Complete and utter frustration with Discovery Insure

I had an accident on the 21st of January 2020. On the 14th of February it was authorised. On the 17th it was booked in. The estimated completion date was 1 month.

It was sent to Lar Tech panel beaters(Body Tec) and after several attempts to get information about the damage and time of repair, I was told that they were working on it and that I needed to be patient. After several months of trying to get feedback, sent an email to a Discovery insurance agent to get some answers. I never got a response or an answer. I told by the panel beaters that I was last on the list to be assisted since I did not have an emergency staff permit. They said that if I had one, they would be able to schedule it. Otherwise I would have to wait. This was in March 2020.

In April I was told that the spare parts had arrived and that the car should be ready very soon. I was given the end of April as the date that the car would be ready to collect.

At the end of April, I was told that one of the parts had still not arrived and that I would have to wait a little longer.

In the beginning of July, I was told by the panelbeaters that the part had arrived and that the car was being painted and almost ready to collect.

At the beginning of August I was told that the car could be collected, but they still had to do one more test before I collected to make sure that everything was ok. HI Q MIdrand did wheel alignment and balancing and weren’t happy with the result. They said that they would contact the insurance to get approval to continue with the additional work that still needed to be done.

They phoned me a week later, 7 August, to tell me that the work that they requested to be approved came back rejected and that I would have to pay for the cv joints and the straightening of the wheels. I was surprised that after the 6 months since the accident I only got this feedback then and still no response from Discovery themselves.

I sent an application to the Ombudsman and tried to contact Netassess to get assistance on the repairs needed.

In the meantime I got an email from the Ombudsman to say that if I didn’t collect the car as is from the panelbeaters, LarTech, I would have to pay for storage costs.

On the 16th I collected the car and saw that there was still extensive damage that was not fixed and the car did not drive well and couldn’t start when I tried to start the car, possibly the battery is dead, because it was sitting there for 6 months.

I always thought that Discovery Insure would be a company that I would be able to get answers from and offer good service. This is completely opposite to what I expected.

In fact, I have never received such BAD service and no feedback from any company I have dealt with before.

I had to hire cars from March til August and now owe over R21000 in hiring costs.

The additional damage that I found also translates into another R35000 including R5000 for the cv joints and balancing.

Other costs that I would have to cover are:

1) The Bonnet, didn’t close properly, I had to take it back to get it adjusted. It still is not closing properly. 2) The Front bumper was not fitted correctly and is skew on both sides. 3) The front fender is scratched 4) left mirror cover has paint peeled from the accident 5) Left front door dents and scratches 6) Left rear door dents and scratches 7) Left fender dents and scratches 8) Rear bumper dents and scratches 9) Dents and scratches on the rear fenders, 10) Scratches and dents on the right rear door and 11) Chips on the front door handle, 12) Scratches on the front left mag wheel

Even though these were included in the assessment claim, they were not included in the claim and were rejected without a valid reason.

The car wouldn’t start when I arrived at the panelbeaters on the 16th August, and after it was jump started and driven to a petrol station to fill up, it needed to be jump started again.

And when the car arrived home, after an hour’s drive, it still needed to be jump started.

I phoned the panel beaters to let them know. They said that the car needed to be left running for a few hours. I left the car on for 5 hours and then switched it off. The next day, it didn’t start either.

When I called the panel beaters, they said that they would apply to get a new battery from the insurance. This car had been sitting at the panel beaters for the last 6 months.

Another tell tail sign of the incompetence of the Panel beaters was a warning light for the air bag when I drove on the high way and this light stayed on. So there might be electronic damage still.

The colour matching and blending was not good and even though the Panel beaters were paid to do this the work was shoddy. Some of the new replaced parts invoiced by the Panel beaters were not new, i.e. the front bumper reinforcement.

After the wheel alignment and balancing was done, I looked at the report from HI Q Midrand and it showed bent rods and bent shock absorbers. This was part of the claim that was rejected too.

I have been paying R1637 every month I expected more. Even though my car has been sitting idle for over 6 months, I have not received any money back during this time, except for last month, when I got R270 back.

This experience has been a nightmare for me and my family and the repercussions of this has cost us thousands of rands and huge inconvenience. We expect a full explanation of why the assessor rejected most of the claim and also compensation from the insurer to complete all the repairs.

Also I feel that Discovery Insure should be held liable for the incompetence and time lag in completing the repairs in a reasonable time and also ignoring my many requests to get feedback.

I have tried to get hold of Net Assist in Bedfordview, but they have not yet go back to me regarding my messages that I have left, nor have Discovery got back to me with a senior person only a junior person, Tembinkosi, who really has no say over the work or outcome, and never has been escalated.