Claim refund

<p>On 22 August 2016 I purchased some of my chronic meds in advance. At the time, I sent in all the paperwork to Bestmed in order to obtain my refund. Since the middle of October I have been following up with Bestmed to get my refund paid to me. I have phoned many times, sent several emails and all to no avail. Several times the consultant I was speaking to (Morne, Katlego, and others) cut off my call. Several of my emails have not even been responded to. Eventually I was told that Bestmed had mistakenly paid my money to the pharmacy (Medirite) on 18 November, instead of paying me. I phoned Medirite and was referred to the head office, where I was told that they do not do direct refunds. They will instruct Bestmed to reverse the payment and then I must follow up with Bestmed for the payment. After more phone calls and emails to Bestmed, I ended up speaking to Sandy Francis and Chantal Credo, one of the supervisors of the claims department. Sandy said I must email her the proof of payment I had previously sent to Bestmed. This I did but she didn't respond to my email so I tried to contact her telephonically and was told she is on lunch and she would respond to my email. Needless to say she never did, even though I sent her a second email. When I spoke to Chantal, she had said my refund would be paid last week Friday, but not surprisingly this hasn't happened yet. When I tried to reach Chantal telephonically last week, I was told she was on lunch and would phone me back. She never did. I have been told the only way to lodge a complaint is to email the "escalations@bestmed" email address which I did but that has been totally ignored. I phoned their Cape Town head office and was transferred straight through to Pretoria, spoke to Katlego. Told him I wanted the compliance officer's details at which point he cut off my call. I phoned Cape Town head office again and spoke to Susan, who gave me the name and phone number of the compliance officer. I was told he doesn't have an email address. I phoned him and was told he is not answering his phone. When I asked the receptionist if I could leave a message, she made it clear it would be pointless to leave a message. It is unbelievable that I am owed about R1500 and can not speak to somebody competent who can actually resolve a complaint.</p>