Made out to be a ******** but actually a victim!

My Experience with DISCOVERY Insure

Ide like to start out saying how quick an efficient Discovery was to insure my vehicle for book value and on top of that I added Rims and Sound to the list. They accepted this and took my money no questions asked… No one came to assess the vehicle or check it at all. I am not in insurance so I did not question their procedures and carried on paying my installments.

This vehicle I have insured is a show car and is used on rare occasions for park offs and meet ups. In no instance is it a race van or even fast enough to do such things.

So on the 7th Feb 2019 I had a small bumper bashing with a taxi that pulled out in front of me and because all the heavy rain that we had over that entire week I landing up sliding into the back of him. Being insured I had no hassle to call Discover call center and report what happened and ask what should the steps be so that I am doing everything right in their books!!

I was told the towing company that was on scene was registered with them as was allowed to tow my vehicle away to a holding lot … Please remember this (towed to their HOLDING LOT) The towing company was “First Help” and was very helpful face to face.. they even gave me a lift home.

I left my pride and joy in the hands of Discovery and First Help and trusted that they would be in MY best interest.

We were still having a lot of rain and was worried my van was being left outside so I asked that my van be towed to a panel beater of my choice as I know that they will look after my van while we wait for assessors. Discovery agreed to this so I started calling the claim consultant to get my van moved.. this is where the fun begins.

The claim consultant told me my van is not at their holding lot (AUCTION NATION) but at Nu wagon Auto panel beaters.

I did not give ANY authorisation for my van to be moved from holding lot (if it even went there) as they promised me it would be in until assessed as well as have NO clue who these people were. I was NOT notified by Discovery that my van was going to be moved there at all.

After getting hold of Discovery’s Claims manager she acknowledged that what they did was ABSOLUTELY WRONG and did not know who gave that authorisation, and they promised me my van would be moved immediately to Rolling Dent where I wanted the van initially… This took 4 days of fighting to get right.

Once the van was at Rolling dents I asked if they were to send an assessor out. They said they had already assessed the vehicle at Nu wagon auto and came to R40k damage which would automatically write off the van, I just knew what they were trying to do and started fighting for my van immediately! I got a quote from Rolling dents in the iterim and came to R20k, then called Discovery AGAIN and they said they never assessed the vehicle and were going to send out a specialist as they were unhappy with some aesthetic changes I did on the van such as a bicycle rack made from 35mm round bar on the back, stretched tyres and wider arches. All to my knowledge are ALL LEGAL. Things were sounding VERY dodge.

Once the correct assessor had been to Rolling dents he made an appointment to see me and ask me a few questions. I agreed as I have not done anything wrong.

On the day of our meeting I was INTERROGATED like a ******** for over an hour. Was asked a million questions and was even told be careful how I answer the questions as I said “ I put the suspension in” not meaning me personally but had someone put it in for me. Felt like a complete ******** for doing what I thought was the right thing!

After a couple of days Discovery came back to me and said they not paying out for the accident as they said having stretched tyres caused the accident and would reimburse me my installments that I’ve paid over the time insured with them.

There was Nothing I can do I said fine… did some research and NOWHERE in the rule books of SA law does it say stretched tyres are ******* and can be the cause of accidents!! As long as my tyre tred was good (which it was as the tyres were brand new) and the footprint was fully on the road which it is. I even fitted really good Dunlop tyres, and not cheap tyres…

So its been around 2 weeks since they rejected my claim and I still yet am struggling to get my money back from them and no one seems to get back to me.

The Claims Consultant was Nhlanhla Msimango who wasn’t much help through the procedure as he couldn’t explain to me why the van was at Nu wagon auto…. And the claims manager was Viksha who was very helpful and nice but also didn’t even know my van was being moved to locations without their knowledge.

Hard to trust ANYONE now to insure with and can just hope I get reimbursed or something as after been made to feel like a ******** I now feel like the Victim in this and nothing seems to be happening…

No longer insured by Discovery