Complainant details:
Name : Saurabh Kumar
Adddress : C-64 , Sector- 33 , Noida
District: Gautam Buddha Nagar
State : Uttar Pradesh
Zip : 201301
Insurer details:
Business : The Oriental Insurance Company limited
Individual : Divisonal Manager
Address : C- 30 , Sector- 2 ,
City : Noida ,Gautam Budhh Nagar
State : U.P.
Zip : 201301
Phone : (0120) 2554659 , 2545500
Complaint details:
Claim No. 272500/31/2009/000176
under Policy No. 272500/31/2008/5129
Vehicle No. UP 16 R-0402
Myself , Saurabh Kumar as a consumer had subscribed to the policy no. 272500/31/2008/5129 of Oriental Insurance and filed a claim no 272500/31/2009/000176 under this policy by submitting the complete set of documents, FIR of stolen vehicle no UP-16-R-0402 and its keys. All the documents to the company(Oriental Insurance) had been furnished as and when demanded and some of them had been submitted even twice (NCRB Report Dated 22/Sep/2008 and 21/Jan/2009) as and when asked by them. The FIR , both the original keys of the vehicle , FIR duly accepted by the hon”ble court , Letter to RTO (about keeping the file of stolen vehicle in safe custody) and all other required and important documents had been submitted to the Company over the span of June-November 2008. Whenever I called the Sector-2,Noida office , i either got no response or a response that the case has not been processed yet , or the concerned person Vijay was on leave ; with no further information on the progress of the case.
After all the documents had been submitted , Oriental Insurance sent me a letter dated 12-March-2009 that the “reasons given by me for late intimation to the company about theft of the vehicle are not found convincing and they are unable to process further”. The date of theft of the vehicle was 17-06-08 while the intimation to the company was given on 23-06-08. The reason given for late intimation to Oriental Insuarnce Company about theft of the above vehicle were well explained in the application submitted by me and is factual. I am giving the details of incidents in order of chronology.
17-06-08 = Date of Accident/Theft
17-06-08 = Intimation given to the Police (submitted a copy to oriental for this)
18-06-08 = Intimation given over phone to Sunil Mishra,Development Officer, The Oriental Insurance Company Limited, R: 241199 M: 9818044201. I was asked to submit a written application regarding the Accident with a copy of FIR.
19-06-08 = The FIR was written by the Sec-24 Police and was handed over to me in the evening (a copy Submitted to the Oriental Insurance on 23-06-08 with the application)
21-06-08 = Saturday , Oriental office closed
22-06-08 = Sunday , Oriental office closed
23-06-08 = The written application was Submitted on Monday morning with a copy of RC , Insurance paper , FIR copy and filled up Motor Claim Form.
After I repeated my plea that i can do nothing to convince them and the reason for late intimation is already explained , they send me a letter dated 31-March-09 that “We regret to note that we have not received the desired compliance till date. We are , therefore , compelled to close your file as NO CLAIM.”
They have stopped the processing of my claim for no apparent reason and they don’t entertain any phone call and emails. The Oriental Insurance has conducted Unfair Trade Practice under Section 2 (1) (r) of the Consumer Protection Act by closing the case without any reason to the consumer. There is severe deficiency in their services as they closed the claim as “No claim” whereas there was pending claim to be reimbursed by them. After 8-9 months of filing the claim , they reject the claim because of delay in informing about the theft to Oriental Insurance.
After The Oriental Insurance Co. had taken the predetermined action to close the claim without any valid reason and irrespective of my compliance , I approached to their Customer Support with the help of Consumer Online Resource & Empowerment Centre (CORE). On 22-Apr-2009 , I got the following response from NEERU (csd@orientalinsurance.co.in)
Dated : 4/22/2009
Deptt.: Customer Service
Ref. No. CSD/ NDR-II / 73 / 2009
Sh. Saurabh Kumar
Dear Sir/Sirs/Madam,
Re: Claim no. 272500/31/2009/000176
We are in reciept of your letter Ref. No Dated : 4/19/2009 on the above subject. The matter is being taken up with our concerned office(s). They are also being asked to expedite the matter and inform you the position directly, to avoid delay. For future correspondence, please quote our Reference number.
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,
Chief Manager
After that, irrespective of my numerous reminders and emails the customer support never reverted back to me with any response. After losing all hopes I decided to take legal action against Oriental Insurance. A legal notice dated 28-7-2009 was sent to the Opposite Party(The Managing Director , Oriental Insurance Company Ltd.) , giving them time limit to settle my grievance. The notice was sent with the help of Arun Saxena, President of Internation Consumer Rights Protection Council” (ICRPC) giving Oriental Insurance the time of 7days to settle the claims.Before going to any court, consumer forum or arbitrator I want IRDA to take severe action against Oriental Insurance through authorities governing them seeking full claims with higher compensation against losses, inconvenience, mental agony, delaying the processing of claim and inflicting mental harassment by using unfair practices.
I have been spending all my time and money in
i) Hiring lawyer and running to the court for getting the FIR duly accepted by the hon”ble court
ii) Taking Leaves from my work and running to the NCRB office for the report and Oriental office for the processing and progress of my claim
iii) Sending the bank account statements, statements required from witnesses and all other documents demanded by insurance agent(Rajeev Bhusan , Ph: 01127562764) .
The Consumer Commission has clearly stated that A policy holder who had filed a police case immediately after the incident cannot be denied claim. You can visit the link http://www.livemint.com/2009/02/18163450/Delay-in-informing-insurance-f.html
The excerpt says : Delay in informing an insurance company in a vehicle theft case cannot be a ground to deny claim to a policy holder who had filed a police case immediately after the incident, the Delhi Consumer Commission has held. “It is the police which is the statutory authority to investigate into the criminal offence as provided by the CrPC. Delayed information to the company cannot form the basis for rejection of the claim against theft,” the Commission headed by President Justice J D Kapoor said
I look forward to IRDA for settling my claims with appropriate compensation and rewards.
Thanking you,
Saurabh Kumar