Women Deserve so much better, Go to Auto and General - less catchy but BETTER for Women

In December, a client of First for Women crashed into the back of my wife's car. As Tm Hanks would put it in Forest Gump, "**** Happens"...

Fair enough, unless you happen to be in a car accident where the responsible party is First for Women...

You buy insurance with the belief that when you need it, your property will be made whole. Back to its original state, with no loss due to nefarious decisions made by the insurer,

To put it into perspective, our vehicle is a Hyundai, and Hyundai has a basic policy - only original parts may be used in the repairs. This is done to preserve the value of the vehicle. Oh, that and they also insist that the vehicle be repaired by an accredited panel beater. How crazy is that? That the panel beater being used is actually qualified to perform the repairs!

Imagine your surprise when you get told that not only you will not be provided with genuine Hyundai spares for the repairs, but on top of that, the panel beater appointed for the repairs is not accredited!

Just to add icing on the cake, every time you try to escalate the matter, you get told that the matter is escalated to fancy titles such as "Head of Customer Relations" who give themselves 10 working days to respond and yet do not even deign to respond to you within 15 business days and should you dare call the complaints number, you get put through back to the same person who made the initial decision...

"Let me out you through to the Team Leader" "Let me put you through to the Division Manager" "Let me put you through to the Head of Complaints"

You would assume that these are different people, and you would be wrong...

And there lies the first issue - if you call, you get nowhere, if you email, you get an automated response with a promise of a response within 10 working days (which seems to be based on their actual working days and not weekdays, so 10 days become 15 or 20 business days).

But, as they say in the advertising world, "Wait, There is More".

Before you get to this point, you first have to navigate the arcane corridors of bureaucracy and lodge a claim... Can you imagine calling to lodge a claim as a 3rd party and being told that the person who drove into you while you were stopped at a red light is not insured? Then to be told, they were insured but stopped paying their dues. Then to be told that the car is not registered... This is ignoring the 3 times you are simply laughed at for trying to lodge a claim. Or the 4 times that they realize you are making a 3rd party claim with them and they just say "sorry" and hang up. It was only by pure luck that I managed to lodge a claim by first pretending to be a new client who wanted to take out a large insurance.

Having registered a claim, one would expect matters to be smooth sailing, right?

Not so fast... Adhering to the process, we sent in pictures of the damage and also a report from an independent panel beater (my personal insurance company's policy)... The damages were to the boot, the back fender, and to one side. Clearly visible and laid out in this evaluation - R48,000

The response from First for Women? Easy - "We will repair the fender". Repair estimates: R8,000.

When I protested, First for Women felt that it was a fair repair for the damages. When pressurized to explain why the boot was excluded - total silence. Then, was the boot damaged? The evaluator had not seen that.

Suddenly, out of the blue, a call - a panel beater pretending to operate on behalf of First for Women calls - They have been allocated the repair job! When I asked how they got my details as the insurance company was not yet ready to settle - complete silence. Has anyone heard of the POPI Act?

A complaint to First for Women reveals that the repair estimate is now R 12,000. When pressed for details, the repairs match the independent evaluation somewhat, and yet there is a price difference. Apparently, the panel beater has "ways" to obtain the Hyundai spares for cheaper.

Suspicious, at this stage, I asked for an assessor to come out and evaluate the damage. This evaluator told my wife that he had been told that no new spares would be used in the repairs! Apparently, this is their policy!

"OUT OF WARRANTY SUBMITTED TO ALT SUPPLIERS HYUNDAI HAS PROVIDED DISCOUNT, NO P.D WILL BE AUTHORISED MBR TO INFORM HIS DEALER THIS IS A PRICE ASSIST VEHICLE FOR SPECIAL PRICING, ALT SUPPLIER BMS SPARES USED WHERE CHEAPER. ACE AUTO USED WHERE CHEAPER"

As contrast, here is what MY insurance would do:

On Mon, 20 Feb 2023, 08:38 Dillon Govender, <***> wrote: Good morning Mr Whaley, Trust that you well, Apologies for the delay I was awaiting a response from our assessing team, They confirmed that all parts should be ordered from Hyundai Kind regards Dillon Govender Team leader: Auto & General

At this stage, I got allocated a new panel beater - read the reviews, called them.. they were shocked when I read them the Hyundai Policy for car repairs and were not aware that they were breaching Hyundai rules... They told me that they were withdrawing their services.

So, at this stage, what do you do?

I chose to escalate and requested to talk to the Head of Customer Complaints - instead, I got Mr L__S M____R... Team Leader, who may have posed, unknowingly, as the Head of Customer Complaints... He promised to review the matter in 10 business days and had to be reminded after 15 business days - same outcome, but now I had permission to escalate to the Adjudicator... well, not permission but rather, I got their email address...

3 months later, no luck, so I tried 1 last time. This time, magic! I got an email back, where they gave themselves 10 business days to respond, committing instead to replying within 4 days, the 30th of August 2023... 15 business days later - still no response... so, I wrote a follow-up email, and this time, my case is referred to the Head of Customer Complaints...

Would you believe it!

Too good to be true. This person does not exist according to the 4 employees I spoke to and Mr L___S M___R confirmed it when i was transferred to him instead of the Head of Customer Complaints...

Mind you, in the meantime, Savannah Coachworks has agreed that the Hyundai Policy is to only use new spares and got Huyndai to assist them with price assistance... Thus proving that this is a First for Women ONLY policy.

And here we are, on Hello Peter, with a follow-up to be published on a private blog read by 4,150 South Africans... maybe this story will be picked up by Carte Blanche or another news outlet - How Insurance Companies **** their customers by cutting corners and using non-approved spares.