After paying the amount for a policy, there was no option to avail the low mileage offer as promised.
BHPian proton recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Any forum members notice that Policy bazaar is giving lots of problems?
Whenever I have a dispute with the insurance company, it is not helping out.
I decided to go for the lowest bidder for zero dep, bumper to bumper policy for my Ecosport, since the different offers were too complicated to compare on other basis, and since the car has not run for the last six months, I decided to take up the low mileage offer of one company.
After paying the amount, there was no option to avail the offer as promised. I called policy bazaar and cancelled the policy.
Since a month, Policybazaar has not forwarded me their email escalation to the insurer as promised.
Any advice how to proceed? If it was a brick and mortar office, I would go and shout and make a scene. It seems to be the only recourse for the Indian consumer. What to do with online portals?
Also Policybazaar was no help in dealing with another insurer who contacted me telling me my Scala policy was cancelled after 10 months of issuing the policy. It seems the no claims statement I made was false.
I forwarded the previous policy renewal offer where the other company had quoted, and offered me their NCB, based on not claiming.
After two weeks, company 2 offered to reinstate the policy on payment of the full amount, without NCB.
Unbelievable! The onus is on company 2 to check the NCB status with company 1 within 24 days of payment. If they keep the payment, then it means they have accepted the information.
This is all in the official insurance rules and regulations.
Policybazaar asked me to deal directly with insurer.
What’s the point on having an insurance portal? We can deal with insurers directly. They should act like Amazon, which holds the payment in escrow, until both sides are satisfied, and then enforce the following of all the terms and conditions of the transaction.
Again, any other members have had problems with policybazaar? Please let us all know, so we can avoid using it. It seems to be redundant, seeing comparable prices are available on ‘Net.
Here’s what BHPian aargee had to say on the matter:
The biggest problem with Policybazaar is, once the mobile number is shared, the tele marketing menace starts even after taking the policy & continues every year for renewal!! Even True caller helps only to a certain extent
I’ve completely refrained using any insurance aggregator for 2 reasons:
1. Have to be extremely careful enough knowing which riders we opt in & out + vigilant enough with the terms & conditions
2. There’s no real significant cost saving (hardly some 2-3K for cars) & when it comes to the hour of need, it becomes an ultra pain
But again, I don’t blame the aggregators or insurance companies either because, they exist to make business & it is up to our wisdom to choose what we need based on our usage.
@Proton – In your situation the culprit is Policybazaar & like you exactly said, nothing much can be done other than writing in social media & in a population of 1.3+ billion, ordeals of even 1.3 Lakh customers don’t matter; really sorry to hear your plight. Best thing is to keep moving & take a wise decision next year.
Here’s what BHPian SoumenD had to say on the matter:
Oh they are a pain. There was a mistake in my wife’s term insurance policy data we entered. We had just made the payment and realized the mistake. Man, it took 5 months for them to cancel and refund the amount, mind you the processing had not even started with Insurer. We had actually left it but they kept calling asking us to do a new policy while the refund is being processed. That gave us leverage and we said first process the refund and then we will do it.
And not to mention the barrage of tele-marketing calls which follows once you have entered your phone number. Absolute nightmare, more-so if you use an iphone where true-caller doesn’t work the way it should
For car insurance I simply go with the dealer as thats the most hassle-free experience possible. Ideally any insurance should work just fine if concerned parts are covered but we know how ideally things work in India. I have no patience in arguing/engaging with the dealers on insurance issues and hence those 2-3k extra seems a small price for peace of mind.
Here’s what BHPian ruzbehxyz had to say on the matter:
Simple solution.
Use Policy bazaar only for comparing the prices and then go to the individual website and buy the policy online. The price would be more or less same.
The downside of this is that your cell phone number and email is available with Policy bazaar and they keep calling. This will happen for sometime and then will eventually stop once they are satisfied that you won’t buy the policy from them. In fact if they find out that you have already renewed your policy, they will not call you.
It is advised to purchase the policy from your car dealer ASC where you regularly take your car for service. This will help in claims especially when you have Zero dep. policies.
On the other hand if you go through an Agent, you can always bargain more and sometimes get a better deal than online websites like Policy bazaar. Besides the Agent will be like a middle man who can help you negotiate with the Insurance company in case of any claim issues.
Overall if you have a new car and plan to keep it for long, it’s always better to renew the insurance from your ASC.
Keyword: My harrowing experience dealing with Policybazaar when buying insurance