Bajaj Allianz — Car insurance claim refusal Claim#OC[protected]-00002735 Issue#62728097

Hello Bajaj Allianz,

I appreciate the acknowledgement of my grievance against Claim#OC[protected]-00002735 and related issue# 62728097 raised.

Respecting the Rights to Privacy and dignity of all the parties concerned, I am masking all personal and private information, including but not limited to the names, contact details, addresses etc, here in this post and I am only narrating my ordeal. Likewise I expect Bajaj Allianz also do the same if and when they chose respond to this post on this any other public forums, and not share any personal/private information. Share only the Claim# or Issue#.

-------

I would like to put on record, in writing (sorry, I have the least faith in the verbal communications and commitments in India) as to what this grievance is all about and also take this opportunity to provide Bajaj Allianz as many details as I possibly can, for the benefit of claim process/escalations as required to from this day on.

While I appreciate your quick response from your end to my grievance, the assigned SURVEYOR1 was willing to approve a small partial claim based on what he was, very adamantly, choosing to believe to be true from my repeated narrative of accident and, finally he stopped short of calling me a liar. Apparently, with his great vision, he had already seen and decided what was true or not true before even calling/speaking to me, the insured, and or any other parties. And, that is truly hilarious part of my strory. He DID NOT even bother to call me or question me prior to making his final assessment. So, I took the onus upon myself to repeatedly follow-up with MARUTI INSURANCE REP, got the surveyor contact# and only then that the SURVEYOR1 felt like asking questions about the accident, perhaps only to ensure that he could check that little “Talked to the Insured” check-box on his work/time sheet and continue to milk Bajaj Allianz.

I was expecting a “Surveyor”, as the role is generally defined, would be sufficiently knowledgeable, especially in this case, perhaps a automotive crash/accidents expert and, skilled enough to drill into details, questions all the parties concerned (not just the insured) with his/her expertise in the area, investigates, goes to the site of accident if necessary, insists the insured to come along or ask for more details if required, insists the insured to provide more evidence, witness or an alibi etc. and then, and only then that he/she can be sure of providing an assessment with a greater degree of confidence upon which our “Jiyo befiqar” trust depends heavily. Hence, I now have no faith in this particular assessor that he would provide a best assessment to my trusted insurer, the Bajaj Alliance. It is highly unlikely that I would want to talk to again or settle/unsettle any claim/no-claim with this individual anymore. This individual lacks common decency and courtesy, did not even care about checking if anyone got hurt in the accident, nor did he show any empathy/compassion to the customer concerns and pretty much chose to ignore most valued customer voice with an awkwardly assumed authority of approval sort of figure. Skills and qualifications to execute the job? I guess Bajaj Allianz could seriously look into it. I shall gladly provide much more of my feedback accordingly if I am approached for one by Bajaj Allianz customer experience units. That said I have no grudges against this individual. In fact, in all fairness to the Insured-and-Insurer-trust we operate on, perhaps that trust itself deserves an apology from the SURVEYOR1. As an Insurer I do not need any apology from this individual. Neither I am claiming to be perfect myself nor claiming people are not doing their jobs right – I am also learning know-hows risks-assessments-mitigations business here. As an Insured, I just want to be assured of a transparent, diligent and honest assessment of my claim and shown in writing where and how I am not being truthful.

That said, I would need Bajaj Allianz to assign a different surveyor to this claim before if there is ever any need to escalate my claim/complaint further with Bajaj Allianz and/or IRDA ombudsman, litigation etc. as required by due process. I would rather forego any/entire claim amount than to be labeled as liar and settle for a partial amount. As for me, accepting a partial settlement here is nothing short of accepting SURVEYOR1’s unspoken claim that I am a liar. This is my first interaction with a Bajaj Allianz representative and, I must say, I am quite disappointed with the professionalism shown by so far. I believe, Mr. Surveyor2 is that new surveyor and he is up to the task and would sincerely and diligently executes the same. Customer Care has responded well to my grievance request on Bajaj Allianz website. Nonetheless, I choose to spend sometime and articulate my ordeal and learnings here hoping to learn more from any short-comings in the roles/function we all play to sustain and better the trusted and accountable environment.

Now - because it is only fair to the due process of claims to have trail and track of happenings in the court of law, I hereby state and record, respectfully in writing, the narrative of factual events to help process the claim accurately. Admittedly there was only a little space is the claim form and I could not furnish all the details there, nor could I provide these details even on my Bajaj Allianz customer portal (My evidence that I have provided these details in writing was just a email I had sent to Customer Care).

So, here it goes my ordeal --

On DD-MON-YYYY morning approximately TT:MM AM, as I was driving my CAR-MODEL-YEAR, with my wife and our two kids, within my city Bangalore limits, on ABC_EXPRESSWAY at roughly 65-70 Km/hr, somewhere after passing ROAD2 (we were going from ROAD1 entry for ABC_EXPRESSWAY to ROAD2 exit for ABC_EXPRESSWAY), I heard car making loud and repeated sounds which I thought tire had a puncture, perhaps. As I immediately slowed down and tried to bring the car to the shoulder of the expressway the sounds of the car became more louder and louder and violent towards the end. I could bring the car to halt gradually in about 10 seconds and noticed something fell off the car and it was thrown 15 ft away from the car, on to left most lane of the expressway. When finally stopped the car on the shoulder I looked around and ensured no one in my family is not hurt in anyway. Then I got down to notice what happened to the car. Here are my observations –

1. I went to pick up what was thrown off the car. It turned out, it was a headlight kind of part and I wasn’t sure which side of car it came off. I picked up couple of small broken pieces along with it and came to the car.
2. I noticed most of my left front of car around the wheel looked damaged. Front bumper screw came off and was hanging down but not touching the ground and still holding.
3. I noticed a big hole right above the hanging side of bumper which I could make out due to the fact that headlight was broken and thrown off.
4. I looked at the tyre. It had a long piece of rubber hanging out of it and after a closer look I realized tyre was not just punctured but it got damaged real badly, perhaps due to a bust or blowout. I noticed that hanging long piece along the circumference of the tyre is most of the tire grip half inch think and was of length roughly one third of circumference of the tyre.
5. Then I looked at fender which had black marks on it which I thought due to tire flapped it around violently in those 10 seconds I was trying to bring the car to a gradual stop. I didn’t realize the mudguard was entirely missing entirely at that time. I only noticed fender got damaged around the wheel area.
6. Fortunately I always carried spare wheel (with air pressured tyre. While my family was in bit shock and looking at me with many questions as to what happened, are we stuck questions and wondered what to do next, I dot down to change the wheel myself as I had done once in the past.
7. I changed switched the wheel to spare wheel carefully moved the broken tyre into back of the car.
8. Then I small hook rope that I had in my car to tie the bumper to the car so it wasn’t hanging and touching the wheel.
9. My hands were black and dirty so washed my hands but black things were not going anyway even with paper tissues so I thought of cleaning at a mechanic place once I get there.
10. I got back in the car, drove slowly back on the ABC_EXPRESSWAY, took exit at ROAD2 exit for ABC_EXPRESSWAY and stopped car at a small tyre puncture repair booth right next to PPP PETRO BUNK station at COMPLETE LOCATION ADDRESS OF PPP PETRO BUNK.
11. Tyre puncture person Mr. PUNCTUR_MECHANIC, Ph#[protected], helped with fixing bumper back with a screw. He also helped with fixing the headlight back in it’s place with a steel wire. Then I checked lights and the headlights were working fine but not the indicator and/or parking lights in that side of the car. All other electrical and lights seemed intact and functioning just fine. I left the broken tyre with Mr. PUNCTUR_MECHANIC.
12. The entire episode of tyre bust might have had consumed roughly 60-70 mins and I felt good with the car back on track and functioning like before barring few scars, bends and broken headlight glass. But then I noticed the front license plate was broken as well. I got a new license plate N days later at a shop ADDRESS_OF_LICENSEPLATE_SHOP continued to use the car sparingly before my service regular service visit.
13. Having gone through this episode, I decided to change my tyres to tubeless and have placed order for new set of 4 tubeless tyres and was planning on changing the headlights during my regular maintenance with MSC (Maruti Service Center) as don’t drive in the night anyways and was planning on using my bike instead.
14. Unfortunately, I had never thought damages like these (unlike fire, theft etc) would qualify for claim until I took the car to my service center MSC, on DD-MON-YYYY, where I was suggested to make insurance claim by my Maruti Insurance agents.
15. There was an old (one month old due to bruising with a pillar at parking lot at my residence) scratch on back-left door panel which I had chosen get it fixed myself. Because it was a cosmetic I chose to delay it and never had any clue that I could claim such things from insurance. Maruti Insurance rep at MSC, Mr. MARUTI INSURANCE REP, advised to claim the old one as well as it was recent enough to be claimed in a single claim. Was I ill advised? Honestly, I do not know. Perhaps Bajaj Allianz knows and guide the Insured better than the MARUTI INSURANCE REP and needs me to separate claims.
16. On the day I took the car to MSC, DD-MON-YYYY was Saturday, I was advised to bring the car back, along with the damaged tyre as evidence, on following Monday, DD-MON-YYYY. On the same day I went back to the mechanic Mr. PUNCTUR_MECHANIC and picked up broken tyre on the same day.
17. I went back to MSC on DD-MON-YYYY filled-up the claim application as guided by Mr. MARUTI INSURANCE REP and signed claim application, handed over my original DL and RC etc, to process the claim. I was told to wait for couple of days to hear back after survey was done.
18. On DD-MON-YYYY, because I did not hear back from Mr. MARUTI INSURANCE REP /Bajaj Allianz, I called up Mr. MARUTI INSURANCE REP to check the claim status. After couple of follow-ups with Mr. MARUTI INSURANCE REP, late in the day I was told survey was done and only the left fender was approved by the surveyor, Mr. SURVEYOR1.
19. Surveyor having already known of everything that happened at the accident and having already made his decision was not convinced how the headlight could come off with tyre burst was adamantly denying my narrative hence this written factual write-up to help process the claim accurately.
20. While I am not an automobile/insurance expert to explain how and why certain things happen and don’t happen in an accident, I trust in stating facts and hope the process and people work sincerely to address consumers concerns and/or claims, instead of labeling customers as liars outright, just because a handful of insured customers chose to go that way. I expect the surveyor to know or at least make best guesses of the anatomy of any type of accident and then best assessment possible to protect the trust Insurer and Insured depend and thrive on. Surveyors understanding is – I, sitting in the car and trying to bring the family and the car to safely should be able to see with God Shiva’s third eye and I better know what was going on outside the car in those panic 10-15 seconds. I should be able capable enough to explain how can a tyre damage cause headlight thrown off the car. I am sorry but, I am no God, nor an auto accidents expert to say the least. Just an novice insured car owner with NN yrs of driving experience with no record of accidents, barring a couple of parking tickets.
21. I have advised the Surveyor to rather reject entire claim as he chose to believe I was a liar, and was quite adamant about it.


Having narrated the incident and follow-ups on my claim thus far, now I am hoping to get my car gets ready soon and Bajaj Allianz helps me along the way, rather than calling the customers liars going by mere guesses/suspicions/assumptions. As of today, DD-MON-YYYY, even after my repeated follow-ups through Mr. MARUTI INSURANCE REP during last couple of days, I heard absolutely NOTHING from the SURVEYOR1 on what his assessment was in writing. I was hoping to tag his assessment to my write-up here but, I am being denied even that opportunity.

Having said all that, I also intend to take my claim through escalations channels until I get satisfactory resolution to my claim. I hope to see that there is never going to be such a necessity as I am still hopeful in the due process and Bajaj Allianz.

I expect a written, and only written response/guidance/follow-up, to this request from here on from Bajaj Allianz.


Regards –
INSURED

[protected]