Let me share my bad experience with customer care. I am just putting down the mail I have sent to them below The mail I shot on August 23rd and I have received first incomplete reply on Sep 1st. Then I have asked them to give full reply on Sep 3rd. After so much of follow up finally customer care posted again half cooked response on Sep 25th 2009.
I dont know how good the policies are with Tata AIG. But the moment if you have any issues with premium payment or policy issues, I am sure any government company can give better service than Tata AIG. I tried to reach out to them by all means (In person, telephone, e-mail, online e-mail) and everywhere the response is awesome. Probably Tata AIG need to hire some trained professionals in both customer care and in software development.
Also some of the policy provisions , I never heard when I took the policy. Could be my mistake that I could not have read their policy. Unless and otherwise you have some proper financial consultant to explain the policy to you, you are on your risk and so is your money.
Dear Customer care,
Account Number : CXXXXXXXXX
Basic Plan Name : Tata AIG Life - Mahalife
Who am I?
Let me write down a brief history of my relationship with TALIC before coming to the main issue:
In 2006, I was trying to change my address as I changed my house. I came in person to leave the request for change of address, as my Agent has resigned from the company. But address change never happened. Later I come to know that it was rejected due to non matching signature. A verification at the request letter receiving end would have handled the situation better. I had experience similar to dropping my requisition letter on the drop box.
Next two years I could not go to TALIC office in person to make my payment. Itz my own issue. Finally I wanted to go in person to TALIC office in Raheja towers in Chennai to make my pending dues on May 2009.
I have been asked to submit policy re-instate form and to pay Rs.XXXXX/- (ICICI Bank Cheque # XXXXXX) as I have pending dues since last quarter of 2006. Well I made the payment and was happy to re-instate policy and change of address on a single travel. I had no issues till this point. Really handling query was professional and I was happy to re-instate my policy.
I had a notification letter from TALIC towards my July premium and got an SMS notifying that online payment is available with TALIC. I tried thru online payment and had a real shocking experience of notification stating that I have over paid amount on my account. So I called up customer care and the response was awesome. The person dint want to listen to me and insisting that I had excess payment on my account. I left a mail thru Tata AIG website to look into the issue.
The first call from TALIC mumbai office customer care stated that I have excess payment. Then I explained the above history and atleast he was ready to listen to me and promised to take up the matter with appropriate team. Well, he happened to follow up and when he called me back again, he gave me few shocking news. I have to pay still Rs.XXK against my pending premium since third quarter of 2006 and I dont have any pending due for this year and all the confusion was due to a system error. He stated that my payment was adjusted against both April and July due from the payment made on May/June. But it left my old premium due as is. Does not sound strange ? Again I have to explain the history and asked for clarification. Professionally he explained his situation and his inability to help me on the stuff. However he said he will refer to the concerned department on this issue and he did the same too.
Well, the story continued with another customer care person called and gave me the same story. I have to explain him from day one. The discussion dint take both of us anywhere. So I have asked him to provide me month over month interest history for my premium and how the Rs.XXK came (in which ~XK is interest). He promised me to send the details and I am yet to get it (Happened over a week ago). Vanished ? (It does not really matter for now, as I have bigger issues to bother about) He also advised me to take up this matter in person with TALIC office.
I traveled again to TALIC office on Saturday (yesterday 22/08/2009) around 3:30 p.m. (Every time I have to travel nearly 15KM on a city traffic to reach the office) and has been advised to come again on Monday as there are no support personnel available in office. Probably need to spend a day to get the dispute sorted out.
Being a customer need help or advise on the following questions:
1) For the payment made on May/June, how it can be adjusted against April/July 2009 payment when there are previous due pending ? Personally I am from software industry and I never had such an experience with any software I have used or developed.
2) Interest of XK seems a huge amount, when the interest rate per year is 11% and 90 days of defaulting period is assumed to be interest free period. Probably I am bad in mathematics. If you can send me the math used to calculate the interest and rest of the stuff , it will help me.
3) Also why there are conflicting information during policy re-instation vs. the letters on payment sent by Tata AIG vs. the portal vs. customer care.
4) How did third quarter of 2006 came as non-payment period ? When policy was re-instated I was clearly told that since last quarter of 2006, I have pending premium due.
5) If in case, if I have to pre-close my insurance policy, how much loss should I incur or what is the amount of returns I am going to get from TALIC.
I am happy to explain the history or any questions over my contact number of e-mail. But your response on this greatly appreciated.