Dotsure - Stick to Dog insurance

I am a short-term insurance advisor and have my own practice for the past 7 years. I made the big mistake of choosing premium over benefits. I have a second business a 16 seater minibus that I purchased brand new. I did the insurance myself and found the premium to be very high R 2500 pm. With Dotsure I got an amazing premium of only R 1600 pm. Now I know why :)

I was with them for almost a year and a half when an unfortunate event happened. ( first claim ever ) While my minibus was driving the driver hit a pothole late at night. This happened at around 8 or 9 and the curfew was till 11 or 12 at that time.

The driver drove to his home as he didn't feel any problems with the vehicle and this was at night. ( Scared of getting ****** if he stopped was also one of his reasons, he had R 5000 cash with him ) then reported the incident to me at 11:45 that night.

It was only the next day that we saw the extent of the damage. Damage under the bus, hanging loose parts. I reported the incident that morning and took the vehicle straight to the panel beaters.

This is where it gets interesting. First, Dotsure came back and advised that they want to look at the tracker they installed in my vehicle. Possible reckless driving. I must be honest was stressing a bit but was happy when Wendy from Dotusre came back to me and reported all was good. No reckless driving can be detected.

Dotsure went on to decline the claim not long after. They declined my claim not even looking at my vehicle but asking for a few photos of the vehicle. First, they said the policy does not cover damage as a result of potholes. I was requested to read the fine print. I asked them how can comprehensive insurance not cover potholes. ( This is all on voice recordings )

They will get back to me the lady informed me. She then advised the claim has been declined as a result of my driver not stopping immediately after hitting the pothole and calling a towing service. ( So not because of the pothole anymore but because of the driver not stopping ) I advised them that it was late at night. It was only my driver in the vehicle, he felt unsafe to stop and did not realize the extent of the damage until the next day. Most people don't stop every time after hitting a pothole to inspect the damage late at night. The vehicle was still very drivable. They declined my claim thus as stated because of wear and tear. ( On a new vehicle basically )

The vehicle was drivable as stated before but had a slight vibration to it when I drove it to the panel beater. The mechanic reported that it was the result of the vehicle hitting a pothole and the steering rack was damaged. Dotsure didn't even incept the steering rack. They only saw a few photos of my vehicle that I had to Whatsapp a lady showing the rims on the tires missing from the pothole event ( btw they also don't cover loss of rims as a result of an accident lol. I took it to Nissan as it was still under warranty with very low 50 000 km on and they gave me a report stating it was not as a result of a manufacturing fault but because of an impact the vehicle ha., ( Pothole )

I informed Dotusre I will be going to the Ombudsman and someone from their legal Department called me and after explaining the story to him I asked him if he was me would have he have put forth a claim. He said yes. I must stress he didn't say yes he believes they are wrong. He just said he would have put in a claim.

Months later I still have not taken it further the damage was only R 25 000 and I got busy with other things until today when someone mentioned to me they were also declined with Dotusre recently and I thought I had to say something.

But the old story rings true you pay for what you get. I have no grudges as this was my own fault. I wanted to go for the cheapest option and because of my industry experience, I should have known better. I will give myself a one-star in this regard as well. Insurance companies need to make money as a high loss ratio can make or break a business but please don't look for reasons not to pay. It just creates a bad reputation in the industry.

Dotusre stick to dog insurnace :)