Delays and bad service

Good day

Unfortunately I've had a really bad experience with the staff at Auto and General in regards to my recent claim.

I had a vehicle accident on Friday 24 November 2017.

A Bad time to have an accident since December is upon us and companies close, I will grant you that. The assessor went to inspect the vehicle on Tuesday 28 November. Up to this point I was kept in the loop. I was told that by the Thursday I could call to get an update. When I called on Thursday the person I dealt with was friendly but unable to assist as the person handling my claim was unavailable. I called on the Friday to get the same response. Then again on the Tuesday of the next week. The first communication I received from the company out of their own was on Wednesday 3 December to state that they were finalising my claim but unable to contact the other parties involved. (Info they were given on the Saturday after the accident). This took until the next Monday to resolve (11 working days after the accident, but unfortunately for me 15 days into my car hire already).

In all the calls where I spoke to the agents of the company I made a point of naming the urgency of this as I need a vehicle and the car hire had started already and is limited to 30 days. I was assured multiple times that if the delay in claim handling is the fault of the insurer the car hire will be extended. Well thank you for extending the car hire by exactly 1 day (since the claim only took 11 days to resolve and it's only 1 day over your SLA).

But I'm out of a vehicle potentially until the end of January since the repairer is closing Friday, and the parts department at the manufacturer has been closed since last week Friday (15 December) I have the car hire on my policy since I work in Johannesburg and live in Pretoria and have to travel daily. One day delay is the cause of at least 2 weeks delays due to companies closing over December.

Please don't patronise people and state you will assist with extended car hire when you mean one day for a delay that caused a knock on effect of about a month! I find it completely unacceptable that my case was handed to a person on leave. This means that my case was first attended to after 6 full working days had passed. I was also today told that "The delays were Not their fault because I chose to have an accident at the end of the year!" by the agent I dealt with today. Firstly, I did not "willingly choose" to have a motor vehicle accident. Secondly, I feel **** to and completely betrayed by the one insurance firm I have been loyal to for many years!

With great sadness and bitter anger; Yours Truly

Christine Germishuys