Desperate for assistance from Discovery Health

Good day,

I cannot even begin to explain the level of my frustration at the moment from the service(or I should say Lack of service) received from Discovery.

My frustrations started on the 11th of September when I received an email stating that my membership was withdrawn effective from the 31 May 2022 which was puzzling since I had been making payments and to my knowledge the only outstanding premium was for August, I sent an email attaching all the POP’s of all payments made thus far on the 12th September 2022 07:44 PM.

After not receiving feedback I called the Call Centre on the 13th September 2022 at 8:14 am and the consultant advised me that my membership has one premium outstanding of the amount of R2700 before my membership could be activated. I also eventually received a reply to my email on the 14th September 2022 where I got the below apology from Lee Adams.

"Error! Filename not specified.

Dear Ms Mahlangu

Thank you for contacting us.

Reinstatement query

I trust that you are well.

Our records confirm that you are billed on the 25th of every month for that month’s cover.

Our Credit Control Department lapsed the membership on 12/8/2022 backdated to 31/5/2022.

At the time of the lapsing of the membership the direct payment of 1/7/2022 was not allocated to your membership.

The payment was only allocated on 16/8/2022.

We apologise for the inconvenience caused as the premium for August 2022 is currently outstanding and the premium for the month of September 2022 will be due on 25 September 2022.

I can confirm that we have reinstated your membership and suspended the policy as the premium for the month of August 2022 is outstanding."

I thank made a payment for the outstanding amount using the Discovery App on the 15th September 2022 only to receive another email 15 minutes after making the payment that my membership has again been suspended. I contacted the call center again on the 15th September 2022 and the consultant advised me to email my statement showing the payment that I had just made on the app, which I emailed on the 16th September 2022. At this point I was hopeful as the gentleman who I spoke to called me back the next day and proceeded to allocate the payment that I had made and got my membership activated finally. The hopefulness did not last however because on the 26th September I got a notification from my bank that my membership debit order did not go through, which was strange for me as I had more than enough money in my account. I again called the call center on the 27th September 2022 at 8:02 am to find out how much they were trying to debit out my account and almost fell when the consultant told me that they tried to debit R11 000(something). She advised that she would investigate and call me back. I phoned the call center again on the 28th September 2022 at 13:09 pm and the lady I spoke to also promised to investigate and escalate my query and call me back.

I also sent another email on the 28th September 2022 at 07:26am and again on the same day at 6:47 pm begging for some sort of feedback with no luck.

Today I got the below reply from Penny Sekhohola which now states that I owe R5518.00. I am beyond frustrated I am actually at a verge of tears as I longer know what to do for my membership to be fixed and activated. Myself and my daughter are both on Chronic medication that we need in order to live which I cannot get. My daughter is also due for her check up next week as her repeat script will expire next week. Do I need to die and become a statistic before I can get assisted. At the moment I am literally a puppet to Discovery and I cannot do anything without them pulling the strings. I AM NOW BEGGING FOR ASSISTANCE PLEASE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Dear Ms Mahlangu

Thank you for contacting us.

Premium outstanding

Please note that the amount outstanding due on your membership for your benefits to be restored is R5,518.00.

Payment can be made into the attached bank details. We will process the payment in 2 to 3 business days (this excludes weekends and public holidays).

We hope you have a wonderful day further.

If you have any more questions, please:"