[shekar.ca]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

A very horrible experience to go through and its a pain to handle these insurance guys anytime. Hope this ordeal ends soon.

Meanwhile Congratulations on your new Compass booking.

Regarding the insurance part, you can check with Royal Sundaram, Tata-AIG as well. But make sure they have cashless tie up with the Chennai Jeep service center. At the end of the day, when it comes to total-loss/salvage loss, almost all insurance guys respond the similar way and will test our patience.

Thanks arun_josie, will do that.


As of today, I am still yet to get the insurance settlement. Instead yesterday, I received what I thought was a ridiculously weird proposal:

ICICI Lombard is unable to get a buyer to dispose off the car. On my insistence on not wanting to wait any longer, they are now offering to settle ₹ 12L out of the 14L outstanding with the Bank, by way of an online transfer. I am 'requested' to settle the balance ₹ 2L and close the loan account. That ₹ 2L will be added to my settlement (around ₹ 10L) when ICICI issues the balance payment to me!!

Why should I be expected to do such a thing? I have asked them to first put this in writing before I am able to respond. Does any member have an experience similar to this? What should I do? I am concerned about paying ₹ 2L extra from my pocket and again chasing these guys. Its frankly super stressful and frustrating

[arun_josie]

Originally Posted by shekar.ca

Thanks arun_josie, will do that.


As of today, I am still yet to get the insurance settlement. Instead yesterday, I received what I thought was a ridiculously weird proposal:

Any update on this? I hope the issue is resolved now.

[woodstock3001]

Originally Posted by shekar.ca

Thanks arun_josie, will do that.


As of today, I am still yet to get the insurance settlement.

Hey Shekhar , Any update on Settlement ?

[shekar.ca]

Hello All,

Apologies for not updating this thread for a few months now. I had a back injury which left me bedridden for nearly 3 months and recovery has been painfully slow to say the least.

On the claim, I finally did manage to get the full compensation from ICICI Lombard and this is how it happened:

- After I had refused to pay up the ₹ 2L that ICICI wanted in order to 'speed up' the process, I was told that the Compass was again listed for auction on their portal for salvage/ scrap dealers could submit bids. There were a few false starts on this, someone submitting a bid and then not turning up. This went on for a week or so.

- Finally, a salvage buyer from New Delhi offered a bid of ₹ 11.89L and ICICI were keen to close asap. On my insistence, that is when ICICI finally gave me the proposed claim settlement details:

Total settlement: ₹ 24.66 L (effectively the undercounted on-road price of the car, excluding only the accessories that I purchased) of which:
Salvage value: ₹ 11.89 L
Insurance liability: ₹ 12.77L

I was obviously quite happy to see the above, given the ordeal faced over the past months. I guess that was the very point of the RTI cover, but it was nice not to have nasty surprises.

- The buyer flew down, checked all documents and agreed to buy at that price. I had convinced ICICI by that time to allow the salvage buyer to directly pay Axis Bank. 4 EMIs had been debited by this time and loan balance as at end-Jan was around ₹ 14L. So ₹ 11L was transferred by the buyer to the Bank and balance ₹ 0.89L was supposed to have been paid to ICICI and in turn withheld by them until the NOC was provided by the bank on closure of the loan. But a mistake from the buyer's side (fortunate for me) meant that this balance was transferred to me. With that, the car was finally taken away.

- I now had the issue of the remaining portion of the loan to be settled and then to receive the balance compensation. ICICI tried telling me again that they can pay up only if the NOC is received from the Bank, which brought us back to the issue of why I should be coughing up ₹ 3L in order for my claim to be processed. I called multiple people at their Chennai office, applied some pressure through the insurance desk at the dealer, etc. before they agreed to settle.

- So as an intermediate step the balance loan amount was settled to the Bank. In fact, the Bank got paid ₹ 10k more than the loan principal outstanding and it was my job to get a refund, which is another short story - will come to that in a bit.

- Last step on the insurance was to get the ₹ 9.77L, which took a few more days of chasing and finally I got the settlement.... YAAAYYYYY (subject to P.S. 1 )


P.S 1:
The Bank loan ought to have been closed right? It wasn't to be. Apparently the back end team decided that this 'foreclosure' of loan was not due to valid reasons and hence I had to be charged 5% of the principal outstanding (~ ₹ 14L) as prepayment charges. Hence, the loan account showed a balance outstanding of ₹ 70k and I continued to be debited an EMI of ₹ 1,700. Unless I had this resolved, not only would I continue to be financially penalized, I also wouldn't get the NOC.

This process took me another 45 days to close (matters not easier with the injury), before they finally closed the loan account waiving the charges levied on my account. The ₹ 10k I ought to have gotten back didn't eventually come, but I was quite tired by this time to fight for that as well and let it go. Two weeks later, the NOC came in.

P.S 2:
The saga is well and truly over, I am much richer from the experience and didn't lose out financially at least. I now have a 6 months old Jeep which I have hardly driven (thanks again to the injury), but something to look forward to now that my recovery is nearly complete!

----

And last but not the least, a big thanks to all of you for the multiple tips, strategies and constant words of support. It really helped me understand the process and learn to manage it better with time.

I have tried to cover the entire process to the best I could. In case of any questions, please do feel free to ask.

[Pancham]

Good that you can now put al this behind and look forward to driving the new Jeep as you recover. So 24.66L was your actual OTR minus the accessories?

Btw I saw your car in Landmark Gurgaon service couple of months back. Still had the TN plates.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by shekar.ca

Hello All,

Apologies for not updating this thread for a few months now. I had a back injury which left me bedridden for nearly 3 months and recovery has been painfully slow to say the least.

On the claim, I finally did manage to get the full compensation from ICICI Lombard and this is how it happened:.

Sorry to hear about your injury but glad to hear you finally got your full settlement. Its really unfortunate how much both banks as well as insurance companies make customers run around from pillar to post in such situations.

I’m also disappointed that the insurance company goes through this salvage sale process before honouring their liability. They should cut a cheque for their liability amount and then take whatever they receive from the salvage sale process. Why should the customer be made subject to waiting for the outcome of this process. What if (hypothetically) there were no bidders and it was simply not sold. Would the insurance company not have been liable to pay the RTI amount? I guess I’ll read my detailed insurance terms from my own new car policy as well just to understand such aspects better.

Anyway, enjoy the new vehicle to the fullest and look forward to more ownership experiences on that front.

Cheers.

[Clayton Crasto]

Originally Posted by shekar.ca

Hello All,

Apologies for not updating this thread for a few months now. I had a back injury which left me bedridden for nearly 3 months and recovery has been painfully slow to say the least.

Sorry to know about your back injury. Hope you get back on the road soon with your new Compass.

It's highly disappointing to know that the system is slow everywhere. Right from government offices, to banks and even insurance firms. There is just no sense of reliability and commitment that we get. Sigh. Just makes me wonder when and IF this will ever change.

Nonetheless, glad that the ordeal is behind you.

[SS80]

After reading through your post, I don't think it's wise to buy a new car on loan, touch wood if someone has to go through a similar total loss scenario, not all can handle it as you did. Also, the issue of EMI continuity even when a claim is taking months to settle only adds to the pain of not having a functional car.

Wish you a speedy recovery.

[vaibhavyagnik]

What an ordeal and to add insult to injury, you were back ridden. I can only imagine the agony you must have felt. But all is well that ends well, or atleast ends not being bad. Hope you make full recovery!

[shekar.ca]

Originally Posted by Pancham

Good that you can now put al this behind and look forward to driving the new Jeep as you recover. So 24.66L was your actual OTR minus the accessories?

Btw I saw your car in Landmark Gurgaon service couple of months back. Still had the TN plates.

Thanks Pancham. Yes, the OTR price at the time was ₹ 25.67 L on which I got a ₹ 1 L discount. Accessories alone were extra.

The buyer is apparently planning to use the car for someone within his family. So re-registration is on the way.

Originally Posted by Axe77

Sorry to hear about your injury but glad to hear you finally got your full settlement. Its really unfortunate how much both banks as well as insurance companies make customers run around from pillar to post in such situations.

Thanks Axe77. Absolutely agree with what you have written. I pretty much asked the same questions and the insurer said they would have to anyway pay. My surveyor (and his manager who was processing the paperwork) was trying to make the most of a recovery and show their 'bosses' that they are doing a good job. But at a customer's cost?? This has been a valuable lesson in so many ways, especially when buying an asset like a car which we crave, adore, love and eventually end up buying.

Originally Posted by Clayton Crasto

Sorry to know about your back injury. Hope you get back on the road soon with your new Compass.

It's highly disappointing to know that the system is slow everywhere. Right from government offices, to banks and even insurance firms. There is just no sense of reliability and commitment that we get. Sigh. Just makes me wonder when and IF this will ever change.

Nonetheless, glad that the ordeal is behind you.

Indeed, it was such a pain. Thanks Clayton.

Originally Posted by SS80

After reading through your post, I don't think it's wise to buy a new car on loan, touch wood if someone has to go through a similar total loss scenario, not all can handle it as you did. Also, the issue of EMI continuity even when a claim is taking months to settle only adds to the pain of not having a functional car.

Wish you a speedy recovery.

Thanks SS80. I am thankful to have had the financial flexibility to pull it off. But could have been much tougher/ next to impossible if I was shopping in a segment or two above. How much feasible it is for every buyer to only buy without a loan I am not sure (overwhelming majority would be the ones taking a loan), but fingers crossed such experiences are few and far in between.

Originally Posted by vaibhavyagnik

What an ordeal and to add insult to injury, you were back ridden. I can only imagine the agony you must have felt. But all is well that ends well, or atleast ends not being bad. Hope you make full recovery!

Thanks vaibhavyagnik, yes its at least good times to look forward to!

[Capri89]

Originally Posted by shekar.ca

I had a back injury which left me bedridden for nearly 3 months and recovery has been painfully slow to say the least.

Just now went through the entire thread.
Happy to note that you have been recompensed for the total loss.

And a back injury ? Get well soon, friend. But take it slowly.

Just wondering, is there a pending pilgrimage from your side ?

Take care and good wishes.