[proton]

Hi, any forum members notice that Policy bazaar is giving lots of problems?

Whenever I have a dispute with the insurance company, it is not helping out.

I decided to go for the lowest bidder for zero dep, bumper to bumper policy for my Ecosport, since the different offers were too complicated to compare on other basis, and since the car has not run for the last six months, I decided to take up the low mileage offer of one company.

After paying the amount, there was no option to avail the offer as promised. I called policy bazaar and cancelled the policy.

Since a month, policy Bazar has not forwarded me their email escalation to the insurer as promised.

Any advice how to proceed? If it was a brick and mortar office, I would go and shout and make a scene. It seems to be the only recourse for the Indian consumer. What to do with online portals?

Also policybazar was no help in dealing with another insurer who contacted me telling me my Scala policy was cancelled after 10 months of issuing the policy. It seems the no claims statement I made was false.

I forwarded the previous policy renewal offer where the other company had quoted, and offered me their NCB, based on not claiming.

After two weeks, company 2 offered to reinstate the policy on payment of the full amount, without NCB.

Unbelievable! The onus is on company 2 to check the NCB status with company 1 within 24 days of payment. If they keep the payment, then it means they have accepted the information.

This is all in the official insurance rules and regulations.

Policy Bazar asked me to deal directly with insurer.

What's the point on having an insurance portal? We can deal with insurers directly. They should act like Amazon, which holds the payment in escrow, until both sides are satisfied, and then enforce the following of all the terms and conditions of the transaction.

Again, any other members have had problems with policybazar? Please let us all know, so we can avoid using it. It seems to be redundant, seeing comparable prices are available on 'Net.

[aargee]

The biggest problem with Policybazaar is, once the mobile number is shared, the tele marketing menace starts even after taking the policy & continues every year for renewal!! Even True caller helps only to a certain extent

I've completely refrained using any insurance aggregator for 2 reasons:
1. Have to be extremely careful enough knowing which riders we opt in & out + vigilant enough with the terms & conditions
2. There's no real significant cost saving (hardly some 2-3K for cars) & when it comes to the hour of need, it becomes an ultra pain

But again, I don't blame the aggregators or insurance companies either because, they exist to make business & it is up to our wisdom to choose what we need based on our usage.

@Proton - In your situation the culprit is Policybazaar & like you exactly said, nothing much can be done other than writing in social media & in a population of 1.3+ billion, ordeals of even 1.3 Lakh customers don't matter; really sorry to hear your plight. Best thing is to keep moving & take a wise decision next year.

[bijims]

Originally Posted by proton

What's the point on having an insurance portal? We can deal with insurers directly. They should act like Amazon, which holds the payment in escrow, until both sides are satisfied, and then enforce the following of all the terms and conditions of the transaction.

Again, any other members have had problems with policybazar? Please let us all know, so we can avoid using it. It seems to be redundant, seeing comparable prices are available on 'Net.

In this case, the amount must have already reached the hands of the insurance company. If your cancellation was within the free-look cancellation period, you should contact the insurance company directly for a refund of the amount. Policybazaar is just an aggregator and nothing else. You can contact the head office of the insurance company and get your money.

Policybazaar will take no responsibility for an incorrect claim of NCB and the insurer has the right to cancel your policy for non-payment of the NCB amount, but usually, an email or letter by post requesting payment of such NCB amount would be sent to you before any action is taken.

Insurance aggregators and brokers will hardly take any pain in dealing with such circumstances. If you buy a policy from their website, make sure to treat it like you bought it from the head office and any claims or disputes will be with the insurance company head office directly and policybazaar or any other broker/aggregator will most likely not get involved.

[SoumenD]

Oh they are a pain. There was a mistake in my wife's term insurance policy data we entered. We had just made the payment and realized the mistake. Man, it took 5 months for them to cancel and refund the amount, mind you the processing had not even started with Insurer. We had actually left it but they kept calling asking us to do a new policy while the refund is being processed. That gave us leverage and we said first process the refund and then we will do it.

And not to mention the barrage of tele-marketing calls which follows once you have entered your phone number. Absolute nightmare, more-so if you use an iphone where true-caller doesn't work the way it should

For car insurance I simply go with the dealer as thats the most hassle-free experience possible. Ideally any insurance should work just fine if concerned parts are covered but we know how ideally things work in India. I have no patience in arguing/engaging with the dealers on insurance issues and hence those 2-3k extra seems a small price for peace of mind.

[ruzbehxyz]

Simple solution.

Use Policy bazaar only for comparing the prices and then go to the individual website and buy the policy online. The price would be more or less same.

The downside of this is that your cell phone number and email is available with Policy bazaar and they keep calling. This will happen for sometime and then will eventually stop once they are satisfied that you won’t buy the policy from them. In fact if they find out that you have already renewed your policy, they will not call you.

It is advised to purchase the policy from your car dealer ASC where you regularly take your car for service. This will help in claims especially when you have Zero dep. policies.

On the other hand if you go through an Agent, you can always bargain more and sometimes get a better deal than online websites like Policy bazaar. Besides the Agent will be like a middle man who can help you negotiate with the Insurance company in case of any claim issues.

Overall if you have a new car and plan to keep it for long, it’s always better to renew the insurance from your ASC.

[superbad]

I have been in similar situations with policy bazaar. Their turnaround times are unreasonably long & no update is given for the reasons of the delay in liaising with the insurer. This is one of the basic failings if you're a policy aggregator.

[Voodooblaster]

Originally Posted by proton

What to do with online portals?

Name and shame in Social Media (Twitter/FB/Instagram) by tagging Policy Bazaar Official Handle

Originally Posted by proton

Also policybazar was no help in dealing with another insurer who contacted me telling me my Scala policy was cancelled after 10 months of issuing the policy.

It seems the no claims statement I made was false.

After two weeks, company 2 offered to reinstate the policy on payment of the full amount, without NCB.

Insurance company acted fairly in this case

Originally Posted by proton

Unbelievable! The onus is on company 2 to check the NCB status with company 1 within 24 days of payment. If they keep the payment, then it means they have accepted the information.

This is all in the official insurance rules and regulations

2 wrongs don’t make a right

Insurance is a contract between the customer and the insurance company (2 different legal entities). All declarations made by customer is accepted by Insurance Company in utmost good faith. Any falsehood or untruths (intentional or not) will have consequences, especially those pertaining to Own Damage cover of your vehicle. It’s doubtful if legal forums will view the initial act of misrepresentation of facts sympathetically

Originally Posted by bijims

If your cancellation was within the free-look cancellation period, you should contact the insurance company directly for a refund of the amount

There is no free look period for motor insurance

[rkw]

Originally Posted by proton

Again, any other members have had problems with policybazar? Please let us all know, so we can avoid using it. It seems to be redundant, seeing comparable prices are available on 'Net.

Sorry to hear about your case. I had renewed policy for my Creta last year through Policybazar & it went off well. I guess you should follow up with customer care of both Policybazar & the insurance provider. Do not regret buying the policy online. Even if you had got it offline, services will be online only. If there is no respite, you can use the escalation channel.

[Roy.S]

Originally Posted by Voodooblaster

Insurance is a contract between the customer and the insurance company (2 different legal entities). All declarations made by customer is accepted by Insurance Company in utmost good faith. Any falsehood or untruths (intentional or not) will have consequences, especially those pertaining to Own Damage cover of your vehicle. It’s doubtful if legal forums will view the initial act of misrepresentation of facts sympathetically

I'm not entirely sure if Proton is guilty of misrepresentation of facts. As far as I can tell there were no claims. Isn't he entitled to the NCB when he did not have any previous claims. Also, since you work in insurance, is it normal to cancel a policy stating violation of terms without giving the insured party a chance to clarify his position?

Originally Posted by proton

Also policybazar was no help in dealing with another insurer who contacted me telling me my Scala policy was cancelled after 10 months of issuing the policy. It seems the no claims statement I made was false.

I forwarded the previous policy renewal offer where the other company had quoted, and offered me their NCB, based on not claiming.

After two weeks, company 2 offered to reinstate the policy on payment of the full amount, without NCB.

So they refused NCB even though you had no claims on the previous policy? In this case escalation to the ombudsman may help.

[Voodooblaster]

Originally Posted by Roy.S

I'm not entirely sure if Proton is guilty of misrepresentation of facts. As far as I can tell there were no claims. Isn't he entitled to the NCB when he did not have any previous claims

So they refused NCB even though you had no claims on the previous policy? In this case escalation to the ombudsman may help.

Need more info from OP to give an accurate answer

No Claim Bonus(NCB) is a slab based discount(20 to 50) granted on the own damage component of motor policy during its renewal provided:
1) there has been no claim lodged in previous policy
2) Vehicle policy is renewed within 90 days from expiry of previous policy
3) Vehicle and insurance policy is under the ownership of same person for full policy duration
4) Slabs are 0, 20, 25, 35, 45 and 50. Slab increases for each successful claim free year. In case of a claim , the NCB slab resets to zero

However a few assumptions can be made for incorrect NCB in this case:

1) OP’s policy was not renewed by 90 days
2) NCB slab claimed by OP was incorrect

Most web aggregators allow users to select slab of NCB. If a person selects an incorrect slab, the policy benefits might not be fully available

Originally Posted by Roy.S

Also, since you work in insurance, is it normal to cancel a policy stating violation of terms without giving the insured party a chance to clarify his position?

Theoretically the policy can be cancelled and RC Owner has to be compulsorily intimated of the same (by recorded delivery )

Most insurance companies try contacting customer for rectification of the policy before taking drastic action of cancellation.

Most new age Ins Co.s use mail / SMS which often are caught in SPAM filters. This might have happened in OP’s case

Point to be noted is that only the Own Damage Component can be cancelled. The liability portion can’t be cancelled without existence of an alternate policy

[thugz_doge]

Recently, I was trying to renew my 2 wheeler insurance policy. I logged in to policy baazar to compare policies and to my surprise the only option that I got was of Royal Sundaram. I called PolicyBazaar and they confirmed that they only have that option.

I ended up renewing the policy directly from hdfc ergo website.

[caged_nomad]

99 Lies & A INSURANCE POLICY!

It was the first of Feb and I was frantically buying insurance for our Santro! I never skimp on insurance, however at her 19th birthday, the insurers on the screen unanimously agreed that “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” and threw at me Third Party quotes, some of which felt rather fishy.

I distinctly remember entering the owner’s name as MXXXXa SXXXXXa. But having forgotten to snooze between two successive steps on the site, I couldn't dream that a proposal form was sent to my e-mail id! Long story short, the policy was issued in my name, effectively making it null and void!

So I filled in the change forms and for good measure decided to give the enlightened folks at policybazar a call.

The jovial voice on the other end of the line assures me that it's safe to drive my car, so long as I don't have an accident! Had this been a face to face interaction, he could have experienced the unpredictability of an accident and quite possibly the complications of a claims process.

Sadly, with the advantage of distance squarely with the call center agent, resort to an impassioned plea on the illegality of operating such a vehicle!

With the AHT (Average Handle Time) ticking by, this man FINALLY shared my sense of urgency and wanted to get rid of me as soon as possible !! So out comes “don't worry sir i will get it resolved in 4 days!”

Four days later, I embarked on my quest to retrieve the modified policy. Through an agonizing number of calls to policy bazar I instead retrieved “We made no such promise” the TAT stands at 10 days!

Now most companies would like to take a pause and reflect on what the customer was just crying about, BUT not these guys! They like to kick you while you are down. In what felt like a swift reprisal I was informed via whatsapp that the TAT has just gone up to 17-20 days !!!

Shocked, I turned to their portal only to find that the portal has a TAT of 25 Days!!!

Below is the TAT of a simple owner name correction on the various Policy Bazar systems

1)Verbal - 4 days (Keep a recording handy)
2) Email - 10 days (It will lapse and not auto escalate)
3) Whatsapp 17-20 days (Not breached yet)
4) Portal - 25 days ( It’s MUCH cheaper to buy a new policy INSTEAD)

The simple folks at Madgaon Oriental insurance solved this issue in 3 calls and 48 hours!!! Hats off to you Rockstars!!
In the most Ironic Fashion Edelweiss has changed its name to Zuno and proudly sent me a freshly branded policy copy with the same error!

I am starting to think I need insurance against insurance lapses !!

Perhaps its best to stay away from these guys for a bit !!