Empty Promises and Unprofessional Services

On 12 October 2023 I spoke to one of the consultants who helped set up my medical aid plan. She assured me that it would be active as of 1 November 2023. When I asked about which day will I need to make payment on, she told me that although my medical aid is active as of 1 November 2023, my first payment will only be debited on 1 December 2023, which really had me impressed.

From around about 5 November 2023, I started receiving smses from Discovery Health which read as follows - "Discovery Health Medical Scheme: Reminder - Your cover stopped because you owe R1,127.00. Make a payment safely on our online payment platform: https://discv.co/AccStatus."

This I did not understand as I was told first payment was only due 1 December 2023. I then logged a complaint via the live chat on the Discovery App, where I was first told that they would fix the problem and that it would take 2-3 working days then they will notify me, but not even 5 minutes after that, I was sent a msg in the live chat still saying that it must be my lucky day because they were able to fix the problem and that my account has been corrected and suspension had been lift.

Today. 28 November 2023, I again received the same sms, "Discovery Health Medical Scheme: Reminder - Your cover stopped because you owe R1,127.00. Make a payment safely on our online payment platform: https://discv.co/AccStatus." Now after speaking again to one of their consultants, who advised me that my account was not active yet but would activate it now, I asked about the payment as I still expected to receive my medical aid benefits for a month before having to pay, because like I was told, my payment plan is set to pay in arrears. Which to me meant that I would now have to pay for a month where my benefits were suspended. The consultant went on to tell me that my account is still going to be debited on 1 December 2023 but I may make sure that I do not have enough funds in my account. I asked but how could I do that, because obviously if they can't debit the payment then my benefits would be suspended for another whole month, and I was told that it wouldn't be suspended again and the consultant then left the chat.

The service I have been receiving from Discovery Health is appalling and unprofessional. They do not deliver on their initial promises they make to get you on board with them. I am now being expected to pay for something I never received, which is daylight *******.

I would like to know how this matter will be handled and how do they plan on solving this problem. I had to pay banking fees for unsuccessful debit collections for payments that was only supposed to be debited on 1 December 2023.