ABSA IDirect Insurance - Dealing In Bad Faith

Good Day,

I would like to share my terrible experience with ABSA IDirect Insurance.

On the 17th of June I was involved in a vehicle accident, no other vehicle was involved, my car spun out of control and hit the embankment, which was carved out of rock. I called ABSA to inform them of what happened and they dispatched a towing vehicle. The car was towed to ReNew It in Bedfordview.

My claim was being administered by a gentleman of the Byron Hoffeldt, he kept me informed with the progress of the claim, he then informed me that the claim is being finalised, however he wanted to make sure that there was no damage to the body of the vehicle and therefore he will be going out to ReNew it for a 2nd evaluation with Mr Dirk De Witt (who did the initial assessment and submitted his findings on the 23rd of June 2020) the 2nd assessment was conducted on Friday, 26th June 2020.

I then received a call from ReNew It Edenvale on the 1st of July 2020 at 10:59am where I was informed by them that my claim was rejected by ABSA and that the reason for rejection was that my 2 back tyres were not road-worthy. I immediately contact Byron to find out why I had to hear from a 3rd party about the status of my claim. He said to me that he was still waiting for a report from a tyre expert and that my claim had not yet been finalised and was not rejected. Till today I have not been furnished with this report that resulted in my claim being repudiated. If this was a perfect day, with perfect weather conditions, then that would be one thing, I feel that because ABSA Insurance had already concluded that this claim was not going to be paid (acting in bad faith and informing the panel-beater days before I was informed and before the tyre report came back as Byron is not a tyre expect, so how did he come to this decision with insufficient facts?), they did not consider all the other aspects that could influence the complexion and validity of the claim,

The next day Byron called me and he informed that he had just received the report from the tyre expert and that he will review the findings. He also indicated that he had escalated the matter to his superiors that the panel-beater had already divulged the findings of my claim with me, before they informed me. Later that same day Byron then informed me that my claim was indeed being rejected as the thread of my back tyre in some places was below the 2 (I think it's centimeter's).

My issue here is that only ready on Friday the 26th it was already decided that my claim was not going to be paid and this personal information pertaining to my claim lodged with ABSA was discussed and finalised with a 3rd party. They still continued to withhold this information, until the panel-beater informed me and to show that this was discussed with them, the same reason the panel beater gave me for my claim being rejected is the very same reason that ABSA gave me.

I feel that this whole interaction was done in bad faith, a decision was made with regards to my claim and this personal and confidential decision was shared with a 3rd party that I have no relationship with before it was even shared with me.

I am hoping that in light of this information and the sequence of events my claim will be reconsidered and paid out.