Dot(NOT)sure - An insidious tale of False advertising and false promises -

Dotsure suddenly cancelled my pets contract, the reason being ‘multitude of claims and claims ratio’.

NO WHERE in Dotsure’s policy wording does it mention anything to do with allowable ratio of claims. In fact, Dotsure’s website clearly states under frequently asked questions that you can claim ‘as many times as you like, as long as the claims fall within your specified cover and annual limits’

My policy was the ultimate plan. This plan gave me a R106 000 annual limit. I had only claimed approximately 25k in that year at the time that Dotsure cancelled my contract. I laid a complaint and Dotsure promised to investigate the issue ‘thoroughly’.

The limited information that their allegedly ‘thorough’ report that they gave me was self-serving and lacking in objectivity. They said that they cannot fault the insurer as their only obligation is to give me 31 days prior notice and they have done that. They completely ignored my question of how can we exceed risk criteria when we are still far within our limits of the policy and we are up to date on our very high premiums on their “top” plan.

Without any proper explanation to the contrary, the inference to be drawn is that we are being excluded simply because we are actually making use of a policy that they provide within the parameters that they advertise are afforded to us as a policy holder. I.e. they are not earning enough on our premiums because we have called them to “make good” your on their advertised offering.

This is false advertising to say the least. You can not advertise and induce people to contract and pay high premiums on the basis that they will have a comprehensive policy with a limit of R106k when you simply kick them off if they get even close to 25% of that limit. That is disengenuous and actual contrary to the consumer protection act.

Dotsure also cancelled my second dogs policy, even though the claims they refer to were largely related to one dog only. Again, they failed to explain this in their ‘thorough’ investigation.

Upon my own further inspection I now see that they have done the same recently to other complainants on Hello Peter. And if you look at their website now, the advertised ultimate plan premium has almost doubled in price. This is interesting because clearly they are kicking the claiming ultimate plan policy holders off “lawfully” because they can’t double their premium as an existing holder. This appears to allow them to change the premium “lawfully” for future policy holders who now have to pay nearly double for the same plan. Cheap tricks which would appear to be designed to fatten their wallets at the expense of their paying customers. This is shameful and simply adds to the complaint of false advertising and ******** behavior.

I am taking legal advice on whether and how to pursue this further.

Their slogan is “we create fans, not policyholders”. This slogan is as false as their policy.