Terrible Client Service

On Monday morning the 22 June 2023, my father (a member of GEPF) telephonically contacted the GEPF Client Service Western Cape requesting assistance with a confirmation letter.

To provide you some background information, The family is presently applying for legal administratorship following a diagnosis of vascular dementia. This is an advised legal process for patients with neurocognitive conditions to protect both the financial interest of the patient and the family and to manage the day-to-day obligations and requirements for dementia patients.

Coming back to the present, the client service agent that my father came through to telephonically was an agent by the name of Phumelele Nakane. It appears that there was some data missing from his profile and she advised him that the best route to follow without coming into the office would be via email.

This then prompted my decision to immediately try registering on the self service registration page on the website but unfortunately without success.

The next route I followed was the email request as advised by Phumelele. The email was sent out on Monday the 22nd of June 2023 at 13:20 whereby I provided her with all of the necessary membership information accompanied with supportive, validatory documents and explicitly informed her that the confirmation was urgent as I was scheduled to leave the country within 2 weeks.

There were numerous emails sent back and forth requesting the request to be in a letter format with my dad's signature and I eventually proceed with an official letter accompanied with supportive documents on the 26th of June 2023. Stating once again that the letter was quite urgent. My dad and I do not live together, he has taken up residence in assisted living following his diagnosis.

I must state that quite a few of the emails, had required me to reach out to Phumelele. Strange, for someone who was hired with the job description and responsibility of a client service agent.

On the 28th of June at 11:15am I sent my last email asking her whether we would receive a confirmation letter and up to date there has been no response.

It appears that my father and myself was ghosted.

What a sad turn of events, as this is the only document outstanding for us to proceed with the application for administratorship.

It not only appears that I threw money down the drain on consultations with both the attorney, social worker and psychiatrist, to initiate the administratorship process for a dementia patient but that quite frankly it appears GEPF does not care about the wellbeing of their members.

I have been leading an expat lifestyle for that last 10 years and I leave the country in precisely one week's time to work in another continent with the hope of returning for a visit next year. I may need to redo this process next year again.

Kudos to GEPF Western Cape Client Service for excellent customer service. My dad feels valued and prioritised. And as for me, I am strongly considering proceeding with legal recourse for the financial losses I have experienced in this journey.