Bajaj Allianz Insurance holding its customer's money

It's definitely a scam happening. So I just wanted everyone to be aware of this.

BHPian naveen.raju recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I just wanted to point out my bad experience here, but turns out that there's a scam happening here. I had discussed this casually with our family lawyer and he said that they have received around 6 official complaints in Cochin alone. Customers take the premium, Bajaj Allianz delay in submitting the policy and finally issue the refund (around 3 to 4 weeks, they will be holding customers money. In many cases, they don't issue the refund and customers will have to run behind it). Imagine, if this is the case in Cochin alone (this is just what our lawyer came to know), what would be the case across India. They will be holding crores of money. It's definitely a scam happening. So I just wanted everyone to be aware of this.

Here's my ordeal:

Have been their customer for a few years now and it was pretty smooth. But this time, it was horrible.

I started getting spam calls 3 months before the policy end date and the last month, it was like numerous calls daily. Even though I have blocked their calls, they call from a new number and their calls are IVR.

Anyhow, here's the case. I get a quote for my Grand i10 and I politely decline their offer stating I got a better offer for XXX and mention the add-ons they offered. The lady (Ms. Pooja) quickly asks me to hold and gives a better offer in about 10 secs. I ask her to send me the payment link. I receive the payment link in 1-2 mins, check the offer and I make the payment. I get the confirmation message from Bajaj, issuing payment provider showing me that the EMI has been accepted etc. I get the trace ID (tracking ID), and it shows that it's been accepted.

Now the tricky part. Every time, I take an insurance, I immediately receive the soft copy. But this time, even after a day, I don't receive any communication except for the successful payment from Bajaj Alliance. I try dropping them a mail, but all their email ids have some technical issue. Say's mail not delivered - See screenshot:

Then some random guy calls me up after 2 days and demand that I need to pay Rs 4,000 extra. When I ask him the reason, he makes some story. I had dealt with Ms Pooja during the entire process, who gave me the discounted quote and asked me to pay the premium. I explain the entire conversation to him and ask him to issue the policy.

Then I call up the customer care thrice and explain the issue. All of them raised a complaint and said it will be resolved in 24-48 hours and will treat my case as "urgent". I then call up the customer care in the evening, and they transfer the call to the concerned dept. The dude says that his computer is very slow and asks me to hold for a couple of mins (LOL). He confirms that the payment got through and it's been successful and states that they are experiencing some technical issues so the delay in issuing the policy document. While they were behind me before taking up the policy, they simply disappeared as soon as I make the payment. But he assures me that I will receive my policy on 28th March.

28th March - I receive a mail with the following contents:

Thinking that the issue has been resolved, I prepare to take the printout of the policy document. To my surprise, the policy that they sent was last year's policy. What a brilliant mistake. I reply to that mail regarding their brilliant proofreading skills and copy the mail to all the senior guys out there (they had given me the mail ID's of the senior guys in case I wasn't satisfied with their customer support). Till now, no one even bothered to reply to the goof up made by them.

I call up their customer support at night to check on the status. As always, I wasted my time to explain the entire episode. They transfer my mail to the concerned department. Again, explained the entire process. Like a pre-recorded message, the dude says he will forward my complaint to the concerned team (wasn't he part of the concerned team? I ask him this but he says there's a separate team and I will receive my "policy" in 24-48 hours. Since I have been hearing this for the last 3 days, I tell him that I won't accept this and I need a resolution. He said it's a technical issue and within 1-2 days, I should receive this. I ask him to either give that in writing or transfer my call to his senior. As expected, they put my call on hold for 15 mins and later drops my call. Such a pathetic customer support. Here's the summary of my time that was wasted talking to a bunch of idiots.

And just a few of the service requests that I received (there's a lot more):

29th March - At 10am, I reply to the mail that was sent by a human by the name of "Diksha Maske" who made the wonderful mistake of sending my last year's policy with a cc to the "so-called senior employees of Bajaj but who doesn't reply to your mail". No reply.!

At 12pm, I receive a reply and again they ask for all the details. I reply with the necessary details with a cc to 8 other "So called senior employees" (new list this time). This screenshot shown above clearly shows that they regularly check their emails. It might be full of such complaints.

Later at night, I call them up. As always, wasted my time explaining my issue to some 4 levels of support executives. One guy in particular, Mr. Ganesh was very rude and he hung up on me stating he cannot keep repeating the same thing over again (his only excuse was they need further 48 hours to issue the policy, their backend team is currently not available and they are facing some technical issue). I call them up again and spoke to Mr. Hrishikesh who started saying the same thing. He assured me that he will take up this issue personally and will deliver the policy by 5pm on 30th March. My policy expired on 29th March and on asking why they still haven't given me the policy, he says that there's no issue even if the policy is expired. I can show my successful payment receipt in case of any issue which I think is absurd.

30th March - At 11 am, I get a call from one guy stating he's been assigned my complaint and the policy will be delivered in a couple of hours. Mr. Hrishikesh who promised me he would send me the policy document and personally call me to update me. At 6 pm, I call up the customer support and ask them to connect to Mr. Hrishikesh. Keeps me on hold for 15 mins and then the dude says he's on a call and he would call me in 1 hour. Even after 2 hours, I don't receive any update and I call them back. Again, the same prerecorded answer that he's busy. Finally, at 9.30 pm, the dude calls me up. Said he was busy trying to "catch" his backend team (yes, that's the word he used) and he saw they have issued a refund. These guys do not call up the concerned team if there are any customer issues. They just leave a mail. When I asked him for the exact date that I will receive my policy, he says "I cannot commit a date but I will give you an update tomorrow" (the update will be that they have issued a refund - that will take more than 10 days to get processed). These guys play it safe and make sure that they are always on the safe side. Since he said he sent a couple of mails to his seniors, I ask him to send a mail with a copy to me. He immediately denied that. Mr. Hrishikesh was acting like I was asking him for a loan and expected me to be his slave/servant. When I started the conversation, I told him that I am recording this call.

Here's where something worked in my favor:

• Me - I need to know the exact date. I don't want you to update me tomorrow.
• Hrishikesh - Sorry sir, I cannot commit on a date. I will provide you an update tomorrow.
• Me - The update that you are going to give me tomorrow is that the refund has already been issued. I don't want that after waiting for a week and then waiting for 2 weeks for my refund. I want my policy issued. Tell me, I need to you give me the policy tomorrow.
• Hrishikesh - No sir. (His attitude changed and his voice was rough).

I kept repeating this and finally, he accidentally agreed he will send me the policy document tomorrow. He tried to change what he said, but I laughed and said - "This is what I wanted. You confirmed that you will deliver my policy document". I then say "Mr. Hrishikesh, hereby confirms that he will send me the policy document on March 31st 2021". And I said I would send this voice clip to some of the top officials at Bajaj Allianz Insurance (I name some 5 guys with their designation, email ids etc). All this time, I was angry and shouting at them, but now when I started laughing, he was a bit scared and tried to change what he said. I convey that I got what I wanted, and I now will do the needful. Anyways, he said he would call me tomorrow to update me.

30 mins later, I get a call from a mobile number. It was Mr. Jerome (some senior customer service officer - jerome.vincent@bajajallianz.co.in). I remember seeing his name in the long list of emails that I sent. He said he called me after seeing a lot of emails being sent (I have been sending these mails for almost 6 days now). I had sent a mail to the Insurance Grievance officer that I got from the IRDA website. He politely agrees that this is their mistake and he would investigate tomorrow on this and call me at 7pm. I point out it's either the policy or a refund on April 1st (said I can't wait for 10-15 days).

Mr. Jerome calls me the next day with another dude Mr. Suraj Suryawanshi - Motor Underwriter (suraj.suryawanshi02@bajajallianz.co.in) on the same call. They offer me to issue the policy with the same premium. Since the insurance had expired, they gave me the app for self verification. I get this completed on April 6th 6 pm and at 7.30 pm, I get the payment link. I make the payment at 7.50 pm, mail them the screenshot and other details. And then that's it. These guys are very quick in responding to mails that involve payment. It's been two days (April 8th) and I still have no policy and it still shows two EMI's (refund not issued). I mail them (April 8th 10 am) the screenshot showing the two set of EMI's and the reason for the delay in issuing the policy.

Even after sending them mails, I get no reply from them. I then send a mail to their Chief Grievance officer (My last mail to them created an impact there and thats when Mr Jerome called me at 11pm the same day to take this forward) on 11th April at 10am. At 6pm the same day, I receive a call from Mr. Suraj stating that the policy will be issued tomorrow (12th April) as they had some IT issue (that's a big crap as I have been hearing this for over a month). He also assured me that the refund issue will be sorted tomorrow and will include their accounts guy in a con-call tomorrow.

Waited for 2 days, as always no update from Mr Suraj. I call him up at night and he comes with many reasons like family emergency etc. I have had enough - I ask him to give me the policy document before midnight and don't want any stupid reason. Later at night, finally he mails me the policy document. After sometime, he calls me and said he will look into the refund status and update me on it. Now that the policy document has been issued, now my plight continues with the refund. After few days, he calls me up and confirms that he will initiate the refund process. Since I knew I would not receive an update from him, I call up the finance provider and check on the refund status. Says they haven't received any sort of refund initiation from Bajaj Allianz (so the scam is really happening. They are now holding my money illegally). I convince the payment provider and finally they were able to cancel the payment.

Having been a customer of Bajaj Allianz for many years now for multiple motor insurances, they still didn't bother to resolve the issue. I have notified IRDA of this scam that's happening.

Please stay away from Bajaj Allianz - Don't waste your money and precious time here. I learned it!

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