Insuring wit Budget costs a lot more than the monthly premium

A while back my house got paid up and I needed to take homeowners insurance. So, I hopped onto Hippo, got a few quotes and took a policy with Budget Insurance. At about 03h00 on 31 August this year we heard a loud bang and looked out to see a guy running away with a pole or crowbar in his hand. Called the security company all clear. And reported to police. But we still didn’t know what caused the loud noise. Until a few days later when it got a bit cold and windy and I noticed that a glass sliding door panel had been forced out of the aluminium frame. Clearly quite a bit of force involved. We lodged a claim at Budget Insurance. On 11 August, Jack de Beer from Digicall Assessing Solutions pitches up looking quite unhappy with things and does his assessment and takes plenty photographs. On 13 August I got a letter from Budget informing that they will not be paying the claim as, according to the assessor, no visible sign of forced entry. Quite a special one this Jack de Beer individual. Anyway, I complained to Ryan Kirsten as instructed in the letter from Budget. And this is where I have lost track of the dates. But anyway, I get a call from someone saying that they will now pay R2400-00 minus the R1600-00 excess. I said and what will I do with the R800-00? And how do they arrive at this figure if they initially rejected the claim? What are they actually paying for? Please go away and try again. I also suggested that I get a quote to have the sliding door replaced and they could verify and pay minus the excess. The whole way through they are dead against that avenue. Maybe because Jack de Beers report implies that this was self inflicted damage. There has been quite a bit of discussion with Ryan, Maggie and some other people at Budget Call Centre. And then another notification that Khutakhu Trading will be sorting out my claim and come and fix the door. All this time I have this open panel and exposed and tell Budget and everyone I speak with that we are quite anxious because we are exposed. Also, we need to get to putting a security gate in there as soon as the sliding door is sorted. And I also explain in great detail that this is aluminium which is extruded to it’s shape and not bent or plyed. The outfit gives me a call and I tell them OK, I will take leave for Friday (today). So give me a call tomorrow so that we can set the thing up. I also contact Budget just to express my concern that I don’t know what work is going to be done. Yesterday afternoon I tried phoning this Khutakhu Trading outfit but get to voicemail over and over again. This morning I phone and this time I get a message that voicemail is out of order and to try later. I finally get through and they say that the insurance company told them to put this on hold. I phoned Budget again and spoke with another call centre chap who couldn’t get hold of Ryan. I spent about twenty minutes holding while the chap tried to get something sorted. So he tells me that someone will contact me to finalize today. But anyway, I will be spending the long weekend with that open sliding door panel by the looks of things. I think I should pack all my stuff into a self storage setup and go and stay in a hotel until the door gets sorted out. Insuring with Budget costs quite a bit more that your monthly premiums. It costs plenty airtime. It costs days off work which is a lot of money for today. It costs your excess. And I don’t even know what kind of job is going to be done.