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What would you do under the circumstances? I sit and ponder the situation for a while
when, suddenly, I remember that we have business insurance in the States through a com-
pany whose policies are also underwritten by Zurich. I send off the following email to our
underwriters:
Dear Ronald and Brian,
Our company has obtained liability insurance through you for the past several years which is underwritten by Zurich In-
surance. I am writing to you for any assistance you might be able to offer in kicking an issue upstairs at Zurich headquar-
ters that has become nightmarish.
WechoseZurich-Connect toprovideourvehicleinsurancecoveragehereinItalythispastyear. (Irealizetheyareanother
branch of the Zurich conglomerate, but hopefully there is some common parent.) Here's the problem: On June 29th I was
involved in an accident with a driver who ran a stop sign and admitted fault. My car was seriously damaged and was
towed to the dealership in Siena. Zurich-Connect assigned an estimator based in Siena to assess the damage. Shortly
aftertheaccident,ItraveledtotheUSAonbusiness.Havingcompletedtherequiredpaperwork,Iassumedthateverything
would be taken care of during my absence. After not hearing from anyone for a couple of weeks, I tried to follow up but
the Italian 800# for Zurich-Connect is not accessible from outside Italy, and my email inquiries were never answered.
Upon my return six weeks later, I have discovered that the car is still sitting on the dealer's lot and the assessor has never
shown up. He doesn't answer his phone, nor does he respond to email. The folks at Zurich-Connect's 800# are simply
call-center staff and are absolutely clueless; they can only tell me that the case is still "in progress". Meanwhile, the main
office in Milan is completely closed for vacation until August 29th(!!) and I am renting a car at € 60/day for the foresee-
able future.
If you have any contacts within the Zurich universe who might be able to assist me in moving through this Italian quag-
mire, I would be immensely grateful.
Best regards,
-Sam
Amazingly enough, my email is forwarded up the chain-of-command from one level of
management to the next until a VP sends it to a colleague at Zurich Switzerland who sends
it over the Alps to Italy. A couple days later I receive an email from none less than the
Chief Claims Officer in Italy for Zurich-Connect! Oh, happy day! He apologizes for my
unfortunate experiences, and assures me that someone will contact me shortly to resolve
the matter.
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