Happy Anniversary

Today, GenToo celebrated his 1st anniversary with us. It sure didn't felt like a year, I can still recall the day when I went to bring him home. How time flies when you're having a good time! It wasn't much fanfare since we only remembered like 2 weeks ago! It's not our fault as there's no indication of the anniversary and like I mentioned, didn't even notice the time passing.

When I say no indication, it's not like God gave a sign on everyone's anniversary. But more like what everyone will do during their vehicle's anniversary, the mad rush for insurance and road tax renewal! Since no one actually keeps looking at the small sticker on the windscreen, and annually is when you expect your insurance agent to still remember you and become your best friend.

We were having none of it. No one spied on the sticker on the windscreen and no one called to ask us to renew the insurance for GenToo, thus, no one remembered. Once we realised, luckily there's still 2 weeks left to settle things. So, firstly we went searching for the right insurance company for GenToo so that his road tax can be renewed. It's not an easy task since there's like hundreds of insurance policies out there for you to choose to cover your ONE car!

After a long search, finally gave up since we have no idea of what to look for and where. Luckily we have a colleague, Mr V, who's a pro in this field and advised us. Mr V says that, basically when looking for insurance for your car, 3 major things are to be considered. 1st, how easy is it to claim, 2nd, what's the breakdown assistance coverage, and 3rd, reputation of the insurance company.

We were then 'enlighten' by Mr V in that the insurance terms and condition is all being controlled by our Bank Negara, so basically all the charges is the same, meaning the price you pay will be the same which ever insurance you decide to purchase. That's the reason why people look at the gifts you get when you buy insurance. After a day of careful consideration, finally managed to narrow it down to 2 companies, Allianz and Lonpac before deciding to call for more info.

Called Allianz first as they are the most reputable in Malaysia. Rohaida, an agent entertained my call, answering any queries we had about their policy and what are we expected to pay. After a long hour finally the call ends and we can call Lonpac. At Lonpac, Helmi from their Customer Service answered. He also answered every query we had and explained how the charges will be like. So, after hearing from both companies its time to choose which will be best suited for GenToo.

After a time consuming discussion, basically we decided to go with Lonpac. Reasons being, the RM300 breakdown assist per event, better and more polite customer service, and the best part, 5% discount if you walk in. These were things that Allianz were not able to offer according to Rohaida. So, since we were going to pay the same amount of money, might as well go for the one that gives us more value for that money.

Woke up early on the 10th, just to settle everything. Since I don't have to work on that day, I don't have to waste an annual leave. We decided to go to the Lonpac Head Office at Jalan Sultan Sulaiman since it's more convenient and we believe that the service would be better. Once there, we were unable to locate the parking to Bangunan Public Bank, and end up parking ironically at the Takaful Malaysia building next door.

Once we got to Lonpac, we were greeted by a sweet pregnant lady, Mazuin, who was very nice and friendly to help us get all the paper work done. She was even kind enough to check the value of GenToo with a few used car dealers and with the Claims Manager. We then passed the relevant documents to her and within 15 minutes, everything was done! That's what we call efficient! Paid the amount agreed, and we were off.



The next day, went to the post office to renew the road tax. It's so convenient that this can be done at any post office, and since now they can be located in shopping complexes, there's no reason anyone can't make time. There, as usual there will be a small queue. But all in all, it again took less than 30 minutes to get everything done! They charges a fee of RM2, which we will defintely pay to avoid the travelling of more than 50KMs just to get to go through a painful and confusing 'slow death' of waiting at JPJ!

So, on our anniversary, we got GenToo a bunch of goodies from Lonpac, a nice and relaxing car wash, and an extension of 1 year to GenToo's 'license to speed'! And in return, GenToo provides us the joy and exhilaration while driving with confidence and nice sound system without sacrificing comfort. So, a win win situation where both will surely look forward to more anniversary celebrations.