Beware! Life Insurance Corporation of India, un-professional to the core, Still in the BRITISH RAJ days

I am a policy holder of Life Insurance Corporation of India. I have a serious grievance regarding the lapse of my 'Anmol Jeevan' policy, and also about the way it has been redressed by LIC of India, in response to my complaint. I made a complaint citing my grievance to LIC India via email to “customerzone_ktm@licindia.com” on 07/10/2013. for which I received a reply mail from Mr/Ms goergy oommen, LIC of India, Divisional Office, Kottayam, via Email Id “lic_eps@licindia.com” on 10/10/2013. The details of the grievance are as follows:- My policy number is 392615494, which commenced on 28-03-2003, sum assured being Rupees 5,00,000/-, Policy Term being 15 years, servicing branch being 78v (Kottayam), agent Number 15722784. I have been making half yearly payment of my premium online since 2009, in the months of March and September, via Netbanking through the web portal of LIC of India. I have registered my E-mail ID and two cell phone numbers in the portal of LIC of India which is “http://www.licindia.co.in”, and I have subscribed for SMS alert providing two working cell phone numbers in the LIC of India portal. The subscription was done quite a long time back. My policy has lapsed due to non payment of premium for the month of March, 2013. I have mailed the to LIC of India, detailing the reason of failure of payment of premium due to not receiving any premium-notice via post, E-mail or SMS, till date for the payment date of 28/03/2013. Usually, I receive a postal notice at my permanent address, responding to which I was making payments in time via netbanking. For March 2013 premium payment, I have not received any reminder or Invoice from LIC of India. As per the reply, (attached herewith this mail) from Mr. / Ms. Georgy oommen LIC of India, Divisional Office Kottayam, has mentioned that "Sending premium notice/reminder with loan details if any to Policyholders is not mandatory for insurance companies as per IRDA rules. We send notice to help the customers." And also admitting that "Email/SMS alerts is not available for the time being." I am to pay the accrued interest and undertake various medical tests and submit the results, as informed in the mail, and pay the pending premium amount to revive my policy. Also mentioned that the it is confirmed premium notice was sent to my residential address for the month of March/2013. I wish to contend that it is most irresponsible action by LIC of India that facility is offered to the customers by this mammoth public sector organization in its portal and relegating this lapse of providing alerts casually that the “facility is not provided”, despite the fact that customers are not prevented from registering for these services. No disclaimer has been put in their portal informing us that these facilities are not functional and it seems LIC of India does not deem us, the customers fit for such information. If LIC India do not provide their own published facility, who else is expected to give? Kindly note that, I am regularly getting E-Mails from LIC-Direct, marketing their new policies. The last one from "co_dm@licindia.com", to my mail id registered in the portal. Mails which are to market their policies like 'Bima Bachat',"Jeevan Sugam", originating from official LIC Direct mail Ids "info@licindia.com". And I received the marketing mails even in the month of March and September 2013, which coincides with my policy premium month. I have attached one of those mails also below. LIC Direct does have access to my mail ID, as a registered user of the portal. So it is ironic that LIC doesn't use the capability or infrastructure for alerting customers via Email or SMS. This proves their capricious attitude towards the existing customers. LIC of India does have the mechanism to send marketing mails regularly for their new policies, but does not make a policy decision to send E-mail alerts to the existing loyal customers like me. This attitude of relegating current customers is shown quoting IRDA rules, by Mr/Ms georgy oomen, as an excuse not to serve us the current customers, but only be bothered with getting new business. My policy would not have lapsed had my agent taken pains to inform me about the impending premium date. Kindly note that I one of the reason for registering in the portal is that I found my agent not be dependable and in this regard. It seems this particular policy to be of little value to LIC of India owing to its nature of not being an endowment policy and also to the agent due to its lesser commissions. Kindly note that I have not received any communication regarding the lapse of my policy from LIC of India, till date. I came to know about this only when I did login into the portal of LIC of India. Which means that I was unaware I am no longer under Insurance cover since March, which is a rather dangerous situation for me and my dependents. The LIC of India has passed the buck onto postal department for the lapse and washed its hands of from redressing my grievance in a proper way. Mr. / Ms. georgy oommen, LIC of India , Divisional Office Kottayam , has not mentioned the exact date of sending the postal premium notice. LIC of India might quote some IRDA guideline for this not informing about lapse too. In the capacity of civilian citizen I don't have the time or means to pursue this issue with the postal department. And I wish to mention that the service of Postal department has been impeccable for quite a long time here in Ettumanoor. NRI customers of LIC of India who might find it extremely beneficial to have premium notices via E-mail alerts working well. Please note that even Indian Railways has embarked on going paperless via providing for ticket verification using SMS in cell phones.