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Jeffrey Cruz: The difference between an agency and non-agency repair is that an agency repair
is what we call dealer repair, what most of the clients know as dealer repair wherein
the authorized dealer of the vehicle will repair the car following any claim or accident
or any damage. Pinky Tamang: Suppose if it's a Toyota it
will go to [indiscernible 00:43] so whichever brand the car you have, it will go to the
same showroom for the repairing and you have the original parts replaced, original and
brand new. Jaime Alzate: On the other hand, non-agency,
your car will be repaired by the shops authorized by the insurance company.
Shalni Babur: Such as Al Habtoor, Dynatrade, or Munich garage which are equally great.
Avinash Babur: The issue of agency repair is very interesting in the UAE. On face value,
agency repair cover costs quite a lot more than non-agency repair but at the same time,
it doesn't mean that agency repair means significantly better quality repair always.
Fayz K.: Agency repair is compulsorily given as a cover for brand new vehicles. Suppose
a 2013 model vehicle will for the next two year, it will be covered under agency without
any additional premium. All insurance companies across the board do that.
Avinash Babur: There are simple set of rules that are followed when it comes to agency
repair. If your car is brand new or two years old, you probably will be eligible for free
agency repair. Certainly, this is the case with all the policies from insurancemarket.ae.
If your car is three years old or older, then you may have the option to consider non agency
repair. Karl Balan: Agency repair is, for me in my
experience in the insurance field for the past three years, I really think that it's
not that important not unless you cars are like those high-valued cars like the Lamborghinis
or Rolls Royce and the Ferraris. Obviously, for these high-valued cars, we need to have
the right agency to repair the car but when it comes to, for the common cars like Japanese
cars as well as the Audis, there are a lot of Category A garages here in Dubai for example,
Dynatrade, Munich garage, [indiscernible 02:40] which repairs the car very, very well. It's
as good as agency. Avinash Babur: The experience at the agency
nowadays is also not too great. I think I would say most agencies are operating practically
like monopolies. For them, they have way too much business and the insurance companies
have nowhere else to go if they have given agency repair. Hence, what you find are very
long turnaround times, and sometimes, the quality of repair is actually compromised
upon purely because there is so much volume that they cannot deal with. Sure, they will
always be installing brand new parts in your car. Sure, they are regularly audited and
supervised by the auto manufacturers that they represent but that doesn't mean that
their success rate is any higher than those first class workshops. The first class workshops,
they're on the non-agency panels of our insurance companies. They are actually operating in
a competitive environment. Hence, it is in their interest to insure that repairs are
of a good quality. Otherwise, they can just be thrown out of the panel or not be paid
for a particular job. Fayz K.: We have made it clear that we, especially
the local insurance companies, we deal with..., we make a rapport with these garages. In non-agency
garages also, there are A, B, C classes so we make sure we start bidding with the A type
of garages and we make sure that cars are done at a reasonably above average service
level and at a very good time and timeframe, so that the customers are satisfied.
Avinash Babur: You may note that one of the leading non agency workshops for the BMW and
Mercedes brands have actually been set up by workshop managers of the agencies themselves.
They're essentially replicas. Shalni Babur: A non-agency spare parts will
not specifically be from the manufacturer of the car but will be equally good standard
as well so if you are worried whether I should go with the agency or non-agency, and if it's
a really high premium difference, then just go with the non-agency because in the end,
insurance companies do offer six months guaranteed repair. So even if it's repaired by a non-agency,
and if it breaks down within six months, they will make sure that your car again is repaired
with no additional cost so that's the benefit. Avinash Babur: If you have an exotic car of
some sort or a car that is worth very much, you would probably be eligible for our private
client group benefits in which case, we can assure you lifetime agency repair. But if
you're driving a very normal Japanese or German car, there are several A-grade first class
workshops available and you need not pay 50% more to go to an agency for your car repair.