At Oriental, it is always ‘customer first’. We strictly follow the motto of being ‘Customer friendly- as an Oriental tradition’. However, an organisaion issuing 82 lakh policies and settling nearly 6 lakhs claims in a year cannot avoid facing grievances from its customers. During 2003-04, the Document issuance ratio of our company stood at 98.4% and the Non-Suit Claim settlement ratio was at 80.02%. A commendable achievement indeed!

To take care of those customers, aggrieved by unjust or delayed decisions of our operating offices, our Company has a well laid down Grievance Procedure in place. All our Branches and Divisions are instructed to handle grievances with great sympathy. The operating offices are required to re-look at their own decisions at the request of the customers. If a customer is aggrieved by the decisions or delay, he can approach the next higher office, which is the controlling Regional Office. For a list of our Regional Offices with their addresses please visit www.orientalinsurance.nic.in. In case the customer feels aggrieved even after such a review, a final internal review will lie with Head Office. Complaints to Head Office may be sent by mail to our Customer Service Department or by e-mail to csd@orientalinsurance.co.in.

At the BO/ DO level, the officer in-charge is required to attend to customer grievances within a week of receipt of the grievances. Most of the grievances are sought to be redressed even when the matter is raised orally in person or over phone with the Officer In-charge of the BO/DO. In some cases, an immediate reply may not be possible, as our office might be awaiting a report from an external agency. While expeditious action is required on follow-up in those cases, our operating office are would provide the customer with an interim reply.

When the grievances are reported to Regional Office/ Head Office, an acknowledgement for receipt of the grievance intimation is issued immediately on receipt of the grievance/ complaint intimation. Necessary details are collected from the DO/BO within a fortnight. The RO/HO processes the information collected independently and addresses the customer’s grievance within a total period of one month from the date of reporting the grievance at RO/HO. Our Grievance handling machinery takes an independent and impartial look at the circumstances and conveys its decisions promptly to the aggrieved customers. At the request of customers, a personal hearing can also be arranged. There have been innumerable circumstances when our grievance handling machinery has won the appreciation of the customers for their promptness and logical replies.

However, the road does not end for a customer with our internal grievance machinery alone. Customers who are not convinced by the internal grievance handling of the Company have recourse to Insurance Ombudsman working under the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India. A formal complaint can be lodged with the Insurance Ombudsman having jurisdiction over the case.

Any individual policyholder (including a sole proprietor but not partnerships or companies) or his legal heir can approach the Insurance Ombudsman for complaints in respect of policies on personal lines of business. Personal lines of business include coverage under Personal Accident policies, Mediclaim, insurance of property of the individual such as motor vehicles, household articles etc. There is no fee or charge required to be paid and there is no requirement to approach the Ombudsman through a lawyer. However, before approaching Ombudsman, a representation should be made to the insurance Company. If no reply is received within one month or the reply is not satisfactory, the Ombudsman can be approached. The maximum limit for the amount under dispute for which the Ombudsman can entertain is Rs.20 lakhs and Complaints can be made to Ombudsman within one year of the rejection by insurer of the representation of the complainant or the insurer’s final reply to the Complainant’s representation.

For a list of offices of the Insurance Ombudsman and details of their operations, please visit www.irdaindia.org.

All customers, including those whose cases do not fall under the purview of the Ombudsman can approach the District/ State and National Consumer Dispute Redressal Forums. For further details kindly visit http://ncdrc.nic.in. Besides all these, insurance policies and claims thereunder fall under the jurisdiction of Civil Courts of appropriate jurisdiction.