the process of making an insurance claim resulting from my accident

For information of interested readers I would like to give a progress report on my insurance claim as a result of the accident I had. My Tata Cab was fully insured (comprehensive)

On the night of the accident I had asked my staff in Minneriya to contact Ceylinco VIP my insurer to come and look at the damage of my vehicle that had by now been transferred to the Minneriya Police Station. A rep had come and taken the requisite photos etc. and gone away.

Once I was released from hospital I contacted my agent informing him about the accident and the need for the claim, and upon investigation he said that there was no record of it!! SO there started 3 days of stalling on their part saying that they could find no record of the event.

You can understand my disgust on this and told them to look into their records as there was definitely a person who came from Hingurakgoda and took down the necessary details.

I had then to resort to contacting the Managing Director of the Insurance Company, known to my sister to tell him about this and only after he intervened and got one of his staff to pursue this did they discover what had happened due to some inability to match the incident with my policy as there was some human error in matching of numbers!!

Once that was investigated and I made my request by email about the facts of the accident, I was emailed an offer letter condemning the vehicle with a once off payment of Rs 800K in full settlement of all claims, on condition I submit some paperwork to them along with the damaged vehicle to their yard.

I then had the unenviable task of arranging for the vehicle to be transported from Minneriya to their yard in Sidduwa. That became a problem as I had to find a vehicle with a hoist to load and unload the vehicle as there were no hoists at the yard that contains all these condemned vehicles. Surely one would have thought that the least they would have is a hoist to be able to unload these vehicle that are constantly being brought to this location.

Today Sunday I was able to get my staff member in Minneriya to arrange for the vehicle and load the truck on to that for transport tomorrow to the yard. The total transport cost that I have to bear is Rs25,000 to get it taken there before I am able to make my claim from the insurer. I was also told by the police that I have to make the payment for the transport of the damaged vehicle from the crash site to the police station, a matter of about 2km for which I have to pay Rs6,000. I am sure there is a small case of overcharging there, but that is out of my control as they probably have an understanding with a local person for such events and have to pay whatever charges they present you.

I have to send my letter of acceptance of the offer from insurance along with the vehicle ownership documents to the insurance company tomorrow in order to get the claim settled.

It goes to show that there is a lot of work involved even to sort out an insurance claim, even though the ads from the insurers make it all sound so easy easy. I really dont think there is much difference between the insurance companies, it is just a hassle they get you to go through. I might also note that this is the first claim i have made on my cover since I purchased the vehicle a little over 6 years ago. The problem is when I am immobile, I have to take care of all this remotely, depending on many people to carry out my instructions, hoping everything is taken care of as it should.