BIDVEST INSURANCE: SCRATCH AND DENT IS A ****, DON'T BE FOOLED

I am totally dissatisfied with this company and the manner which claims illicitly refuted. I received a telephone call from Bidvest offering a scratch and dent cover for my motor vehicle with a cover limit of R2500 per incident. I subsequently accepted the offer, and the policy took effect from 10 Jan 2018, at the time I was given the option of inspecting my car immediately and getting immediate cover, or by not opting for the inspection there was a 90 day waiting period and any damaged occurring this period will not be covered. However around 10 Jan 2018, I was too busy with work commitments and could not spare the time for an immediate inspection, therefore accepted the 90 day wait. On 16 April I scratched my rear bumper and filed a claim as per these conditions, however Bidvest short term insurance revealed itself as a self-serving organ with no intention of upholding to its commitments.

T/C 1. "Date of Loss: the date on which the damage to the Vehicle occurred, which date must fall within the Period of Insurance of this policy". By this condition I am within my right to make the claim, and Bidvest should fulfil its obligation to honour the claim.

T/C 2. However they rely on the following condition to avoid paying claims " When the Vehicle is brought in for repairs under this policy You may not select to have repairs carried out on only certain damages within a benefit category on the motor Vehicle, as all damage to the Vehicle will be taken into account when calculating the total cost of repair. The total cost of repairs shall not exceed the Maximum Indemnity amount R2500 (sic) per the type of damage/benefit as shown in the benefits table for each policy, which is inclusive of VAT". T/C 2 refers to all damages that occurred, not just the one the insured is claiming. Therefore all damages include 1) incidents prior to the date the cover was taken 2) damages you may not aware when they occurred for example a stone chip on your bonnet, roof etc. However the R2500 cover limit is applicable for all damages, irrespective of if they are pre-existing and you are excluding from damages relevant to term of the policy.

T/C 3 makes allowance for pre-existing damage “You need to contact the Administrator within 60 (Sixty) days of the incident occurring. If claim is not registered within this period, the benefits cannot be claimed for thereafter and would be considered as pre-existing damage". Therefore this condition disqualifies the way damages are treated as accumulative in T/C.2 above, because it allows for pre-existing damages to be excluded. However Bidvest chooses to conveniently ignore this condition when stipulating "all damage" condition.

Further the claim form requires 1) A clear photo showing the damage and the surrounding area 2) A clear photo showing the actual damage 3) A clear photo of the licence disc. This is what I submitted. However Bidvest's response to my submission was that the accredited quotes must include all damages (rear bumper/bonnet/right front door/left rear door) within the limit. Which, they can use it illicitly to refute claims because all damages will exceed the R2500 allowance, a limit which is supposed to apply per incident and not as an accumulative limit.