Added excess because I cannot control Eskom or the weather

Keeping this message in record
Hi Basani, Thank you for getting back to me, I appreciate it. I called on Monday to claim for my pool motor which stopped working. Over the last to weeks we have been experiencing lots of heavy rain, hail and lightning. That aside, load shedding has been occurring three times a day now, the stop/start of the power does cause electrical issues. Last Wednesday, I put on the pool pump and realised that there is a funny noise, I contacted a pool company who came out and did an assessment, they said the motor needs to be replaced. I then called ABSA insurance on Saturday, I was told to call back on Monday which I did. While logging the claim, the consultant put me through another department and I was advised that because my claims exceeded my premiums, I have to pay an added R3500 in excess, over and above the R1000 excess, totalling R4500 excess. He told me that we must solve the issue with the excess department before logging the claim. I don’t have the claim number but the call was recorded. If you look at my claims history, you would see all the claims were not self-inflicted but was caused by lightning or power dips. No client in their right mind would want to damage their own appliances to just claim from the insurance company, knowing that we still have to pay excess. The reason we take out insurance is because of unforeseen problems which are beyond our human control. Look forward to a speedy response. Best Regards,

Thank You

Imagine how inhumane a company like ABSA has turned out to be, they chase the money but fail to uphold human values. They have imposed an added access on me for claims that were beyond my control! They have clearly moved the risk to the client, which in my opinion is wrong.
Good day Mr P and Mrs S Pillay As discussed, kindly find attached the schedule and additional excess applicable which was sent effective 5 March 2020, we have communicated the necessary changes and reasons. As part of this service is to minimise annual premium increases, we do this by means of specific underwriting of individual portfolios and reviewing the claims record of each client. A compulsory excess of R3500.00 was app**** in respect of each and every claim on this policy. This excess will be additional to the basic excess and any other additional excesses, as stated in the policy wording.

Placing on record!

Dear Basani, I did get a response with the reduction of the added excess, this still means that I pay normal excess of R1000 + R2500 (added excess) = R3500, this is still too high. I have since decided that I need to get my pool running, I have bought a pool pump and getting someone to install it for me. In the meantime, I am not stopping as I feel ABSA is moving the risk away from them completely and will seek legal advice via various platforms. Trust you at least understand my perspective. Thank you, Mr P Pillay

Dear Basani,

Unfortunately, ABSA's response was not fair to me as the client and I have been forced to do the repairs at my own cost because I did not want more damage to happen to a pool that is not running. This has put ABSA in a bad light and I will continue to make sure clients are treated fairly and not abused in this manner.

Thank you

Dear Basani, Unfortunately, that is the stance that ABSA has taken and proven that the client does not matter. I still stand by the fact that ABSA should of taken the risk as that is what an Insurance company should do, not pass the risk onto the client. That is not ethical in my books. It would have been different if I could control the weather and Eskom. In saying this, I will make others aware about the ********* practice at ABSA. Thank You, Mr P Pillay