Discovery Insure – Extremely Disappointed Client

Discovery Insure – Extremely Disappointed Client I would like to express my extreme disappointment with the way Discovery Insure has handled and addressed my claim. Below is the edited detail of the sequence of events with regards to the way my claim was handled.

I formally registered a claim on the 09th of April 2018.

My first claim consultant was Claim Administrator 1, she requested the vehicle settlement letter and vehicle registration papers, which I sent. She also requested for the copy of my ID and driving license for her to get my recovered vehicle from the police pound, which I submitted.

Later the claim was reallocated to Claim Administrator 2 called me on the 10th of May 2018 to inform me that my vehicle is deemed uneconomical to repair which was followed by the e-mail confirmation. On the 11th of May 2018, Claim Administrator 2 requested vehicle settlement letter and vehicle registration document which I had already sent to Tatum. I sent the documents to Claim Administrator 2 as requested.

I then received progress feedback from Claim Administrator 2 on the 17th of May 2018 that my claim has been sent to management for authorization. The next feedback from Claim Administrator 2 was on the 21st of May 2018 still saying that the documents are awaiting authorization from management.

On the 24th of May 2018, I tried calling Claim Administrator 2 for feedback and my call was taken by Claim Administrator 3. I further sent him the original 2017 quotation and the OTP I signed as we were in a long discussion with regards to Clause 7.7.2 or 7.7.3 of the Discovery Insure Plan Guide with reference to my loss. I also requested the assessment report which he sent the following day (25th of May 2018). From then onwards I never received any feedback from Claim Administrator 3.

On the 29th of May 2018, I sent an e-mail to Claim Administrator 2 requesting progress feedback. He never responded to my e-mail and that was my last communication to him.

On the 30th of May 2018, I sent an e-mail to Claim Administrator 3 for feedback and I didn’t get any response and that was my last communication to him.

On the 04th of June 2018, I received an e-mail from Claim Administrator 4 and the e-mail content was the settlement breakdown which I questioned and mentioned to him what I mentioned to Claim Administrator 3 on the 24th of May 2018, that my vehicle was less than 12 months old and Clause 7.7.2 and 7.7.3 of the Discovery Plan Guide (bullet point 2) stipulates that “If your vehicle is written off, including ****** or hijacked: We will pay the replacement value of a new vehicle of similar make and model at the date of loss if your vehicle is less than 12 months old from first registration.”

Claim Administrator 4 then said that he will get quotations of the new vehicle and I also said I will get a quotation from the dealership of the same vehicle. Mercedes Benz (as per my request) sent the quotation to Claim Administrator 4. Claim Administrator 4 also got his quotation from THESL which I queried as the navigation system was not included.

Claim Administrator 4 then called me on the 12th of June 2018 to confirm to me that unfortunately the quotations he received doesn’t have the navigation system and therefore he will settle my claim based on the quotation he received from Mercedes Benz. We confirm the figures and I accepted.

On Thursday the 14th of June 2018, Claim Administrator 5 called me and said that the claim has now been allocated to her. She further requested that I send her yet another settlement letter. I asked her about my previous claim administrator and she said he is no longer with the company. I then sent her the settlement letter from my vehicle financial institution. Her team leader also called me to confirm the settlement figures

The team leader also sent e-mail on the 14th of June 2018 confirming that the claim is above his mandate, and he has sent it to his manager for urgent authorization.

On the 18th of June 2018, I sent the team leader e-mail requesting progress feedback and he never responded. On the 19th of June 2018, I received feedback from Claim Administrator 5 saying the claim is still with management for final validation.

On Thursday the 21st of June 2018, I sent another e-mail to Claim Administrator 5 for feedback and she didn’t respond. I called her office and I was told that she went home due to family emergency. On Friday the 22nd of June 2018, I called again and another gentleman answered and said that Claim Administrator 5 is not at work.

On the 25th of June 2018, I called again and Claim Administrator 6 answered and I requested to speak to Claim Administrator 5 and he said she is no longer with the company; my claim has now been allocated to him.

I then said to him that I will drive from my place to Sandton to meet with him and his manager to have my issue resolved as it was taking too long to conclude. While I was driving, Claim Administrator 6 called me and said he has sent the settlement breakdown to me. He detailed the contents as I was driving and he said everything will be settled and an amount different form the previous commitment. I continued with my drive to the Discovery offices.

On my arrival at Discovery, I met with Claim Administrator 6, he came with the same settlement breakdown as sent and explained to me while I was driving. As I was about to sign, the signature page was not there and he had to go back to the office to get the missing page. While I was waiting for him, I scrutinized the settlement letter and I noticed that the amount reflected on the letter was negative (-) amount (meaning I must pay Discovery Insure).

Claim Administrator 6 came back with his manager and I indicated the error to them. Claim Administrator 6 went back to the office to rectify the letter and he came back with a letter with different figures from what he initially presented.

I further questioned the figures that kept changing and which are different from what has been communicated to me telephonically by claim administrator 4, team leader and Claim Administrator 6.

Unfortunately we never reached a consensus.

On the 27th of June 2018, I called the manager for further discussion, but unfortunately I felt that she was very impatient with me as the Discovery Insure Client and she mentioned that she has explained everything she could and If I have any further questions, I should put it in writing and she will refer my questions to Discovery Legal Department which I acknowledged.

I requested her to instruct Claim Administrator 6 to send me the Agreement of Loss letter which was prepared after the errors were rectified and it is the letter that was prepared when I was at Discovery offices. I said I will sign it for this claim to be finalized and I will engage further with Discovery on the matter.

When following up on my request for the letter, the same letter with errors (negative amount) was e-mailed to me.

The last and final settlement letter I received and signed came once again with different figures from what was presented to me on the 25th of June 2018. I ended up signing the Agreement of Loss as tabled to get my claim settled and continued to challenge the matter further without having to argue with anyone. I did note that the agreement of loss becomes binding on signed or payed but continued to made by discovery.

My main concerns are as following: • the figures that kept changing from one claim administrator to the other • The time it took to reach a settlement. • And why I had to deal with so many claim administrators.

I requested Discovery Insure to do a full investigation on this matter, give me a full explanation, feedback and take drastic action on those who contravened the Discover code of conduct, Discovery values, South African Insurance Association (SAIS) code of conduct, viz. claims handing will be conducted in a fair, transparent and timely manner and as an SAIA members time standard when handling a claim, viz. should any circumstances make the timeframes impractical, the insurer must agree a reasonable timeframe with the policyholder (which was never done)

I made a follow-up on the 01st of August 2018 regarding the recording and the investigation progress. I expected a full report of the investigation outcome and not a one/two liner note, that “the complain has been investigated and that Discovery has indemnified me correctly” That doesn’t answer my concerns.

And I still await telephone recordings to be couriered (as the recordings couldn’t come through to my e-mail due to file size)

Regards Extremely disappointed Client