SBI Motor Insurance Review : A bad experience

I faced a poor service handling experience with an Indian service provider company yet again. This time it was SBI General Insurance Company and it was related to car insurance claim.

 

The least we expect from these public service provider companies is to oblige to what is promised, leave alone giving a pleasing service.

 

As customers, we agree to all T&C and pay hefty premiums to purchase these services, obviously with expectations that when we exercise our right use them, it would be offered to us, without any hassles.

 

But in reality these companies make you go through a real painful process.

 

Wed 22/Jan:

I had to claim insurance for my newly purchased car for a minor accident with a repair cost of about 15k. I initiated the process of insurance claim and completed all the formalities. The process with SBI is that I have to call on a Toll free helpline number and register the case. They promise that within 48 hours a surveyor would be appointed who will visit the workshop.

 

Since, I knew that the repair is minor, I wanted the survey to happen on the same day, as I had taken a day off with all prior appointments with the workshop and insurance company. However the company would not provide me with any information about the Surveyor.  They mentioned that I would be intimated once the Surveyor is assigned and he would visit the servicing center within 48 hours.

 

Nothing of this sort was done!

 

Through my local contacts in the workshop, I managed to contact the person who usually comes in and got the survey arranged.

 

Next day, I contacted the Surveyor again and handed over all the required documents including the bill.

So far so good, SBI suggested the claim settlement process would take about 3 weeks.

Thu 13/Feb:

After waiting patiently for 3 weeks I finally called up the SBI Tollfree helpline to know the status on my claim.

After providing all the details of Claim, Policy, Car and verifying personal records, the CSE [Customer Service Executive] mentioned that the claim status shows – “In progress”. He could not provide any further information and advised a Service Request to be created for this purpose. The same was done and advised that I would be receiving a call within 3 working days with the details.

Tue 18/Feb:

5 days, post the last call and the 3-day assurance of callback provided by SBI, there was no response. I called them back again. Went through the pain of providing all the details. The CSE assured that the claim would be settled within this week and I would get a call-back when the final settlement is done with reasons for delay.

There was neither an update provided on my earlier SR logged nor any reasons provided for the delay.

In the meantime, I called up the surveyor just to ensure that he has submitted all the documents in time, which he confirmed was done in time.

Fri 21/Feb:

It was end of week, 3 days since last call, which was an agreed timeline assured by them, neither claim is settled nor any call from SBI.

Yet again, I called them up. Same questions asked, claim #, Name, vehicle #, date of accident, date of claim registration etc, went through same process of putting the call on hold, going back and forth with claims department.

This time too, the CSE told me that they would call me back with the status, which I refused to accept. Finally, CSE agreed to get back to me on the same day. This was at 2:00 PM.

As assured, I received a call at about 4:00 PM however only to mention that a call-back has been arranged and that someone from Claims department would call me back today itself, with status and exact reasons for the delay. J

No call-back was received! It was so frustrating that they don’t even acknowledge.

Sat 22/Feb:

The very next day, as I was preparing myself for another furious call with SBI, I received a SMS saying the claim has been processed. After having vented out all my frustrations on them, instead of giving any reasons for the delay, they probably thought its best to process my claim.

Fri 28/Feb:

After a week, the cheque was received at home address. SBI has not sent me any calculation sheet and I have no way to know, how SBI arrived at the settlement figure.

I know for sure that most insurance claim settlement cases in India are real PIA. While for motor insurance the insured is alive to fight and earn the amount back. In case of Personal Life insurance cover, not sure what pains, these companies would put the family members through!

Mercure Lavasa: Good Place to Stay

Welcome to Mercure Lavasa

The hotel is a brand of Accor and is worth the bills we paid. It offers over 100 decent rooms for guests and one would not be really disappointed for having stayed here.

 

The hotel does not have its own pool in the premise, however offers complimentary Swimming Pool and Gym facilities at the nearby clubhouse which is about 15-20 mins walk. The complimentary coupon for this is offered on enquiry.

 

Room

 

Some may feel the rooms are small, however I would say they are just about right for a couple stay. It comes with almost all basic facilities like flat screen LCD, mini fridge, iron and board, complimentary tea/coffee makers and 2 bottles of water, and regular toiletries including a hair-dryer.

Did not try a la carte and room service.

No great views from the room. From our balcony, we could only see some construction sites.

Nice, plush room

Check-in and Check-Out

Check-in: 12:00 noon and check-out: 10 AM. The hotel was fine with our request for late c/out (though we checked out in time, the next day).

Dining - Lunch

The hotel has a multi-cuisine restaurant – Celebration, offering good variety spread of buffet of mostly Indian food for lunch. Few delicacies which  were on the menu during our stay included Mutton, Chicken, Vegetable Makhani, Bhindi, Daal Fry, Pulao, Hakka noodles, Roti, Naan, Veg/N.veg soups, variety of salads, pastries, Sevaiya and so on. The food was delicious and would say, aptly priced. The cost per head was Rs. 650/- (plus taxes).

It also had a live cooking counter, which served some of your favorite dishes, right out of the frying pan.

Breakfast:

Our booking included Bed & Breakfast. There were, again, various choices with a blend of English, Maharashtrian and South Indian options. The counter had Khichdi, Idli-Sambhar, Omlette, Toast/butter/Jam, Paav-Bhaji, Cereals, Cakes, Fruits (limited choice though), Yogurt, Juices, Tea and Coffee.

Bar

The hotel has a cozy little place called Zen Bar, with lounge style seating where you can relax with your favorite poison. One can enjoy wine and various other drinks here. (We did not visit the bar J and I read about the happy hours at the bar, after we checked outL)

Negatives

Overall, the hotel was nice and there are not many things to write against this place, however few points that could have been handled in a better way:

a.       Our check-out and bill settlement process was extremely delayed. We had done an online booking/payment through the Hotel’s website and were expecting to pay, just the balance including our lunch. However, the staff mentioned that the payments are not reflecting for some reason – which was hard to believe. Finally, after confirming with Bank/Credit card that the amount has not been debited, we made the full payment and it was sorted. However, we spent a lot of time at the reception counter, with multiple staff members verifying, cross-checking, calling others etc to sort this.

Why and how the payment was not received is still a mystery to us, secondly, how did hotel confirm our reservation online, without receiving the payments? Anyways, not our headache!

 

b.      We had a twin sharing room. In our neighboring room a group of boys arrived late in the night and continued with the party, they had returned from. The whole conversation and noise was audible in our room, which was quite disturbing.

 

c.       Finally, the hotel should have offered some recreation activities like swimming pool in its own premise.

 

Overall, the place is worth a stay with good location, service and food.