Excess on Excess. Unhappy Discovery Insure Client

On the 24/03/2021 I had an incident while on my way to work and there was damage caused to the suspension of my vehicle. So i called me insurer Discovery and logged a claim. My car was not safe to drive, as I explained to the consultant over the phone but they still asked me to take the car to a panel shop which was located about 20km from my home for the car to be assessed. Being desperate to get my car back on the road. I did so. Scared as i was i drove to the panel shop.

The car was assessed and booked in for repairs and i was told that the repairs would take 8 working days to complete.

On the 21/04/2021 i picked up my car for the first time from the panel shop. My battery was stone dead and would not start. When i left the car, there were no issues with the battery. The car whilst driving was drifting left. There was a vibration and a noise at the rear of the car. When i got home I purchased a new battery. The next morning (22/04/2021) i drove the car back to the panel shop for them to fix up all that was wrong.

On the 30/04/2021, 24 working days later from when i first left my car for repairs, i went to pick up my car for the second time. This time the car drove OK, but my brake switch wasn't working and hence the brake lights weren’t working. There were none of these issues when i dropped my car off on the 22/04/2021. I had to go buy a brake switch and fit it as i didn't want to get a fine or risk getting into an accident because of my brake lights not working as a result of the brake switch. So i did so.

Another issue i had was that when i left the car at the pane shop. I had about half a tank of fuel in. When i got the car back. It was on EMPTY. over 100kms was done with the car whilst with them. Now as we all know. Fuel is exactly cheap. So apart from paying my excess. I had to pay for a battery that i had no issues with when I left the car. I had to replace the brake light switch, which worked fine when left the car at the panel shop and i had to fill fuel, fuel that i didn’t use.

I made numerous calls and sent emails to Discovery to ask them to please add these costs to my claim as i never budgeted for these unexpected costs. But i never got a straight answer from them. They just forwarded me an email from the panel shop explaining that the battery dropped charge whilst standing. The brake switch was faulty and the fuel was used up doing road tests. Road tests for 100km?

I have been with Discovery for quite a number of years now. I have signed up with you guys for almost every product you have available. This is the first time that i am really disappointed with the service that i have received from you guys. And to top it all off. I get an email informing me that my premium has increased.

My question to you Discovery is, why weren’t those items that I mentioned above not processed as part of the claim? Why do i need to pay for items that i had no issues with prior to me leaving my vehicle at the panel shop?