ABSA Insurance is useless and should be avoided at all cost.

I had flood damage on 16 January 2025 in Selcourt in Springs, effecting a parquet floor. The flooding was reported while taking care of the water on the floor on the same day. The claim number is ***. The claims process has been nothing other than highly frustrating to date. The insurer sends so called approved service providers with no experience in the field of solid wood parquet to not only assess tha damage, but also quote. This is unacceptable as they will appoint sub contractors. These "service providers" have been instructed by ABSA insurance that they need not positively identify themselves, siting the Poppi Act. This is absolute nonsense for an alledged registered financial service provider to insist that unidentifyable people gain access to my property. Now, after having had to deal with a woke customer care department, more than a week after the damage, they offered to send out an assessor. The floor covering need removal to allow for the concrete to dry out to a maximum of 2% moisture. This needs to be done as soon as possible to also allow for the blocks to dry. The "promise" of an assessor finally gracing me with their presence does not go without unacceptable terms and conditions, including a unfounded statement that I am not allowed to take out the floor until they finally and hopefully still this year sent an assessor of which they refuse to provide me the credentials of. This will just add several days to the project and delay returning the property to its full liveble state. Perhaps the main problem regarding this claim is that the property was paid off and I possibly in error elected to stay with ABSA insurance. I thus have zero recourse in terms of witholding bond repayments until such time as they have brougt the property back to original specification. I have offered to provide them with quotations from renouwned and expert contractors, get a cash settlement from them and project manage the process myself with contractors willing to be identified and with contactable references, yet this is also met with severe resistance to the extent of them saying that "Take it or Leave it." "We will decide who does work on your property." This is absolutely unacceptable, potentially leading to *******ion within the insurer and absolutely against the stipulations of the competition commission. Kindly take this matter up with someone withing ABSA Insurance who can resolve this matter. In my experience, their staff are perfectly trained to frustrate the insured as to either not pay out for the damage or to do repair work in a manner that is just enough to not get them into trouble and that they have no respect for the current nor future value of properties that they insure.