Worst short term insurance company in RSA

<p>On 23 January 2016, I was driving my vehicle at night after having dropped someone off at their place of residence. On my way back to where I am staying there was an on-coming vehicle that was driving too close to my side of the road and in my attempt to move away from that vehicle I drove on the pavement. I am not sure if it is the pavement that hit the car underneath or a stone that was on the pavement, but I heard a noise as I was coming back onto the road. At about 500 metres to a kilometre from where I heard the noise, the car switched off. I tried to start it whilst it was moving forward as the road was going downhill but it didn’t start, then I kick-started it and it responded and I drove it. It did the stalling again after about 250-500 metres and I kick-started it again. It did that again until I reached Kenilworth Shopping Centre in Mangaung Township. When I checked the dashboard for lights that indicate a problem within the car, there were no warning lights on the dash. There were random people that tried to help push the car in order to kick-start it at the shopping centre but the car wouldn’t start. Another guy tried to jump start me with his cables and his car, but the car would not respond. That was when I called VW 24 Hour Assist and someone was dispatched to my location to have a look. After the VW people had their assessment, they told me that the car would have to be towed in. After the car was towed in I was told that my warranty will not be able to cover the vehicle, I should put up a claim with my insurance as this is accident damage.</p> <p> </p> <p>I lodged a claim with the insurance and was asked to tell how the accident happened, and I did. About two weeks later a guy was sent in by the insurance so that he could “clarify some of the things and must be taken to where I had had the accident”. He introduced himself as Morne Pienaar and told me to take him to where the accident happened. On Our way there he asked me to take him through as to how this happened. I was telling him how it happened, where and the conditions. At the same time I told him that the details that he wants are also with the person that recorded the claim because he is basically asking the same questions as that person so he could just get the print of the answers.</p> <p> </p> <p>After some time Morne changed his tone now and became verbally aggressive as if he was asking a ******** suspect and said to me how could I not have heard that the engine didn’t have oil because that engine has a hole this big (putting his thumb together with the index finger to make a ring like shape). My response to him was firstly I am not a mechanic I will not know how an engine without oil runs and secondly there were no warning signs on the dash that were supposed to indicate that and when the engine switched off I tried to kick-start the car and it carried on running so I drove. I did all that a person that knows how to drive a car can do before realising that the problem might be bigger. After sometime he asked if whether I had driving drunk, I told him no. He asked me the same question and whenever I have answered that question already, he became aggressive with the way that he was asking, saying to me am I refusing to answer his question. I told him I have been answering you all along but somehow you still asking the same question over and over. I said had I been drunk you will have to have drawn blood out of me to prove that and do not remember anyone drawing blood out of me. After sometime he said I have been recording this conversation all along. He pulled out an audio recorder from his left shirt pocket and put it on the dash. I told him that according to South African law by the way you are required to inform a person that they are being recorded so you can’t record me without my knowledge.</p> <p> </p> <p>By the time we got to where I had hit the pavement, he just turned his car around and did not make any assessments, then I took him to where the towing happened. Even there he just asked the exact position but was not really interested. That was when I realised that he was just looking for a way out for the insurance not to pay. As we were moving back I told him that they have nice adverts on tv that make people want to trust them but the only thing that they leave out is that, should you claim from us, we will interrogate you first just to look for the legitimacy of your claim.</p> <p> </p> <p>Later I received a phone call from Morne to inform me that my claim has been declined. I asked him the reason why my claim had been rejected. He told me that I was drunk and drove the car without oil. When I asked him where he got that information from that I was drunk, his response was it’s facts at their disposal and cannot made it known to me. I told him that is he aware that my car shows warning lights on the dash if there is anything wrong with it and that there was never a warning light to indicate the absence of oil in the car. Then I just asked him for the letter from them rejecting my claim. He later called me to tell me to return the courtesy vehicle back to the car hiring company.</p> <p> </p> <p>After this I looked at my policy schedule to confirm if there is anything about interrogation when claiming and still have not found it. In his report he even fabricated that there were alcohol bottles taken out of my car. Which was totally untrue.</p>