Consumer Redressal

From: J Das Mahapatra To: Reliance Life Insurance Last year, on receipt of repeated phone calls from Reliance Life Insurance Company Limited (RLI) I ultimately agreed to make a policy and the representative of RLI who came to my residence for collection of the cheque assured me that the policy would be for five years with annual premium of Rs. 30,000/-. On receipt of the policy I saw that the policy had been made for ten years instead of five years. This year also I have received frequent phone calls from RLI during April-May 2013 offering a scheme for conversion of my existing ten years policy (which was made last year) into a five years policy. The representative of RLI who came to my residence for explaining the scheme stated the following: (i) My existing ten years policy with annual premium of Rs 30,000/- would be converted into a new five years policy with annual premium of Rs 30,000/- and the existing policy will be cancelled. (ii) The premium of Rs. 30,000/- paid by me for the existing policy would be adjusted against the total premium of Rs. 1,50,000/- (30,000/- x 5) payable for the new policy. (iii) Against the balance amount of 1,20,000/- (Rs. 1,50,000/- minus Rs. 30,000/- already paid for existing policy), I will have to pay Rs 1,00,000/- only, if I pay the amount (Rs 1,00,000/-) in two installments of Rs 50,000/- each. Reliance is offering a rebate of Rs 20,000/- for advance payment of annual premiums. Of these two installments, one (Rs 50,000/-) is to be paid immediately and the second installment of Rs 50,000/- is to be paid within one year. (iv) I will get the benefit of the policy (refund of the principal amount of Rs 1,50,000/- plus 13.5 % interest) immediately after completion of five years. Then, he requested me to handover a xerox copy of the earlier policy as the same would be converted into a new five years policy. I simply relied upon what had been said by him because I was sure that the official representative of a reputed company like Reliance Life Insurance can not distort the fact (scheme details) and also can not cheat an existing customer of RLI. Accordingly, I agreed to convert my existing ten years’ policy into five years’ policy with annual premium of Rs 30,000/- and handed over a xerox copy of earlier policy to him. Although I wanted to fill in the application form with my own handwriting, he did not allow me to do so and started filling the form in front of me seeing the xerox copy of earlier policy and filled in item 1, 3 and 4 of the form. Then he told that the other items would be filled in by the office according to the scheme. As in earlier occasion I was cheated in respect of the premium paying term (policy was made for 10 years instead of 5 years), I asked him to write the policy period in front of me. Accordingly, he wrote ‘5’ in both the columns specified for Policy Term (Yrs) and Premium Paying Term (Yrs). Surprisingly, I received a new policy for ten years with the annual premium of Rs 50,000/- on 17 June 2013 instead of conversion of my existing policy into a five years policy with annual premium of Rs 30,000/-. In the copy of the application attached to the policy, the figures ‘5’ in both the columns specified for Policy Term (Yrs) and Premium Paying Term (Yrs) were pen through and 10 was written in place of 5. Further, fictitious/forged blood reports on Hematology, Glycocylated Haemoglobin and Immunology indicating the date of collection of blood as 08.06.2013 were attached to the policy even though none of RLI or its authorized diagnostic centre collected any blood from my body. On receipt of the policy, when I contacted the customer service of RLI, they simply advised me to return the policy for cancellation if I do not agree to the terms and conditions. They simply remained silent in respect of my specific complaints as to how their representative had cheated a Senior Citizen like me. My subsequent letters dated 20.06.2013, 24.06.2013, 26.06.2013, 28.06.2013 and 06.07.2013 could not elicit any reply from RLI. I returned the policy within free-look period and RLI refunded Rs 47425.33 on 08 July 2013 and an amount of Rs 2574.67 has been deducted though I am not liable to pay any amount for cancellation of the policy because the same was made by cheating me. Now I want refund of the balance amount of Rs 2574.67. But, my repeated letters written to RLI could not elicit any reply from them. They have not refunded the balance amount of Rs 2574.67 to me as yet. This is how RLI has cheated a senior citizen like me. I want refund of balance amount of Rs 2574.67 immediately. Yours faithfully, J. Das Mahapatra