Pathetic service form Absa Insurance and their Service Provider.

We logged a new insurance claim at Absa insurance on the morning of 10 December 2019 for the repair of a leaking ceiling after the heavy rains in Early December 2019. We received claim number *** over the phone using the telephone in the Absa Branch located in Centurion Mall@Reds. We were notified that we will receive a claim number notification via sms as well as the name of the appointed contractor/service provider. Up to now, Friday Afternoon 17:11 on 13 December 2019, no notification was received.

After no feedback, we called Absa again on 11 December 2019 to follow up only to hear that the job was declined by the 1st appointed service provider. On the same day at 11:14, I called again and spoke with a lady called Phalesa who told me that a new service provider by the name Dipapala trading has been appointed and the matter will be attended to.

In the meantime, the tenants living in our house had to make a plan to keep the floor dry in the room as it posed a slip and fall risk to the residents of the house as the wet ceilings started to tear away from the wooden structure on top exposing our tenants to risk of injury.

On 12 December 2019 at 14:18 we still received no feedback as to when the damage will be attended to and I spoke to a lady named Ntokosisi at Absa Insurance. When I asked whether the service provider attended to the home she did not know. I asked for the correct spelling of the name of the contracted company to do a Google search and get the contact information. After finding more than one service provider by a similar name, I reached the correct one. The Gentlemen I spoke to on the phone seems to be the Managing director of Dipapala trading based around the Soweto area in Johannesburg. Just to note the property which needs to be attended to is located in Bothaville in the Free State.

So on enquiry with Lerato on when the matter will be attended to, he rep**** by saying he will have a look at his diary and see if he has an opening to go to Bothaville. I told him that he needs to contact the estate agent who is handling the rental of the house and he confirmed that he received the details.

At 14:36 I called Absa again and spoke to Mahlatsi to inform Absa of the unsatisfactory service I receive and that it does not seem like there was any urgency from Absa or the contractor to attend to our situation. She said if it was an emergency I can source a local service provider to do a quote to repair the damage and Absa will cover the costs. I explained that we don't know contractors in this area as we are residing in Pretoria and the house with the damage is in Bothaville. I told her that I will try but they should continue and keep the arrangement with the contractor that was appointed.

At this time on Friday Afternoon, 13 December at 17:32 we received no call or sms from Absa or the contractor to state progress. I called the estate agent and they informed me that they were not contacted by anyone and the matter is only getting worse in the house.

Now I need to state that Absa is now causing the tenants to consider moving out of the house which will take the rental income away from the family who is dependent on this income. On Absa's insurance website they state in bold letters " We know life happens..... Choose one of our claims channels below for peace of mind" ..... In my experience this is an absolute lie. Absa has no Idea that life happens and when they find out, they don't know what to do about it. I mean really, Appointing service providers that is located about 200km's away from the actual insured house, providing no feedback, and an absolute lack of control over service providers in terms of customer service? Klerksdorp is only 64km's away, Kroonstad 76km's, Welkom 82 Km's, Potchefstroom 98km's away. Vanderbijlpark, 150 Km's, Sasolburg 145km's, Vereeniging 174km's but the contractor the furthest away gets appointed and have still not attended to our problem.......

I have to say, this sounds alot like knit picking service providers for some reason.

To Be continued.....