Be very wary of Finrite Insurance

Finrite issued me with a replacement phone mid March, just before the lockdown, after I had paid an excess of R849 at the end of February to replace an Iphone6 that had a cracked screen.

At the end of May, the replacement phone froze on the apple icon and would not go past the frozen screen. At that stage, we had been in lockdown for over eight weeks so it’s not as if the phone was doing hard labour, just used for accessing social media, nothing too stringent. I took it to Telkom who told me that it needed to be booked in and sent back to Finrite. I enquired if it’s possible that the replacement phone was refurbished and the assistant confirmed that it could be. He also mentioned that due to the phone being only 2 months old, that it was still under warranty. Due to the restrictions in place, I booked the phone in on 01 June and today, 12 June, I receive an email requesting that I pay a further R849 for the repair of the phone.

When I called in I was advised that the phone can only be returned within the first 7 days after taking ownership of the phone, at no cost, which was news to me.

The phone is still under Telkom contract at R350p/m, insurance costs R150 p/m and now they expect me to pay a second excess amount of R849 for a software problem!

The reason I believe the replacement device is refurbished is because I had a replacement Samsung that lasted exactly 6 months after I took delivery of it two years ago but seeing as the contract expired at the same time as the phone seizing, I decided to renew the contract.

I’ve sent an email for a manager to contact me and have yet to hear from them. I feel that this is **************** and have sent a complaint in to the Ombudsman as well.