Is the Infinity Repair for 13,800 Rubles a Good Deal?

I've been driving for years, but I've only recently started using Alfa. To be honest, I've been pretty lucky with my driving record, and with discounts for insurance, I was paying around 11,500 rubles.

How I chose Alfa insurance?I didn't really have any criteria for choosing an insurance provider. Before, I used to buy insurance from Alfa's neighbor, Alliance, but they changed to Alfa, and I thought, why bother? There's OSGAO, and that's enough. Never buy insurance without reading reviews on various websites first!

Accident

In March 2020, just before the city was closed due to the pandemic, I was driving home from work (I was a doctor at the peak of the crisis). I was pretty down in the dumps and not interacting with anyone when suddenly a Renault Duster came flying into my bumper from a side road. I'm actually a pretty cautious driver and always keep an eye out for other drivers exiting side roads. And this lady clearly saw me coming, but for some reason, decided to ram into my bumper when we were side by side.

As I veered out of the way, I ended up on the opposing lane, luckily empty. But I couldn't completely avoid the collision. When I got out of my car, I saw that my entire right side was scratched up. The driver of the Duster, a woman about my age with only a year of driving experience, was also pretty shaken up. The Duster was badly damaged all over... it was a pretty classic scene.

Since it was early spring, the rain, snow, and fog made it hard to assess the full extent of the damage.

After that, we tried to fill out an accident report, but since we were both blonde women, we decided to wait for the police to arrive.

I'd never been in a situation like that before. When the police arrived, we both wrote statements, and they handed me a notice of administrative offense. They told me I'd need to come to the police station a week later to sign the attached application for insurance purposes. The notice of administrative offense looked like this:Getting fined for a car accident is one thing, but the real kicker was the stress it put me through – and that was priceless. The document I received looked like this.

The next morning, I washed my car and noticed there were some hidden damages – the rear right door was scratched, and so was the front right door. If you find any other damages after signing the document, you can add them to the document.

I didn't have any issues with this – I just went to the police station during their working hours and asked the officer who filled out the document to add the new damages. If they thought it was necessary, they'd add it. Luckily, it worked out for me.

Besides the rear right door, rear right fender, and rear bumper, I also found that the front right door was scratched. So, that's a total of 4 damaged parts.

When I finally got the document, Moscow was in lockdown, and I couldn't make it to the insurance office – even with a lot of effort. It just so happened that I had to leave Moscow for a few months that same year. In the end, I made it to the insurance office in August – four months after the accident. Feeling pretty confident that everything would be okay, I drove to the nearest claims office (which was located at a pretty subpar car repair service) with all my original documents and the necessary info for transferring the money. I signed everything they gave me and left, thinking, where do all these negative reviews about Alfastrakhovanie come from? Everything seemed fine. But nobody – neither in writing nor verbally – mentioned the payment amount to me. I wasn't surprised, to be honest – I had no idea how they calculated the payments, and I also didn't know that they were supposed to mention the payment amount before I signed the claim for direct compensation of damages.

And then things started to go downhill...

It wasn't until a week later that I received an SMS.

<\/a> <\/div><\/div> I wasn't really interested in the repair direction, since everyone knows how cars are fixed at the repair shops with insurance companies. I called the hotline, they transferred me to the OSAGO department, and from there to somewhere else, and in the end, they promised to find out everything and call me back. Of course, no one ever called me back. A month or so later, I wrote a complaint on the website, and they offered me to come to the main office to resolve my issue. The thing is, I work at the same time as their office, so it was clear that I'd never make it there unless I took a paid vacation.In response to your appeal dated 08.**.2020 (case No. 31***) we inform you of the following: The realization of the victim's right to compensation for damage caused as a result of a road accident is carried out in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation on mandatory civil liability insurance of vehicle owners. Thus, in accordance with paragraph 15.1 of the Federal Law dated April 25, 2002 No. 40-FZ 'On Mandatory Civil Liability Insurance of Vehicle Owners' insurance compensation for damage caused to a private car registered in the Russian Federation is carried out (except in cases established by paragraph 16.1 of this article) in accordance with paragraph 15.2 of this article or in accordance with paragraph 15.3 of this article by organizing and (or) paying for the repair of the damaged vehicle of the victim (compensation for the damage in kind). Upon consideration of the submitted event No. 6807/PVU/01306/20, the case was recognized as insured, and a direction for repair was prepared. To resolve your issue, we recommend signing an agreement on the payment of insurance compensation in cash, which you can do by visiting the Insurance Payments Department of AO 'AlfaStrakhovanie' (Article 12, paragraph 16.1 'g' of the Federal Law dated April 25, 2002 No. 40-FZ 'On Mandatory Civil Liability Insurance of Vehicle Owners') located at: Moscow, Zolotorozhsky Valley St., 11, building 38, BC 'Serpantin', weekdays from 9:00 to 18:00.<\/p><\/blockquote>

Since I work at the same time as the AlfaStrakhovanie main office, it was clear that I'd never make it there unless I took a paid vacation. They responded with a letter, and we decided to look for alternative solutions to the problem. The alternatives were a lawsuit and The Financial Ombudsman Service.<\/a><\/p>I'd never dealt with the Financial Ombudsman Service before, but I decided to try it out since it was created specifically to resolve such disputes outside of court. Since this review isn't about them, I won't go into details (unless someone wants to know more). In short, they didn't help me. After several months of communication with different ombudsmen, I received a decision to reject my claim based on the following:<\/p>

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When I requested a payout, I was told the car wasn't in a scrapyard, and there were no disabled or injured people involved. Plus, the nearest repair shop was within 50 kilometers, so I was asked to drive there for the repair. However, in the rejection letter, I saw that the cost of repairing four parts on my Infinity (including the doors) was estimated at 17,700 rubles. What's more, the same rejection letter listed the average market value of the car as 989,000 rubles.

I didn't have time to continue arguing, so I decided to put it off until my next vacation. On my first day off, I personally visited the office responsible for settling losses to ask about my payout. But guess what? They told me I hadn't signed the declaration for direct compensation for losses on the last page at the bottom. And, of course, the question is: why didn't anyone inform me about it for half a year? It's indeed true that there's no signature from me on the last page at the bottom.

This was the rejection letter for my payout. Later, I was transferred 13,800 rubles to my Sberbank account.

At this point, I lost interest in figuring out where that 13,800 ruble amount came from. I naturally had to repair the car at my own expense. Luckily, the payout covered the insurance costs. And the question remains: why pay for compulsory motor third-party liability insurance if the guilty party can just walk away paying a 500 ruble fine, leaving you with the bill?

Ditto to those who've read this far. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.)