something it can be done online, but when I ask for a simple change, you want me to spend time and come to your office? There was not even an option to pay for some one to come over and inspect the vehicle. Moreover because it was 2020; when I did call up their office landline I came to know that everyone is WFH.

This is their standard response on email.



So for the next one year until renewal time I was driving a car without insurance. Given the year 2020 I could not even land up at their office and talk to anyone.

After all this they had the audacity to call me up at the time of renewal expecting me to renew with them.

They guy pestered me with call for renewal, and once I said fine, I will do it, but first make the change on my existing policy and send me a fresh copy and then I will think of renewing, he still didnt make the change for me. Terrible.

Will never buy from Bharti Axa again

[sukarsan]

Originally Posted by dr.gk

Hi everyone.



What will happen if your NCB is altered and wrongly put? (I am sure many of them do know about it but for those who do not): It simply means your insurance is termed void. This will only be done when an untoward incident happens and you go in for a claim. Your claim will be rejected. The insurance company will simply state that 'WRONG NCB DECLARED"
If it's a total loss too, you will not get a penny.
All this because their agent puts in the wrong NCB for gaining a customer and to get their commission.

I did not understand this part. NCB is just a pecentage.. Why will the NCB come into picture during a claim?

Update:

I now understand that the NCB can only go up in a set sequence each year. Deviations are not allowed and hence the policy can be void. Thanks for the headsup

[superbad]

This is why online purchase of policies either directly from the insurance company or coverfox/policy bazaar is the best way. The deal will be as transparent as possible, & payment goes securely through without any human agent intervention.

[Ravi Parwan]

I beg to differ. There is similar shenanigans in the online space. And this is not restricted to any single insurance provider or aggregator, rather a problem with the entire process, where you get a cover letter with faulty details in your email and unless you check it right away, you get scammed in case of a claim.

I had to get my policies rectified twice or thrice for a number of years when I got them online. either the address or the policy holder name were taken incorrectly, since I was doing the transactions for my dad and my wife. I had to submit and resubmit the same documents multiple times before this was corrected. I sent several strongly worded emails to the online providers for the rectification.

And the icing on the cake is that the first two times, I thought I had made a mistake in filling in the details online.

I can only now correlate that with this and see how they are selling you cheap insurance that you will never be able to take a claim on...

[anand_saraf]

I had a similar experience with ICICI a few years ago. The previous year policy was with them, it was renewed also with them itself. It was renewed at thier own office which was adjacent to my office. Only when my car had a windshield replacement, did I realize that to give the lowest renewal quote and keep the policy renewal with them, they had altered the NCB. After a lot of discussions and back and forth, they made me pay the balance premium and then partially settled the claim.

[PraNeel]

So, another modus operandi of scamming an unsuspecting customer!!
We tend to do all things online, however there are certain things which are done best through intermediaries or offline.
In all my years of buying insurance, my learnings are:

1. Avoid private insurance players. There are many unknown and grey areas.
2. For new insurance or renewal take a look at figures online in incognito mode. (else be flooded with insurance ads) Oh never enter your real details if you are window shopping for insurance.
3. Call your dealer or visit the nearest sarkari insurance office, or your trusted agent.
4. Always ask for a discount (read some part of commission)
5. Never go above or below your vehicle's IDV as per depreciation rules.
6. Take cover note or policy printout before hanging up / leaving the office.
7. Double check all the details in the cover note / policy.

This has worked fine for all our vehicles till now, but I guess now will have to verify the policy as well from now on.