DISCOVERY INSURE NIGHTMARE

<p>On Friday, the 16th of September, my vehicle – 2011 Daihatsu Terios – was hit by a Toyota Quantum. I contacted Discovery Insure – my insurers – straight away to report the accident, lodge a claim and get my vehicle towed as it was undriveable.</p> <p>Ben, the operator at the Discovery Insure Emergency call centre, was awesome – compassionate, patient & comforting – I was in tears when I reported the accident as my car was baby, my pride & joy – and accident-free until now. He organized the towing & recovery vehicle from Active Towing and made sure that I was okay...</p> <p>Gavin from Active Towing arrived to inspect the vehicle before it was towed, and he, too, was brilliant. He noted all the contents of the vehicle – externally & internally – and waited for me while my lift to work arrived.</p> <p>That is, unfortunately where the fairytale ends... The claim started well but has turned into a nightmare and I have never been so disappointed, frustrated and angry in my life...</p> <p>I was advised that Grayson-Lee Pillay would be my claims consultant & I was allocated my claim number via sms. And it all went downhill from there...</p> <p>My vehicle was towed, on Friday the 16th September, to AuctionNation in Wilsonia for assessment. That is where it stayed until the 22/09/2016 as per Wesley from AuctionNation. My vehicle was then transported, without my knowledge, to Elegant Square Panelbeaters on Thursday, the 22nd September and it has been there until now, without my knowledge. On Friday, the 23rd September, Bradley Pullin from Net Assess assessed the damages on my vehicle at the Elegant Square premises – something I find very, very strange because usually an assessment is done in a neutral environment as opposed to on the premises of a repairer.</p> <p>Another matter which I am incredibly frustrated about is that I was not given the quote & assessment report straight away and I was also not given the option as to which Discovery-appointed service provider I would like to repair my vehicle. I had never heard of Elegant Square Panelbeaters in my life and so I did a bit of research on them only to discover that neither there Pretoria or nor East London branches were SAMBRA approved & accredited Daihatsu repairers. I also spoke to a number of friends in the automotive repair industry and mentioned Elegant Square to them and was met with complete negativity from all those I spoke to... Their workmanship was very poor & they had a very bad reputation for personal affects disappearing out of vehicles.</p> <p>Anyone who knows me, knows that my Terios is my pride & joy... I have owned her since 2013 and she has been accident-free until now... And I am heartbroken that this has happened.</p> <p>I was decidedly unhappy about Elegant Square repairing my vehicle and voiced my dissatisfaction to Grayson-Lee Pillay at Discovery and asked him for various other options. I also contacted the Discovery Insure Head Office, on Wednesday the 28th of September, to get them to change the service provider and spoke to Naeera who advised me that she would contact the assessor and get him to appoint an alternative repairer. I also spoke to Bradley Pullin and let him know that I was unhappy with the choice of repairer. Bradley’s reason for sending my vehicle to Elegant Square is that my vehicle was no longer under warranty so it could be sent anywhere for repairs – this contradicting Grayson’s original statement to me that Discovery only send their clients’ vehicles to brand-accredited repairers as I was told in a telecon with Grayson when he contacted me the day of my accident...</p> <p>I want to re-iterate that, At NO STAGE, did I authorize Grayson to go ahead with the repairs by Elegeant Square Panelbeaters as I was still disputing the repairer and so was incredibly shocked when I received an e-mail from Grayson on Thursday, the 29th September, saying that Elegant Square had already started the repairs – even though I was still disputing the repairer...</p> <p>I’m also expected to pay R 3600.00 excess for the repairs on my vehicle even though I had requested an excess waiver on my policy when I signed up with Themba Zulu, the Discovery Insure consultant, on the 21/05/2015.</p> <p>Why should we, as the consumer, be bul**** by & dictated to by insurance companies as to who we use to repair our vehicles when involved in an accident? We pay the premiums, surely we should get to make that choice, not an assessor...</p> <p>This whole situation is very suspicious as I believe that Elegant Square is Discovery Insure’s top automotive body repairer in the Eastern Cape, and yet, they have such a bad reputation. And there are so many other SAMBRA approved panelbeaters in East London who’s workmanship & service is of the highest quality, and yet, Net Assess, the Discovery-appointed assessor network is allocating all the work to Elegant Square? Very, very fishy...</p>