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LIC Terms Of Service

Any self respecting website or software service has a Terms of Service and privacy policy; they are the Internet’s equivalent of what we used to call the fine print. You have to agree to accept them before you sign up for an account. I have to ask though, when was the last time you actually read through any of those? It’s tempting to just scroll down to the end and check the little box saying “I agree”. Most of the time this is pretty harmless as they’re all standard boiler plate text, just shy of being copy paste affairs. But sometimes blindly clicking through may have consequences!
Every time you buy an insurance policy from LIC, you’re agreeing to some awful T&C. I hereby present the unwritten  yet completely loophole free and airtight Terms of Service of the Life Insurance Corporation of India.

Every customer hereby agrees to abide by the following Terms of Service set in force by the LIC of India herein after called LIC, when purchasing any insurance policy -
  1. Responsibility for any & all mistakes on the policy bond rests solely with agent/customer and not with LIC
  2. Any changes with respect to any information provided therein would require at the minimum 3 personal visits to the servicing branch; along with any documents as may be called for at any time during the procedure by LIC, duly signed, attested by a gazetted officer & notarized, in triplicate.
  3. All visits to the branch will be required to be during government working hours only. All national, state, religious, local community holidays shall be scrupulously adhered to. LIC also reserves the right to curtail said working hours on any day, due to any cause without prior notice.
  4. No employee is required to maintain minimum levels of courtesy & respect towards customers and as such customers must refrain from forming expectations relative to other insurance companies.
  5. Customers also acknowledge that they waive any & all rights to complain against any instance of employee incompetence – either wilfully or otherwise; if and when they do complain no action will be taken against such employee (as it’s against the union rules).
  6. LIC makes no promises whatsoever regarding the security of the information provided by the customer; however LIC does say that no hacker can access the data stored in the systems (employees can barely enter it, let alone do any work).
  7. Customers recognize that tea breaks, lunch breaks, smoke breaks, system down breaks are all god given rights which employees may use at any time to justify work shirking or doing half-assed work.
  8. Anything not covered under any of the rules above will be necessarily covered under the blanket statement – Because we can’t, we don’t.
So the next time be sure to read the fine print aka Terms of Service.
Note – Anyone who has had experience with LIC or any other government agency may sound off in the comments below!

Comments

  1. I guess u work for LIC ;P

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  2. I co-relate an incident where I was once waiting at these long lines to pay the insurance.There was this irritated LIC agent on the other side of the table who received the money and other documents of a senior citizen.THe senior citizen requested the agent to confirm if the amount handed over in cash was correct as he had sight problems from old age.The agent just coldly replied back " im not the eye for you to check out your stupid money" and sent him away abruptly. the citizen started to panic and other customers came to his help and assured that he had the right money and let him to go ahead of the line .The second time when the same stupid agent received the money,he just replied back to the the old man how cranky he was and gave the receipt back to him in a harsh way.Well the employee may not need to maintain max level of courtesy but ofcourse needs to be humane to the minimum level.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Guess you didn't read point no.4 very well ;) While the above article was meant to be satirical, there is truth behind it as always. In LIC as well as other govt offices, there are no carrots or sticks for employees. When I work, I don't get paid/appreciated for it & when I don't work I don't get punished for it. Under such circumstances, you'll agree that majority of people will stop working! It's also esp hard for one person to be immune to others and carry on working. Sooner or later, they'll feel it's unfair and join the other side. It's what happened to me :D

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  4. And yes, I work for LIC :( Joined in Dec 2009 and regretted ever since.

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  5. Hmmm...All of it is true and and a part of LIC culture but i would be the devil's advocate here and would like to present another side to this coin.
    While at any given time there is no justifiable excuse for misbehaving with customers,but this is also true that at times you do get customers who actually manage to push all your buttons especially if you happen to be manning counters in an area like Delhi 6.Imagine a situation where you are already harassed because you are dealing with connectivity issues and then a customer walks in to deposit his premium.You try to explain to him about the lost connectivity failing which you try to tell him about the concept of lines,transfer of data and the fact that you have no clue when the connectivity would actually be restored etc..etc..After spending half an hour of your precious time on this guy he looks at you and says "Mujhe LIC jama karani hai.jama nahin ho rahi hai".That is the point where you lose it.Completely.Thoroughly.Irrevocably.
    And this is just one instance.
    Add to this infrastructural constraints (256 MB RAM),lackadaisical attitude of management and fragile egos of just about everybody.
    Therefore i am not sure where the fault lies.
    Maybe with the structure which doesn't allow us to do our work while at the same time forcing us to do it.
    Talk about being between a rock and a hard place.

    ReplyDelete
  6. 'The customer is a moron. If you're insulted by this sign, you are the moron.' It's true that LIC s customers also tend to be of this variety. But you have to agree that strong infrastructure, pro active management and helpful staff go a long way in these situations. Hell if we had the above in our office, we wouldn't have situations like this!

    ReplyDelete

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