No Funeral policy payout!!! Employee Benefits failed us after 28 years of service!!!

<p>The deceased served this company for a whole 28 years of her life and it is utterly disgusting how the company treats her family at the time when they are at their lowest, expecting the company to fulfill their obligations.</p> <p>As per company's employee benefits the deceased was covered for a funeral policy, which is supposed to pay out within 72hrs upon receipt of necessary documents. The family handed in all the necessary docs on the 4th of January 2017 as required at the Westgate branch where the deceased was employed. Agnes who received the documents immediately submitted them to the relevant department for processing on the same day. No indication was given of there being any outstanding / incomplete documents hence the assumption then that all was in order.</p> <p>The next day (5th Jan 2017) Agnes followed up with the claims processing dept and was advised that there was no staff present at the particular dept. office as they had closed for holidays. (*AMAZINGLY* it seems people don't pass on or require claim payouts during holidays?!) This really BAFFLES me! How is that even remotely possible??</p> <p>on the 20th of January 2017, the family went to the CNA building in JHB (Edcon Offices) to enquire further on the status of the submitted claim , where we were referred to the claims department head - Anthony who was abruptly RUDE to say the least. He showed no ounce of empathy nor care towards a family that had just lost someone who was in Edcon's employment. ( It shocked me just how such attitude could be displayed by somebody in his position and left me wondering that if this is how "STAFF's families" get treated for funeral policy payout queries, then I shudder to think of how the "normal" funeral benefit policy holder would be treated)</p> <p>We then enquired why the claims department was supposedly closed at the time we claimed and Anthony's response was that a decision was taken by the company CEO that all staff in the said department take compulsary leave as during that time of the year, THEIR staff attendance was VERY SPORADIC. They therefore saw it fit to then rather shut down the entire dept for Holidays, totally uncaring or bothered by the repurcussions thereof or the impact of any of the families that may require their services during that period! This Arrogance was beyond comprehension as he gave us this response.</p> <p>He then advised that he would escalate our complaint and concerns with his seniors and revert on even date. This NEVER happened, as I still had to call him to follow up on my query to which Anthony responded; "There is nothing the company can do, fact is that the claim was EVENTUALLY paid out irrespective of WHEN" </p> <p>The most sad part is that the family could not give a befitting send-off to their loved one due to Edcon's inability to properly & effectively manage their staff. </p> <p>The deceased was laid to rest on the 7th of Jan 2017 and the claim was only paid out on the 19th of Jan 2017. So can someone please make me understand HOW we are supposed to deal with the distress and Inconvenience caused by Edcon in this situation??? Imagine having to run around gathering funds whilst Edcon and their staff were happily relaxing enjoying their "COMPULSORY" leave.</p>