Undue time take to repair my vehicle (Stinking service!!!)

This is a timeline of events that unfolded on my vehicle during the repairs

On the 24 August 2021 I had an accident with my car (a white Toyota Yaris). I informed my insurance, First For Women (FFW), telephonically and the car was taken to Bens Spray Painters and Panel beaters t/a Paint A Car, in Richard’s Bay. I was informed by FFW insurance a week later that my claim was approved. Then a courtesy car (Kia Rio) was approved for me on the 28 August 2021. After 2 weeks I contacted Paint A Car to check the progress on the repairs to my car and I was told that they were awaiting approval from FFW. I raised a concern with FFW, but they blamed Paint A Car and informed me that all was approved from their side. After making countless follow-ups with Paint A Car about the time it has taken to repair my car due to the fact that the courtesy car was supposed to be returned on 27 September 2021, I visited their workshop on 27 September 2021 and I was informed that work on my vehicle could not commence because they were awaiting further approval for additional work. I was also informed that the assessor had declined the approval based on the fact that the photographs sent to him were not clear. As a result, they could not tell me when my car was going to be ready.

I then called FFW to verify this and was transferred to the assessor who denied any knowledge of this. The assessor promised to phone Paint A Car, and he called me back to inform me that my car would be ready by Friday, 01 October 2021. FFW insurance then embarked on a conference call between them, myself and Paint A Car. The lady, Vicky, from Paint A Car denied any knowledge of this and further informed me that my car would not be ready by the date given to me by the assessor. I then informed her that the assessor had spoken to a gentleman by the name of Jerome who promised me that my car would be ready by Friday, 01 October 2021. She stated that Jerome had not communicated this with her and confirmed that she still did not think that that would be the case. My courtesy car was extended till 02 October 2021. I was contacted by Jerome from Paint A Car on 28 September 2021 to inform me that he had given FFW insurance the date my car would be ready but there was a possibility that the car would not be ready on that date due to the fact that it would have to undergo a wheel alignment test and could not be collected if it did not pass that test. On the day that the car was supposed to have been ready for collection, he called me again to inform me that indeed further work had to be carried out before the car can be ready and therefore it was not ready for collection.

MY COMPLAINT My complaint is that it took Paint A Car panel beaters 4 weeks to start working on my car simply because, by their admission, they did not have the additional approval that they had requested. For this reason, the work on my car was only started on the day that I phoned FFW insurance to raise my concerns about the time it was taking to complete this work, because of the incompetence and tardiness of the panel beating shop coupled with a lack of communication between Paint A Car, FFW insurance and me. This extension granted on the car hire expired on 02 October 2021. Now I find myself having to pay for a hired car which in my opinion could have been avoided. FFW insurance insists that it is my responsibility to make sure that I communicate with Paint A Car with regards to the completion date of the repairs to my car. FFW insurance has further informed me that they are not prepared to further extend the time allocated for the hired car. This I find unacceptable as the reason, in my opinion, is that the car has not been repaired timeously due to reasons mentioned previously (tardiness, lack of communication and sheer incompetence). This has caused me great inconvenience in that the further cost of the vehicle hired is now incurred by me which I believe should not be the case. I am interested in hearing their response. My last communication with Paint A Car panel beaters, Jerome informed me that he could not give me an expected delivery date for my car which again I find it to be unacceptable. So my car would be ready between now and 2025, wow!!!