Eugene Marais & Hazel Carelse - Worst Broker & PA

Eugene Marais is my Broker, for the past 4 years, he is a Franchise Principal / Financial Adviser covering Momentum Consult - Edgemead area; his Assistant is Hazel Carelse. My policy is with Echelon Private Client Insurance, since 2015 & I have not had any claims until a windscreen claim in June 2019. The service delivery level is appalling & I have 3 recent incidents to justify my opinion. First, the assistance regarding the Cancellation of my Absa HOC Policy where I, Eugene, Hazel & the Absa HOC Department were liaising via email; this matter also included the Refund of my Premiums for the last 18 Months as I was dually insured. I ended up having to resolve the matter myself as there was no urgency or the slightest proactive attempt to resolve the matter by Eugene & Hazel. The biggest surprise outcome was the fact that Absa HOC refunded me the 50% in no time whereas Echelon / Eugene was very delayed. The Second experience was the turnaround of my Dashcam Claim, it literally took 2 Months (Incident took place on 22 July 2019, claim paid out on 27 September 2019) to be finalised for a payout of only R1 850. The Third experience is the current pending claim where my house was burgled on 9 August 2019, claim process followed correctly & I was informed by the Assessor that the Claim was approved on 9 September 2019; I informed Eugene that I was not happy with the Excess of R6 000. Eugene first rep**** to my email on 20 September 2019 saying that he will discuss it with Echelon; I had no update until I emailed him again on the 7th of October 2019, only to be told again that he was meeting with Echelon's Sales Rep the following day to discuss. Here are the facts: Eugene Marais does not update or proactively make contact with me as a client regarding my claims, he shows no interest nor urgency in assisting me with resolving my claims & whenever I call, he does not answer nor does he bother returning my call. I've tolerated this mediocre service qualities of a Short-Term Insurance Broker, being Eugene Marais, for a long time. I've also referred Eugene to clients of mine in the past but then would be contacted by the same clients, asking me to get hold of Eugene as they can't & complaining about the bad service they're experiencing. I remained objective until I experienced it over & over again as a client. His Assistant, Hazel Carelse, is even worse because Eugene has an excuse that he can use, that being he's in meetings / seeing clients; she has no excuse for her shocking behaviour when it comes to assisting clients. She does not even bother replying to emails, even to emails that has an attachment of an email she claims she never received. Try calling these guys, when you have time to waste because that's what you'll experience, time wasting by listening to the ringing of a phone, whether it's Eugene's Cellphone or Hazel's Landline. Hazel also shows no interest in assisting me as a client, knowing full well that there's a claim underway & surely, if you know it's unfinalised, the least you do is keep the client informed as oppose to having the client call or email. My follow ups have been either weekly or longer as I too am very busy so, I have not been that annoying type following up every few mins / hours - perhaps I should've gone this route to get things done sooner. Point of this review, I would not recommend Eugene Marais with his Assistant, Hazel Carelse as a Broker; putting it bluntly, they'll onboard you as a client then when you need them the most, they go missing / drop the ball. They will have you experience the worst form of service delivery.