Discovery Insure sells lies to clients and fails to deliver

This is my second review of Discovery Insure in eight days as I have not received any communication from any manager or their complaints division regarding my complaints from the 4th of November. So please forgive me for being a frustrated client.

On 30th October after making 10 calls to Discovery and being cut off I was eventually assisted by Shaylin Govender who was logging my claim. I was very clear from the beginning that my vehicle should not be booked in with RenewIt or Proline autobody shops based on a previous claim from 2020 and that experience.

On 1st November I went in for my vehicle assessment with Net Assess and I informed the guy that my vehicle must not be booked with RenewIt or Proline autobody. He even acknowledged that many clients have complained against them so I do not know why the insurance is still contracted to these autobody repair companies. Later that day I received my claim approval for Proline! I called Discovery immediately and requested that this be changed to Car World. Why did I need to make this call and frustrate myself when I was very clear about my request???!!!! This is just incompetence.

I submitted complaints on 4th and 5th November because it is extremely frustrating to make a request and have to repeat this several times. I had to contact Discovery 3 times following up on this request. And I would like to point out that my claims consultant turned into a ghost. I then requested Discovery that I be given an automatic courtesy vehicle as I have been driving automatic for 5 years and I drive a minimum of 500kms per work and I need to be comfortable and safe as my previous two claims with Discovery was such a bad experience that it left me mentally and emotionally traumatised. I was then told by a female that I may make such a request and that she will transfer me to the relevant department. There was no mention about additional costs at this point. I received a call from my *********** claims consultant, Shaylin Govender on 5th November to inform me that my car has been allocated to Car World (which I already knew at this point) and I asked him about the courtesy vehicle to which he informed me that I had taken a manual hatchback vehicle on my plan and I told him that I was not informed about this during my sales call as the consultant was too busy trying to sell me the most cost effective plan. He then advised that he would pull out the sales call and the calls from the previous day and that I would receive these recordings. He said that if what I was saying was true, he would escalate to his Team Leader for approval and provide feedback by the end of the week. I would like to add that he knew full well that I had submitted a complaint but was not bothered about it as the Complaints division will handle it. That is his attitude towards his job.

Fast forward to this current week, I have still not received a call from my *********** claims consultant, Shaylin Govender. I made a total of 17 calls to Discovery yesterday DURING MY WORKING HOURS AS IF I AM WORKING FOR MY FATHER'S BUSINESS! I was transferred and cut off so many times (as usual) and I had to relay my story to so many consultants before speaking to an arrogant black male consultant. At this point I was absolutely furious. I do not pay a premium to have to chase after Discovery. My premiums are paid timeously so I expect the service that I am paying for! This arrogant black male tells me that I have no right calling Shaylin Govender ***********. Who is experiencing Shaylin Govender, the black male or me? He has no right to tell me how to talk about someone when this is the experience that I have had. This arrogant black male further addressed me as if I have no dignity telling me that I will get what I paid for and this is the feedback from Shaylin's Team Leader and that it is what it is. So tell me, am I supposed to die in an accident if your consultants do not communicate and inform clients accordingly of what is included in their plans???!!! Clients that go through an accident are already financially stressed and emotionally traumatized, must Discovery now tell them that it is what it is and force them into something that they are not comfortable with?! I am sorry but the clients pay the salary of all your employees and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. I must complement Byron from the sales division as he assisted me with the process should I choose to cancel this policy and he explained my policy to me and treated me with empathy and respect and apologized for the ******* from Shaylin Govender and his Team Leader. I requested that both Shaylin Govender and his Team Leader contact me to log my complaint and I have not heard from either of them. They are truly *********** and I would like the feedback from their investigations to which the arrogant black male simply ignored before he cut my call.

So in addition to paying my car insurance premium to Discovery, I now have to pay an excess amount (which is no fault of mine), a deposit for car hire and I will need to pay a daily upgrade rate to Avis in order to be able to drive to work and be safe and comfortable. All of this amounts to atleast R10000 additional expense for this month. Let me not forget about the airtime that I had to buy to make all these calls because NO ONE COMMUNICATES ! What am I paying a premium for on a monthly basis if I am going to incur all these expenses???????

And please do not tell me that I will get what I paid for ! Do not even dare ! Clients do not pay premiums timeously to receive emational and mental stress when they submit claims. Clients do not pay premiums timeously to have their vehicles be booked at autobody repairs like RenewIt that do not know the first thing about repairing cars. Clients do not pay premiums timeously to have their vehicles be repaired with generic parts. A company as big as Discovery should have efficient communication platforms so that clients do not need to call you 17 times in one day! Your consultants should be trained and you should not be employing young, immature males who are not serious about any aspect of their lives to assist clients. And a company as big as Discovery should have a solid Complaints division that addresses these matters and conducts the necessary investigations and disciplinary actions against their employees.