Budget Insurance DO NO CARE!!!!

The insured was involved in a light accident with her Toyota Tazz on 29 July 2015 in Parklands.

On Friday 3rd August 2018, Budget Insurance collected the car and took it to TOKAI AUTO REPAIRS in Retreat for assessment. They contacted us and advised that the car had been written off. I inspected the car personally before it was taken to TOKAI AUTO REPAIRS and in my opinion the damages were not severe enough to write off the car so I requested the repair quote. I have been building and repairing cars for the last 20 years.

On 7th August 2018, I received the quotation for repair which amounted to R15 562.92 including VAT. The value of the vehicle is between R35 000 and R40 000 so clearly the car is not a write off as claimed by budget insurance. I called budget insurance and asked them to explain why they wrote off the car. The only reason they could offer is that there may be other damages to the car. The parts they quoted for is the only parts that were damaged. There is no suspension damage and no engine damage. The car was driven from the accident scene. I suspect that TOKAI AUTO REPAIRS couldn’t be bothered to repair the vehicle because they cant make sufficient profits from the repair. They would rather spend their time repairing a more valuable car and just leave the customer stranded.

To date, I have made 5 calls to budget insurance to request that the vehicle be returned and that we be paid out the repair cost of the vehicle. I was told after being put on hold for 20 minutes at a time that the assessor would approve the payout and get back to me. The manager/Assessor has to date never returned any of my calls and budget insurance have done nothing to resolve the issue.

Budget Insurance have taken possession of the car and left the insured without transport or any way to resolve the issue.

The insured is a single mom who relies on her car to get to her job and take her daughter to school everyday. She barely makes enough money to survive every month and she is being ignored by the same insurance company that is supposed to be fighting for her rights and helping her when she is involved in accidents. There is no way that she can afford to purchase another car if the Toyota Tazz is written off. This means that she will lose her job and be left destitute and unable to support her daughter. It is truly disgusting that a big corporate like Budget Insurance can care so little about their customers that they would rather benefit some greedy panelbeater and leave their own customer without the transport that keeps their customer and her daughter alive.

The best way to judge any business is by the way they treat their smallest customers.

Budget Insurance should be shut down today.