Extremely Poor services from AVBOB, in a time of grieving and Sadness.

On 21st September 2023, my mother passed away. She had a funeral policy at GBA.

We went to Brits hospital, phoned GBA, and they informed us that they work through AVBOB Brits, who we then contacted, as they needed to come fetch my mother's body from the mortuary.

They did arrive within 15 minutes, but while we were waiting for the doctor to sign the death certificate, a Johan at AVBOB phoned and said they must first go to Broederstroom to fetch a body there.

The nurses at the hospital told them just to wait 5 minutes as they are already there, and as the morgue closes at 16h00, but the person collecting the body, got agitated and just wanted to leave, after a heated argument, they decided to wait and eventually got the body and left.

We were informed that because we live in Centurion, we must use AVBOB Centurion (Clubview) to get everything finalized and arrangements done.

We phoned, made an appointment on the 22nd of September in the morning to go see a consultant, and went to see JC at 11h00 at AVBOB Clubview.

We advised him that our mother was a GBA client, and he looked for information on the AVBOB system which he could not find and advised us to phone GBA to get the policy number.

He went on with the rest of the arrangements and told us that the funeral will be on the 30th of September at 10h00 in the morning.

When we got home, we phoned GBA, and we immediately phoned JC and told him that they must phone GBA where they will give him all the information needed to conclude everything.

He advised me that he spoke to a Gerrie, and that Gerrie knows everything and how GBA is working.

Due to Monday being a public holiday, JC contacted me at 17h50 on the 26th of September, telling me once again that he cannot find the AVBOB policy, so for the 4th time, I had to repeat where the policy where and that he needs to contact GBA.

At 10h00 on the 27th of September, Gerrie phoned and told me to go to Zandfontein cemetery to go and sign and giving them permission to open the grave. 10 Minutes later he phoned back again, telling me that I need to go to their offices, so that I can go with their people to Home Affairs to get the death certificate from Home Affairs.

I did ask him, where is Home Affairs, but he said he prefers that I go with their people to Home Affairs, so which I comp**** with and went to their offices.

I met Gerrie, where he asked me to wait a moment, as he organizes someone to accompany me to Home Affairs.

I sat in the waiting room, where Gerrie came out and left with customers to the back offices. About a half an hour later Gerrie came back with the clients, where he still saw me waiting for the driver to take me.

About 15 minutes later, a guy with the name of Jabu came in, went behind the reception area, and was busy there for round about 15 minutes, came into the waiting area, spoke to the 5 clients sitting there waiting, turn around to me and told me to go and wait at the gate. He did not greet me and just told me to go wait, so I got up and went to the gate.

I stood at the gate for about 15 minutes, he came to the gate with a bakkie which they use to transport corpses, the passenger seat was pushed all the way to the front with no leg space. When I opened the door, the seat was full of dried out breadcrumbs, and no space for legs, so I could not get in.

I told him about the seat being dirty and that my legs will not fit in there, in which he rep****, with rudely shouting at me, to go with my own car.

I went back to the office, and ask Gerrie what they want me to do, as they wanted me to come to the office and now Jabu shouts at me that I must go with my own car.

Gerrie went outside and told Jabu that he was supposed to take one of the passenger cars and not supposed to use the bakkie.

On the way to Home Affairs, Jabu was chatting on his phone with a friend, fiddling on the radio for a nice tune to listen too.

When we got to Home Affairs, I was following Jabu in, as they told me he will assist me and guide me through the process.

Jabu did not speak to me, just pointed rudely towards a chair and I assumed I need to go sit there, which I did.

About 15 minutes later, he pointed a finger which pointed me to go stand next to him, as he did not speak to me at all. I got up and went to stood there, and then he rudely shouted at me, that I must give the person there my details and conduct my business.

On our way back, he once again made a private call, laughing and chatting.

Back at the office, at the gate, I got out of the vehicle and went to my vehicle just to try and relax and calm down as I was hysterical at that stage. Never in my life was I ever treated this badly by an employee of a company, and especially in this stage of grieving as well.

Gerrie came out to the car, and I told him how badly I was treated by Jabu, in which Gerrie rep****, that he (Gerrie) was good to me and tried his best to help me.

Gerrie then organized a lift for me to go to Zandfontein the next morning. There I must compliment him, as he sends me with a person, who was very accommodating, helpful and pleasant, totally the opposite of Jabu.

When we came back, we then finalized the funeral letters via email. Gerrie phoned me at 16h29 and asked me why I moved the funeral to the 29th of September. I told him that everything was arranged for the 30th, even the funeral cards was for the 30th. When I got home, I phoned him back just to confirm if all is sorted out, in which he told me to stop stressing.

Just before and on the day of the funeral, we did not know what to expect, and if the funeral was going to happen, or what is going on, as the arrangements with AVBOB is so unprofessional, to say the least.

So, to sum up everything, in this time of grieving, we had poor service on top of it, which made everything even worse.