How NOT to Serve

Crossed over to the other side….as a ‘Senior’. Well, that’s not supposed to be a ‘Slow Down Order’ but rather, where one can explore differently. That led me to do a few things. This note is to share an experience with a well established company.

Took off with a school friend, on a trip to Kashmir, Ladakh and Himachal in my 4x4 for about 18 days. One that covered around 3500km. So many splendid moments. Plenty to soak in. New friends. New learnings.

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There are lists always being made. A recent one published ‘8 scariest roads of India’. Only then did I realise that we had travelled on 3 of them on this trip.

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Day 15 of our trip and we were headed back to our start/end point, Delhi. We left Leh towards Manali via Padam/Padum. As we turned off at Wanla towards Padam, Google maps turned off too. This is 4x4 terrain that we had entered. The sights and experience were just out of the world. Mountain blasting by BRO for road widening on one side, fast flowing river on the other.

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Day 16. After spending the previous night at Padam, we were headed to Manali via Purnia and Shinku La Mountain Pass. After a couple of hours of driving, our 4x4 just refused to move. Tried everything that we could but the gears would not fall. Being in that kind of terrain meant not much traffic and fewer people. There was no mobile network either. It was about 10.00 a.m. (let me call this ‘Day S1’…’S’ for Stranded and 1 for 1st day of being stranded).

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Walked uphill to a nearby village, Cha, which could be seen at a distance. Yes, this is Ladakh where one has to be very careful especially due to Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS). A week had been spent in Ladakh but even so. Walked around quite a bit and finally found a kind truck driver who let me use his Hotspot (my mobile still did not have network in that village). Amongst the many calls to several people, naturally Maruti Authorised Service Centre and ICICI Lombard were contacted too. The person who sold me the Motor Insurance from Maruti asked me to contact ICICI Lombard.

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Since my mobile did not have network, I needed to ask the truck driver if I could borrow his mobile as my calls were not going through to any Landline number as I could only use Whatsapp. Using his mobile, I called up ICICI Lombard to ask for RSA. I explained where I was and that I needed help. That, at that moment I was using a truck driver’s mobile number. ?I informed them that there was no mobile connectivity on my Registered Mobile # and that I was using a borrowed Hotspot for Whatsapp. The only way I could connect with them from my mobile could be via Whatsapp (by using the borrowed Hotspot).

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ICICI Lombard did not have my Insurance details so they asked me send them a pic of my Motor Insurance policy (yes I did give them my vehicle number….and my Registered Mobile # which they verified over the call…even so...). When I asked them how I could send it as I could only use my Whatsapp via hotspot, they said they would connect with a ‘Hi’ from a mobile number. That I could send them the policy copy via Whatsapp. I walked back to the stranded Jimny to get the policy details – I did that uphill and downhill about 5 times or so that day. But that is not the core issue. I am just coming to that.

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After I scanned them my Motor Insurance Policy, they messaged me from that/their mobile number to inform me that my number is ‘not contactable’. I called back using my Whatsapp (hotspot). They would not pick up the call. They messaged me on Whatsapp that that particular mobile number of theirs was ‘only for details’ and ‘not for calling’. I did enquire how we could speak with each other ? They asked me to call their Toll Free number (which was not a mobile #). I repeated my message on Whatsapp (what I had said several times by then) – that I was stuck in a no mobile network connectivity area. That I could only speak via Whatsapp. I did not hear anything after that.

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It then dawned on me that we were on our own now ! Multiple thoughts….the reality of spending a night inside the vehicle…the emergency food would come in handy…the warm jackets and sleeping bag too….but crucially, what was the way out finally going to be ??? A solution had to be found !

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Trekked up beyond the village to a BRO base camp and accepted gratefully the kind assistance of their mechanics to see if they could help.? Almost every single passing vehicle stopped to ask. A few opening up the bonnet etc to see if they could check or do something about it.

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Finally left around 4 p.m. that day. By getting towed by a Truck that came our way – only because a kind passing traveler, Sunil Sharma, who had stopped to check our vehicle, sent the Truck our way. The Truck was taking a different route but came our way to see how he could help.

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After being towed across multiple hairpin bends (both, climbs and drops), we reached Purnia (Ladakh) after a few KMs. We decided that we would park the vehicle in Purnia – the risk was too high to carry on this way all the way to Manali or elsewhere.

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We travelled inside the truck. We reached Darcha around 9 p.m and slept in the company of truck drivers in Darcha at a Dhaba frequented by them. Next morning we left at around 6 a.m. for Keylong (Himachal). Here, we hired up a Flatbed crane. Headed all the way back to Purnia and reached there by lunchtime. After lunch and getting it onto the Flatbed crane, headed to Himachal. It did strike me that by the evening of ‘Day S2’, I had crossed the famed Gombok Rangan and the Shinku La Mountain Pass 3 times in 24 hours – once in a Truck and twice in a Flat Bed Crane ! We reached Keylong by around 9.00 p.m.

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Next morning, by around 6 a.m. we headed for Mandi (Himachal), as I by now had had multiple conversations with several people to know that Mandi was a big motor hub, closer to the planes and had a Maruti Authorised Service Centre. After the Flatbed crane dropped off the vehicle at Mandi, we left the Jimny there for repairs. We hired a vehicle and left for Delhi by 5.30 p.m. This was on ‘Day S3’.

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Here are some questions for ICICI Lombard :

1.Would you have not understood the ‘Urgency’ ?

2. Did you not have understood ‘Trouble’ or ‘Stuck’ ?

3. Did you not understand ‘No Mobile Network’ ?

Policies may be typed and signed off inside a cabin – that is not where ‘the tyre hits the road’ or more appropriately ‘not where a vehicle breaks down’.?

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I was in a different state. I had no idea what the RSA or Crane network in a different state was or if it even existed. I have a Policy with you. I have not worked in the Insurance industry. Nor do I have any experience in the Automobile sector. However, and this is the key, I did manage to get a Flat Bed crane to get my stranded vehicle out from a No Mobile Network and No Google Maps area. If I could, it is a shame, a real shame that you did not rise up. With the kind of knowledge, expertise and experience that is core to your business, it is a shame.

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It did make me wonder, how I in my 20s, had helped Refuel a private jet which was registered in a foreign country and had to make an emergency landing in India en route to another foreign country. The company I was associated with then had no business presence in that remote area of India. Yet, I managed to get the jet Refueled by working with several people in tandem – within my organisation and with 3rd parties – only because he was a Customer of the company and needed assistance. Assistance not core to our business may I add. Yes, I did get an Asia Pacific award for that because someone recommended my name for the Service provided to the company’s Customer. That was 3+ decades ago ! With today’s far superior technology, infrastructure and network, it’s a pity that if a ‘Senior Citizen’ could get it done, why the ‘boys’ representing a ‘giant’ didn’t stand up. My guess ? It’s not written in the Policy and Procedures Manual. For those in the cabins would have signed it off too. Therefore, can’t fault the Rep for responding the way they did. And the Training would have ‘skilled’ them to handle such situations in the way they did.

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ICICI Lombard, I know you have limited working access to Whatsapp. My interaction of July 9, 2024 gave me that impression. ?But if you do have some access to Facebook (yes, that Social Media ‘thing’), take a look at what I posted then. If you do get to read/see it, you will see a pic of mine – I am smiling - even when my vehicle is on a Flatbed crane ! ?Ironical, right ?

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https://www.facebook.com/share/p/8pwCQZ4heyiawXwJ/

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Why did I take so long to write/post this if it happened in July ? It is exhausting to have to relive that experience yet again while writing it. Yet, it is important that I did.

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(I have been ‘brief’ in the above post and skipped many a part….but I wonder if you got the drift)

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