All was going great on a Thursday morning when our car was suddenly hit by a BUS! Even the deaf brother-in-law of my watchman’s friend knows that I love my car way too much so the sight of a totally damaged rear door of the car took some time for me to come to terms with.
I gave my office a miss and stopped at the nearest Maruti showroom. (Oh! Did I forget to mention I have a Swift DIESEL?) I am willfully not mentioning the name of the service station for I will write another review on them shortly. This being the first time I was claiming under insurance policy, I was very scared. Scared because I was carrying in my head the following thoughts:
Insurance? Of forget it…one gets only 1/100th of the claim amount…all are alike!
There would be hell lot of documentation and the surveyor will take 10 days to come to the site and inspect the car and will disallow at least 50% of the damage!
I will have to pay from my pocket and then get reimbursement from the insurance company!
Where can one suddenly arrange for a huge amount of money (since the entire door had to be replaced), given that it’s the month of February and all the money is going to be blocked for tax planning!!
Oh and hello! How will we go to office? A cab daily would cost at least 400 bucks ONE WAY!
All the reasons above were enough for me to start believing in GOD and praying (read buttering) for a speedy recovery of my Dinky! I found service station guy extremely polite and I told myself – all are like this…he will use the magical word after every positive sentence.
The magical word being ‘BUT’! he told that since my insurance is with Future generali, I should call them up and register a claim (after filing up a form at the service station). I prepared myself for a long ‘you are in que’ situation and called them…only to experience pure delight! My call was over in less than 2 minutes and here I was with my claim number. Now what next?
I was informed that the surveyor would arrive within 24 hrs and come back with a ‘fair assessment’ to take things further. My heart sank at the ‘within 24 hour’ phrase and I called up the helpline again, only to request that the matter be taken at the earliest. The staff heard me patiently and assured a quick turnaround. I left the service station by giving a helpless look at my damaged car…
I barely reached office when I get a call from the surveyor telling me that he is from Future generali and has accepted a part of my claim (see! I was right! They will never accept the full claim). The service station informed me that work will begin immediately (as surveyor has clicked the pictures and made an assessment). Without arguing much with the surveyor I started counting days.
On Friday evening (same week), I am told – "Sir you can pick your car tomorrow" - - And I go whaaat???
I went to the service station and good news awaited me. I was supposed to pay just a small part of the total claim because the rest is directly picked up by Future generali under their ‘cashless’ arrangement with this showroom!
I couldn’t believe the quick and easy processing and drove out a very satisfied customer. Some may say that it’s a new company hence the services are good. I won’t discount this fact, but I see them expanding cautiously for they don’t want to be everything to everyone, and that’s a good enough sign!
Now, please remember these points in choosing the right insurance company:
look for an insurance company which has ‘cashless’ arrangements with service stations
The above feature comes free of cost in motor insurance policy.
Amongst other factors, the amount of claim that you will have to bear is dependant on the nature of damage (if it is fiber, you have to bear 50% necessarily), age of the car (to apply depreciation for arriving at the correct value of the damage).
You will get a marginal discount (in the amount you need to bear in case of the claim) if the damaged part has a scrap value…do ask for it from your service station.
Since the motor insurance rates are more or less same (thanks to fierce competition among the insurance companies), do shop around before you renew/buy this insurance.
After you put in a claim under your insurance policy, it is inevitable that next year your premium will increase marginally.
Don’t try to outsmart your existing insurance company by changing it, since the claim information is easily accessible to all the insurance companies and your premium will be in the same region no matter which insurance company you opt for. If you are wondering why I have given only 4 stars to the claim settlement, it is only because some part of my claim was rejected.
There is an old saying that all insurance companies are good unless there is a claim. Future Generali, in this case was an exception by all means, leaving me thoroughly impressed. A special word of appreciation for Mr. Chetan and Mr. Raju for their call-backs. For once, I experienced customer delight
Please rate and leave comments on my reviewPeace and equanimity to all and please drive safely...