A total *******. They put conditions that were never agreed to. They ignore correspondence and decline claims without verifying the cover details. No physical assessment of the car. Client I paid for a 2nd opinion assessment as they wanted to write off a

I took up an open Policy with Dotsure in May 2022. My car was involved in an accident within the Estate I live in, just a couple of meters away from the house on the same street. As the car was in a drivable condition, the security/patrol from the Estate escorted my son home. Since my Policy is an open Policy, I had borrowed my son the car to use as he was going to do a piece job in Johannesburg and would be coming back late at night and it is not safe and expensive for him to travel on Bolt/Uber at night. The accident happened just before 3:00 a.m. He is still staying at home since he is unemployed and is fully dependent on me. I lodged the claim with Dotsure on the same date in the morning and submitted all the required documentation timeously once provided with the link to upload the photos. After a few days I was allocated an Assessor who started saying things giving me suspicions that the insurance was already taking a posture to decline my claim. It was clear from the beginning that the intention was not to pay. 1. He asked me if there was a leak and I indicated yes, then he indicated, if it is caused by the fact that the car was driven from the scene the claim will be declined. I told him that is not possible. 2. He then asked for photos that were already on their system. I took photos again and sent to him. 3. He never came to assess the car physically as he did a desktop assessment. He then said according to the assessment the car is a write off. I disputed that as the engen and the airbags were not affected and it was only the front. 4. He then said I can get another Assessor to do a physical Assessment which I did and paid for. I sent him the Assessment quotation of R 57,700.00. He then phoned and indicated that the Assessor I got did not quote on OEM parts. He indicated that his assessment has more parts than the other one. I requested him to use the Items from the other Assessor and quote with OEM parts from his assessment. He indicated it's still going to be a write off. I explained that I cannot afford to loose my car and buy another car as I still owe a lot of money from the Financier and I am currently struggling financially. He then advised that if I proceed with the quotation from the other Assessor, I will loose the warranty, which I indicated I don't mind loosing than loosing the car. We agreed he would proceed with the Assessment and Quotation from the Assessment I paid for. He completed his Report and submitted to the Claims Department. A week later I started making following ups unsuccessfully. Every time I was informed the claim is still under investigation and they will revert. Eventually on the 5th of December I received a call a lady who indicated she was investigating my claim. She started off with accusations that I **** to the insurer which made me very upset. 1. She indicated that I bought my son a car and did not indicate that to the Insurer. I told her that this is the only car I have and as I knew that my son would require assistance every now and then, I took up an open Policy to accommodate the times when he would get permission to use the car. 2. She then said that I am not the regular driver of the car as there was an incident around August that my son was involved in which she claims I failed to supply photos and the claim was then declined based on that. I clarified that I was sick on that day and requested my son to get me something from the filling station less than 2 km away from the house. He then forgot to pull up the handbrake and the car rolled back onto the 3rd party's car that was filling up. I clarified this that the photos were uploaded and I indicated telephonically and sent an email explaining that I was not claiming for my vehicle as it was not damaged but claiming for a 3rd party. In one of the telephone conversations I was advised to still submit my vehicle photos even though it was a 3rd party claim for record purposes which I did. To my surprise I received an email indicating that my claim is declined since I failed to submit the required documentation. I sent an email clarifying that I have already submitted everything, and they should rectify their records regarding this claim. I then received a letter of demand from the 3rd party's insurer and I entered into a settlement agreement to settle the claim from my own pocket since my insurer was ignoring all correspondence from me and I did not want any Summons issued against me. Despite my clarification they still have on record that they declined my claim because I could not submit required documentation. This is tarnishing my record. 3. She then said that my son drives the car more than me which is not the case. I explained my situation that sometimes that can happen, but it is not always the case and is not something that I can forsee as he is currently unemployed and has got no job to go to on daily basis. Should my son get a job, his employer would make arrangements should they work late as that is industry norm. For now, he is freelancing and gets piece jobs once in a while. 4. She then indicated that around August/September I tried to change the frequent driver and indicated that because sometimes my son might use the car more than me as I indicated I use Gautrain to work. The car is mostly at home and my son once in a while fetches my little one from school which is about 5 kilometres from home. I was advised that as long as my cover is an open Policy it allows anyone to drive with my permission. I asked what option I must take in view that under unforeseen circumstances, my son might use the car more than me. She indicated once the claim is finalised I must contact the Insurer for further assistance with restructuring my Policy. So far there is no option that covers for unforeseen circumstances. If I change my son to be the regular I would still have a problem should I be the one driving the car more as I am the owner of the car. 5. She also indicated that I am not covered as my son is under 25 years and the accident happened at night. I clarified that my Policy says anyone with a valid driver’s license. I also indicated that I came across 4 conditions with additional access in my Policy that were never explained to me, and I never agreed to when taking up the insurance. I requested for the recordings of the time when I took up the Policy as I don’t remember most of these conditions agreed to in my Policy. After a long-heated argument Mariska apologised and indicated that she verified my Policy and it does not say what she was thinking. This is clear that they were just outright declining without verifying the details of my Policy. 6. I then gave her my son’s number which she requested for purposes of an interview. She indicated she will finalise her report and submit on the same date (05 December 2023) and the outcome will be given to me by Thursday the 07 December 2023. I made follow-ups on the 07 & 08 December and was informed it is still under consideration. 7. On the 11 December 2023, I then made a follow-up and she indicated that it is still under consideration. I requested for escalation as the claim is taking too long to finalise and we are now in December and this is frustrating as I might not get my car fixed before the festive season. She agreed to escalate the matter and I later got an email that they could not get hold of me telephonically to give me the outcome of my claim. 8. I received a telephone call this morning indicating my claim is declined as my son was using the car for business purposes and was fatigued when he was driving the car. My son is not using the car for business purposes. He is currently unemployed and not conducting any business. He uses the car with my permission as and when necessary and he is not the regular driver nor the owner of the car. I am still awaiting for all the information I requested. I am not happy with the way my claim was handled. It was clear from the very beginning that there was no intention to approve my claim as the reasons to decline kept on changing every time I received a call from the Insurance without even verifying the exact conditions in my Policy. This insurance has caused me a lot of emotional pain and suffering. I am awaiting for the Ombuds to resolve my matter and I am intending to institute a class action with everyone who is affected by this unfair treatment for all the claims they have declined as this- is unfair practice and could be their modus operandi and it’s a *****ulent activity for an Insurance company to take money from clients knowing that they are not accepting any risk of accidents. This is totally against the rules of insurance. They have caused me and other clients a lot of emotional pain and suffering through a tedious process that did not yield any positive results.