Struggled with cashless repair for my Superb: Skoda helps resolve issue

I decided to write to Skoda India and remind them of their promise of a cashless repair facility across pan India regions with this United India insurance cover.

BHPian sgautam31 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hello BHPians,

Sharing my experience with Skoda service or rather say experience claiming the insurance for an accident damage.

The car:

I own a Skoda Superb 2022, purchased it in July 2022 after a lot of research and confusion between the german trio and Superb. But, after a lot of deliberation and comparing pros and cons, we decided to bring home the Superb, the biggest reason behind it was the practicality over the 3-series, C-class (other options in consideration). It provides us a humongous boot space to hold all that we can carry, which would not have been possible with any other car in this segment, and also a good responsive engine with plenty of leg space in rear seats.

Will share my ownership experience separately.

Accident:

But as we all know, accidents can happen and it happened with us as well, when I accidentally hit the front bumper against a small barricade built in a petrol station to protect the air pressure machine in Nagpur, while coming from Himachal (home) to Hyderabad (second home). Mistakes happen and this mistake was a costly one, as it damaged the front bumper, along with the left side fog lamp, there were almost 5 small to large parts which required complete replacement.

My experience with service centers in Hyderabad:

The very next day after reaching Hyderabad, I took an appointment at the service center and took the car to the dealership at Gachibowli for damage assessment. The service advisor showed little to no interest in getting my car serviced, I had to constantly follow up for part availability, when part was available he informed that they don’t have tie up with “United India Insurance Company” and would not be doing a cashless service, I will have to pay and get the insurance reimbursement by myself. I was not happy with this, the service advisor did not inform me about this for almost 2 weeks and when I asked them as per Skoda website, this company is one of the partner insurance companies and I should get the cashless facility, he became unresponsive.

I followed up with another dealer (they never responded back to my service request) and and a third one as well. I got the appointment with the third dealer immediately, they assessed the damage and advised that they will check on the insurance part as they also don’t have collaboration with “United India”. Later they also advised that the repair cost needs to be paid by me and claim the insurance, this wasn’t a very pleasant experience for me owning a Skoda.

Skoda India’s Intervention through Twitter:

Post these experiences, I decided to write to Skoda India and remind them of their promise of a cashless repair facility across pan India regions with this United India insurance cover, as it was also purchased from them directly. I took to Twitter and to my surprise I received a call within 2 days from my tweet, they asked me where I would like to get my car repaired, and they will follow up with the service center. Since, third dealer I interacted was most responsive and I had a good general service experience with them, I asked Skoda India to follow up with them.

Skoda dealer team & cashless service:

Post Skoda intervention and escalation, the service center’s GM took this case in his own hands and worked with the insurance company to get the repair as cashless, though I really wish that they could have proactively tried to find the solution before, as this led to a lot of time wastage and an escalation. But in the end I was able to get the car repaired.

Conclusion:

In general, the experience could have been better as I had to follow up with multiple parties, including the insurance company. This could have been managed by the service center themselves rather than I had to reach out to Skoda India.

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