Insurance nightmare

A lightning strike on 25 Dec damaged my alarm, intercom and pool DB. An assessor came out and advised me to submit my own quotes, which I duly did. When I didn't hear about the outcome of my claim, I phoned the call centre on 20 Jan. I was toldthe settlement amount was R8578.50 less R1000 excess while the quotes to repair the damage amounted to R14 888.64. When I queried this I was transferred to John Baardt, who was handling my claim. However, he wasn't available, so I left a message. He called me at a time I asked him not to. I tried to get hold of him repeatedly through the call centre and mailed him, with no luck. Eventually, days later, after an emailed complaint, he contacted me and said the reason for the lower settlement is because the quotes were deemed too expensive and the pool pump wouldn't be covered. When I asked why I was told to submit quotes, including for the pool pump, he couldn't give me a suitable answer. I demanded that the excess be waived because of the poor service, but was told this wasn't possible. I begrudgingly accepted the cash settlement, which he took a number of days to email me, and 3 days later, am still waiting for payment. Such terrible service.