MOTOR VEHICLE CLAIM

So pertaining to my dilemma and dispute to Discovery Insure there are so many points that are unanswered and I feel discovery are not taking ownership of the mess that they have done.

I have had cover for my Vehicle, Audi A1 and engagement ring with discovery, which was insured through my mother’s policy. On May the 24th 2021 I moved the cover of my vehicle and engagement ring onto my own policy, plan number "£"£ which included the same Audi A1 that was insured under my mother’s policy as well as an additional vehicle BMW. I Also added R100 000.00 Household content and my engagement ring for the Value of R75 000.00

So basically, my assets that were all covered on my mother’s policy were put onto my own policy with an additional vehicle added to it being the BMW.

On the 26th May we had an unfortunate incident where my Gardner washed the BMW after he had done the garden , we were out at the shops when he decided to wash the vehicle out of his own goodwill, and when we got home from the shops I saw that he had washed the vehicle as the pavement was wet, I straight away checked to see if he had closed the sunroof that was tilted open, unfortunately he did not realise that the sunroof was open and the vehicle got wet inside.

Later the same day my partner and I decided to go out for dinner and thought we would use the BMW as it was just the carpets that were wet, when I switched the vehicle on we saw faults on the dash and knew something was wrong, so we decided to use the Audi to be safe. The next morning I booked the vehicle in with BMW 27TH May to see what may have happened, and they advised that water got into the main wiring harness of the vehicle hence all the faults.

We then Logged a claim with discovery on our discovery App. We got an SMS stating the vehicle must go for an assessment to ISLAND AUTO in cape town, we found this very strange as we live in JHB.

We managed to get hold of Net Assess to ask where we can take the vehicle to be assessed and they said the closest assessment centre was Renew It Rivonia, we then took the vehicle for the assessment and the vehicle was assessed.

We called discovery on the 28th May at 14:26pm to get feedback on the claim and as soon as I got through to an operator they would ask me for my claim number, after giving my claim number the call would cut 4 times at the exact same time after giving my claim number, is this co-incidental or is it a deliberate? I gave it a few minutes and called again at 14:40pm, the first call cut out again after giving my claim number. I tried again for the 7th time and eventually my call did not cut out after giving my claim number, I asked the lady what the progress was with my claim and she said they are still waiting for the report from Net assess as they give a 48h turn around time.

We then decided to call Discovery again on Monday 31st May as they would have surely received feedback from the assessing department to get told, oooh sorry your car is a write off. We then advised that this is not possible and we cannot have the vehicle written off. We requested that it get looked into as we are willing to pay in the difference to have the vehicle repaired. We get transferred to someone else and they turn around and tell us that we are not covered on the policy as no Pro-rate payment has been received. We told them that nobody had notified us about this as we would have made payment with immediate effect. They told us that they sent us an e-mail on the 28th indicating that we have no cover.

My question here is, when we called on Friday the 28th for an update on the claim,why were we not notified telephonic-ally right there and then that a pro rate was due and that we were at risk of having no cover?we called 7 times, why leave it for Monday to tell us until after the report is received from Net Assess.

We would have had ample time to rectify this and ensure we are covered and that payment had been received. I have had continuous cover for over 3 years on my personal assets, why on earth would I take such a risk like this.

I then asked the operator how did they try and notify us that we had no cover as we would have actioned this, I was told an email was sent to "£$&%@%£%%.co.za I explained to the lady that this is not my email address and I would have never know as the mail was not sent to me. No SMS was sent to me either indicating this, instead I got an SMS stating I must have my vehicle assessed in Cape Town. Really? Had the email been sent to the correct address I would have received the notification and would have actioned it accordingly.

Then they threw another card at me and said that I should have received an SMS from the bank stating a debit order had come off or reversed. I told them that I received nothing. I called Discovery bank and the lady who helped me said the SMS function was not activated on my policy as this needed to be done manually on my discovery app. Nobody informed me of this and did not know it needed to be done manually from my side, normally the banks activate this function from their side.

Regardless of the SMS notification, had Discovery insure sent this notification to my email address as given to them when opening the policy I would have known about it , had they have told me over the phone when calling 7 times on Friday the 28th I would have known about it.

To my understanding everything was OK with my policy on Friday as nobody mentioned a thing and they had 7 opportunities to tell me, This would have given me a fair opportunity to ensure payment reflects immediately before having the risk of no cover.

I made numerous phone calls on Monday 31st and spoke to numerous different staff members about this and before I knew it I had been on the phone with discovery for 6 hours throughout the day trying to sort this mess out , from one person to another nobody knew what the hell was going on,and this started to increase my frustration levels as you can imagine.

I then got a call from Nivesh and he asked what had happened and I explained everything to him as per the above, he said he would transfer me to GUGU to confirm the details on my policy, I gave GUGU my policy number and she again confirmed that the e-mail captured on my policy was "£$$$%@&%^&^.co.za, I told her this is Incorrect! She then asked me if my name is Ashley and whether my vehicle was a BMW 1 series. I asked for a reference number for the call as this would be proof from my side that the incorrect email address was being used as well as a name Ashley that I’m hearing for the first time, she told me she does not have a reference number for the call, is this co-incidental or deliberate again?

I did not think much of the pro-rate amount not coming off my account as it was the end of the month and to my understanding as a new policy holder that a debit for the full amount would come off my account all at the same time, being the Pro-rate amount as well as my normal monthly premium. This was obviously not the case as discovery insure do not want to take countability for errors caused from their side,this pro-rate amount of R730.06 is being used as ammunition not to pay this claim. This has now left me with my back up against the wall.

Might I add to all this mess that Dominic Ma is the rudest person I have ever had to deal with at Discovery, he talks over you and shouts over you when you're trying to have a conversation, this is extremely unprofessional from discovery's side.

I also don’t understand that an insurer can just remove you from cover without giving you an opportunity to make payment arrangements or not even sending an SMS or making a phone call to let you know about this. How can the measure of only sending 1 email be OK ( to the wrong e-mail address let me add) surely there should be better measures in place to avoid a brand new policy holder from experiencing such turmoil and disappointment.

I'm extremely saddened about this and i hope Discovery can rectify their mess and take ownership of the mess that has been done

I would also like to mention that the vehicle we are claiming on is not a write off , the quote from BMW Is currently standing on an amount of R123 906.28, we have paid a deposit of R34 719.1, so that parts can be ordered as they are back order items. We are not concerned about the R34 719.14 that we have already paid to BMW , I am concerned about the Discovery wanting to write the vehicle off.

I trust that this mail finds you well.

I hope that this can be sorted out ASAP as I would like to have our vehicle repaired and continue to use discovery as my insurer, I know people make mistakes but ownership needs to be taken and better measures need to be put in place

SHOCKING SERVICE, i STILL AWAIT FEEDBACK. I HAVE ASKED FOR ADRIAN GORES CONTACT DETAILS OR EMAIL ADDRESS 3 TIMES AND I GET IGNORED