DO NOT BUY STUDENT MEDICAL INSURANCE FROM LOMBARD!. Review on ICICI Lombard General Insurance

I generally don't write anything negative about ICICI since I love their customer support and services. But I think there's something different about the word "Lombard" that makes ICICI Lombard a rather unsatisfactory and disappointing insurance company.

When buying the insurance, I had to get the university waiver form signed. If you want to do this, do NOT got reply to their email department, do not phone them, and do not consider their live chat option as all these options will only result in wastage of time and money. Go to a sales representative in person instead who might be willing to help (and why wouldn't they, especially when they receive commissions on sales?) I had to go to two separate offices in two cities to finally get a customer care representative to sign my waiver form upon buying the policy.

I always thought their email service was good and all, but their claim services and customer care in the end proved to be the worst of them all. I returned early, and as per their policy, was eligible on a partial refund on my policy. They made it sound all good at first that they would refund the amount and all within a few days. And then suddenly (well not suddenly, but after about 10 days or so of no intimation), I receive an email from them that I have a claim on my policy. I was shocked.

After replying to them a million times and explaining that I had never personally registered a claim, they are saying that I filed a claim. They haven't even replied to the last three of my mails; I think they are done. They only know how to prove their customers wrong, I guess. I even contacted the laboratory that they say they paid the amount to, and the laboratory told me they had never even heard from the insurance company. Of course, why would the lab hear from them when I paid all the bills myself in the end, which I was supposed to because the bill was less than $100. I had supplied the lab my insurance info in case the bill might have went over $100 because they were not sure of the bills at that moment. ICICI Lombard's deductible starts from $100, so it's obvious they are not liable to pay anything because my total bill was less than $35 in the end!! But I am SHOCKED to say that they would lie about such a thing and tell me they have paid the amount when I, the customer, and the party concerned, the laboratory, are saying that we never received any payment or correspondence from the insurance company (neither I nor the lab ever heard anything from either ICICI Lombard or United Health Care, which is ICICI Lombard's insurance partner in the US in relation to any payments or whatsoever). And they are constantly telling me I filed a claim. Am I stupid that I will file a claim for a bill less than the deductible? And is their claim department stupid that they are asking me more info to EXPEDITE the claim when the customer care says the amount is APPROVED for a claim that was NEVER filed directly by me? I certainly think the stupidity is too much for me to explain here. Moreover, the point is they are lying because they are not liable to pay anything below or equal to $100 and want to avoid refunding me the amount. They just want to earn profits from selling policies.

As already told above, another one of their department mailed me asking me some info so that they could expedite the claim. I mean what??? The customer care department tells me the claim (which I never registered on my own) is approved, and the claims department is asking me for info to expedite a claim of less than $100. Their company is messed up, I tell you. I'd stay away from them. I can only imagine what my experience might have been like with their claims and/or customer care department(s) if my medical bills were, say, $100, 000. Of course, now I know to stay away from them for buying future policies. I have happily purchased and recommended all of my friends to purchase policies from other insurance companies, and we will never again buy or renew our policies with ICICI Lombard, and this applies to not just their student medical but all their policies. Yes, that means they just lost themselves the several lakhs, so to speak, that they could have earned from selling me and my friend future policies and their respective renewals.

Another word of caution: stay away from their health insurance plans as well; the marketing people will tell you all kinds of lies to sell you the policy and then later, you will have to go through a chaos to get the amount refunded within 10 days of buying the policy when you find that all those things that the sales person said were untrue. This happened with a close relative of mine. But well, at least they got their refund. In my case, as explained above, the insurance company concocted its own stories about claims to avoid paying me the partial refund on my policy.

P.S.: Also seeing the market competition, their policies are exorbitantly priced. I paid more than Rs. 30, 000 for this stupid medical policy. STAY AWAY FROM ICICI LOMBARD, and stay safe!

The GOOD:

1. Live Chat option (even though it might only be helpful to sell you a policy),

2. Customer Care Email first response after the automated system response,

3. Gold, Silver, Plus options (I had the $250, 000 coverage plan with plus benefits)

4. Coverage for pre-existing conditions in case of emergency situations (but who knows if they will actually pay out in the end?)

The BAD:

1. No system in place to actually benefit students for getting university waiver forms filled and signed

2. Certain staff members are just plain unhelpful.

3. Their website system has conflicting information regarding dates of coverage at times when you enter your policy number and want to access the document online,

4. No online option to customize insurance options as per university recommendations,

5. No solid material insurance card is given for you to carry around. You have to rely on a mere plain piece of printed paper,

6. Most staff members are impersonal while some of them, besides being impersonal, would just assume that any email that reaches them is sent by a male, and

7. They would fill your inbox with promotional mailers about other policies or ask you to recommend their policies to others. Don't worry, they include an option to unsubscribe, but guess what? When you send the unsubscribe email, you get a failure notice from your email client !!

The UGLY:

1. After the automated and the first response, you can forget to receive any or a decent response from their customer care and/or claims team,

2. Claims department and customer care departments have TOTALLY DIFFERENT and CONTRADICTORY information,

3. They would make up stories about false claims and payments in the end to avoid issuing you partial refunds if you return early, which they are supposed to issue according to their policy in case of no claims,

4. Prices on premiums are exorbitant, and

5. Deductible is way too high (but it doesn't really matter because honestly, I think they'll just come up with another false story to avoid paying out anything in the end, regardless of what your bill amount may be.)

6. Grievance redressal forms fail to submit and do not work with any browser, no matter how hard you try. (I tried getting in touch with Mr. Eswaranatarajan, Head of Operations, through both Internet Explorer and Firefox, but the form never got submitted.)