I'm never buying insurance from Sber again - what a nightmare!

Let's be honest, who doesn't love saving money? It's the age-old quest for a good deal, and I'm no exception. A friend of mine was raving about the benefits of Sber's insurance, and I got caught up in the excitement. They convinced me that it's a no-brainer to switch, that the bank would offer me better deals than a broker who'd only skim off the top. But, let's get real, the bank's making money somewhere else, and I'd still end up on the plus side.

I've been using a broker for years, a great woman who's always found us the best deals. Even when we had a car accident, everything went smoothly and the insurance company didn't try to pull any fast ones. So, I was sold on the idea of trying Sber's insurance this year.

How it all went down

Sber insurance OSAGO from Sberbank Getting the insurance was a bit of a process. I had to go to Sber, pick up a voucher, and then wait in line. If you think that's where it ended, you'd be wrong. The real fun began when we got to the operator, who was new to the job and had never handled a claim before. So, when she entered our car's details, the quote came out at a whopping 2.5 grand more than last year. When I asked why the price hike, her response was... um... 'inflation.' Yeah, that made sense. Needless to say, my enthusiasm for Sber's insurance quickly dissipated, and I was itching to go back to my broker and see what they had to offer.

Sber Insurance CASCO from Sberbank Sber Insurance CASCO from Sberbank But the girl operator kept on talking about checking some other Sber products (whether they were any good), while I was getting a long lecture on how their amazing money-withdrawal gadgets could benefit everyone. Time kept passing. Then the girl operator suggested trying to put in our car's data again, maybe we could find something cheaper. And lo and behold! There was a cheaper option out of nowhere. When I asked what to do in case something happened, she told me to go to Sber or the insurance company. I asked where the insurance company was, and she said it was just 300 km away. No way, I didn't want to drive 300 km in case something happened, let's look for something closer. And again, wow, we found it right in our city. The insurance policy was a couple of hundred rubles more expensive than last year. So, are we getting it? Sber Insurance CASCO from Sberbank We decided to give it a try. Everything started clacking and typing again, and voila. It was ready! Pay up! Okay, fine, I'll pay. But where's the policy? Oh, it's going to come to my email. Hmm, let's take a look. And... there's no policy! That's it, nothing more. There's a payment confirmation email, but no policy. Sber Insurance CASCO from Sberbank Alpha Insurance, where's my policy? Although, what's Alpha got to do with it? I'm trying to get it from Sber, they're supposed to be the brokers who do all the work for me. Otherwise, what's the point? I could just do it myself at home. Hmm, that's actually a thought! Anyway, the girl operator called her supervisor, someone else, and they conferred (clearly, something had gone wrong) and told me that the policy would definitely come to my email, I just had to wait 2 hours. Waiting 2 hours at their office was stupid, so we decided to head back home. What happened next?

As you probably guessed, the policy never showed up in my email after 2 hours, or 10 hours for that matter. Sber claims they did everything right and I should ask Alpha about it. I was insured through them, after all. The operator suggested I register on Alpha Insurance's website and find the policy in my personal account. It's all simple and easy, they always do it this way. But not in my case - my broker has always given me the policy as soon as I paid. Maybe I'm just overreacting? Okay, let's try it. I go to Alpha Insurance's website. The website is a real treat, with a feature that says my phone number is already in use, my email address doesn't match, and in general, they won't let me into my personal account. Okay, no problem, let's try something else. Maybe I can get in through the government services website, they know me and will let me in. Oh, wow, through government services, I manage to get into my personal account on Alpha Insurance, and I search for my policy... and it's not there! That's it, nothing more.

Sber Auto Insurance from Sberbank Okay, I'm not panicking - I have my policy number, and I'm going to find it. I did pay for it, after all, so I need to figure out where it is. Searching... and once again, no policy in sight! Sber Auto Insurance from Sberbank I did manage to find my old policies (Alfa's broker had insured me a few times before), but the new one is nowhere to be found.I lost it and called the hotline (which, by the way, is paid in Alfa!). The operator I spoke to just passed me off to another one, who claimed that they don't handle these kinds of issues over the phone and don't know why my policy isn't in my personal account - I'd have to write to technical support. Great, just what I needed. It's clear that they have no idea where my policy is.

Okay, I can write a complaint. I'm not exactly thrilled about it, but I can manage. I write a scathing complaint, and... they tell me to wait three days for a response via email. Yeah, right. I'm not exactly convinced that they'll even bother responding via email, let alone do anything to help me over the phone. And to make matters worse, I've been waiting for over a month and a half, and nobody's even bothered to email me. The website doesn't have a live chat option, which is just awful. And then it hits me - a brilliant idea. I log in to the website and click on the 'policies' icon. This one was issued by Sber, after all, not me. And wouldn't you know it? I see my policy right there on the screen - the one I paid for yesterday! The catch is that I still can't print it out. The website has somehow managed to retrieve my old policies, which were issued without any intermediaries, but I can download them just fine. But this new policy? Forget about it. I'm not going to show some cop a screenshot of my personal account instead of a physical policy!

My task has just changed from 'where did you hide my policy?' to 'just give me my paper back!' Sber clearly doesn't care about my headaches, Alfa's hotline operators are clearly not doing their job, technical support might respond at some point, and I'm at a loss for what to do next. And then I look at my personal account page and see that they have their own app. And maybe, just maybe, there's a live chat option in there.

I download the app, and sure enough, there is a live chat option.

Hi, can you please give me my policy?

The best part is that the person on the other end was actually a real person who wanted to help. This operator asked me a question that nobody else had thought to ask:

Do you know your policy number?

I do know my policy number, of course - it was in the email I got from Sber the moment I signed up. The Sber employee was clicking all over that email, but somehow managed not to find the file. Here's the email from Sber (I've redacted the policy number for security):

" Sber Insurance CSO from Sberbank I immediately sent it to the operator in the chat. And tada! They promised to send me a policy file via email right away. And yes, the policy arrived immediately! All that was left was to print it out. Whew! Here it is, folks, on my mailbox: Sber Insurance CSO from Sberbank The main question, friends, is this: do I really want to get insurance CSO from Sber again?

I did some research and found out that the whole crazy advantage of insurance was a couple of hundred rubles. In other words, if I had bought insurance from a broker as usual, I would have paid 200-300 rubles more! I would have gotten the policy right away and forgotten about it for a year. Instead, I had to waste 2 hours in Sber and then shake the operators of Alfa for a whole day to get this miserable policy. Based on this situation, I came to the conclusion that it's better not to buy insurance from Sber. The staff is incompetent, they can't answer questions, and they just spew out canned phrases about the elusive advantage and blow bubbles when you start to learn something. For example, when I asked if I could add another person to the insurance policy a couple of months later, they told me they didn't know how to do it and wouldn't do it. They also asked if I really needed to do that. My broker, on the other hand, has always done it. And yes, people do this, and there are reasons for it - they need to drive the car, the driver is temporarily unable to drive (a friend of mine added his brother to the policy when he broke his leg and his brother drove his car), my sister is afraid to drive in the winter and only drives in the summer - all these people need insurance for a couple of months, but paying for a whole year doesn't make sense. Conclusion

In general, I won't be getting insurance from Sber for my car or house again. Who knows, maybe someday I'll have an insurance claim, and they'll still be struggling to find the policy. I'd rather buy insurance directly. While I was messing around on the Alfa website, I could have bought any policy a thousand times over, and why do I need their help? I could also buy insurance from my trusted broker, who has helped me many times over the years and takes care of everything for me. We also had an insurance claim for our house, and everything went smoothly. But here, I'm afraid, there won't be any smooth sailing... although, I guess I could mention oil in the context of nonsense about sunflower oil) That's my story. Thanks for reading it to the end. I wish you all never to get into an accident and get only pleasure from driving. And may your policy only be needed to show it to the traffic police)