Very disappointed

I have been a customer of Discovery MA and probably was one of the first clients joining Discovery Insure when launched (albeit with a hiatus during a year). Never had complaints about the service levels. Until now….

On the 4th of February a loose brick, or pavement on the road punctured the sidewalls of the two left tires and caused rim damage on my vehicle.

We phoned Discovery and the emergency call centre was wonderful (William Machitiso), very calming (happened on a busy M4 on-ramp) and organised everything to tow the vehicle.

The flat-deck arrived and indicated he is towing the vehicle to the assessment centre in Pinetown. (about 70KM from where I live). I queried that with the call centre. I was told: “We do there the assessment there, then a panel beater will be appointed closer to you.”

Avis was supposed to call to organise the rental vehicle. -> We had to call discovery 3 times, to finally have someone from Avis organising the vehicle the next day around 16h00

Nothing happened until the 12 February (8 days later!) When the assessor authorised 2 tires and rim repair at a non-approved panel beater in Pinetown. I called the call centre to ask them: 1) Why in Pinetown? 2) Why at non-approved Landrover? 3) Lastly, I pointed that to my knowledge mixing tires on the same axle is not recommended (even on the same threads) as it will cause different rotational speeds and might cause stress on the transfer case and / or differentials. I furthermore said that I would be ok with only replacing two tires as long as discovery assures me in writing that it is fine.

I was told by Thami Moloi, that because the vehicle is longer under warranty Discovery can have it repaired anywhere. However, this is wrong: The vehicle is under extended warranty from Jaguar Land Rover covered by Innovation Group. From there it escalated to a person by the name of Igsaan Sadan from Netassessor. Copy of him email to me and Thami Moloi —--------------— Please note as discussed with the client he wants his vehicle to be taken to an approve land rover repairer, I have advise the client the vehicle is out of warranty I have confirm with 3 different dealerships and they advise there is no extended warranty on this vehicle Note that the client requested 4 new tyres and i was advise that this would not be possible and that the same brand of tyres would be used on the left side on the vehicle Change of the repairer will also not be allowed as the selected repairer is lord dent Please proceed with the assessment report that was initially assessed ----------------— Igsaan called Land Rover, but has not confirmed with the extended warranty provider Innovation Care, and if he had done his due diligence correctly he would have found out the policy number at innovation care and confirmed that it is indeed covered.

12 Feb 2020 11:23 -> email sent to Igsaan that there is a extended warranty on the vehicle. I phoned Land Rover myself. 12 Feb 2020 11:38 -> email sent to Thami and Igsaan with the extended guarantee policy numbers and expiry date 12 Feb 2020 16:00 -> email send to request an update. 12 Feb 2020 16:21 -> email received from Thami asking about proof of extended policy 12 Feb 2020 16:47 -> email sent referring to the previous email with all the details of the policy, unanswered 13 Feb 2020 15:05 -> follow up email sent to Thami Moloi - unanswered 14 Feb 2020 10:28 -> follow up email sent to Thami Moloi - unanswered 14 Feb 2020 11:53 -> call to Discovery Call Centre - was told they are not going to do due diligence and call to confirm with Innovation Care; the onus is on me to provide with proof. 14 Feb 2020 12:02 -> email received from Thami, confirming the fact that they are not going to call Innovation Group to confirm the extended warranty. And I should go the Land Rover and get the confirmation.

I am a bit surprised about this service levels, I thought Discovery was customers centric… It is such a small claim, I wonder what would happen for a bigger claim, or in the unfortunate event of a life insurance claim. I am rating 2 stars thanks to William Machitiso, definitely portraying what service level should be.