King Price Insurance - Mediocre at best

My experience with King Price was...Average.

First Incident - I was a client for about a year before running into a situation where I had to make use of their services for the first time. I was stuck on the side of the highway at 08:00 PM with a car that broke down due to a waterpipe that burst. In my time of need I called them for roadside assistance, their support and response was professional however the terms and conditions on which I was to be helped was not that great. I was informed that I could only be towed to the nearest dealership - seriously what must I do at a dealership at 08:00 PM at night? How are they going to fix my car? Alternatively I asked to be taken to the nearest garage to fill up on water - I didnt know the extent of the damages at the time and only wanted to get the vehicle working so I can try and get home which was about 60 KM away. I ended up filling up the car when I got to the garage and left on my way home on the Highway, however I didn't get far. I had to pull over at another garage to avoid the car overheating and had to fix the issue with some help from my father who was willing to come out with tools and help me repair the leakage in the pipe so that I am able to atleast drive home. I feel that King Price roadside assitance should have atleast towed me to my house free of charge as per the roadside assistance included on my policy at the time. They were wanting to charge me per KM to get the car to my house, considering the distance I decided to take the risk and that's on me but I wouldn't have been in the situation had King Price not have such ridiculous terms on conditions on their towing/roadside assistance policy.

Second incident - I was involved in a minor accident in a parking area not too long after the first incident where someone reversed into my car. We exchanged details and parted ways, afterwhich I decided to approach my insurer for a claim to be done for the damages on my bumper. I confirmed with KP that they would assess the damages and arrangements would be made given that my excess does not exceed the damages - the other party was guilty for driving into me and KP confirmed that they would pursue him legally to claim my excess back should the damages exceed that amount. After the assessment was done at the panelbeater I gave KP another call to confirm that KP would pursue the other party for the cost of the damages even if the damages does not exceed my excess - I specifically asked for this as I did not want to go through the hassle of trying to get money out of someone who caused an accident. I was informed by the call desk agent that they would still pursue him legally on my behalf whether my claim was within or beyond the excess amount and I need not worry about anything - hearing gave me some reassurance as I was confident that the outcome of the incident would be good either way. That coming Monday I was provided the damage report from the panelbeater (Direction of impact was wrong indicating impact from behind when it was on the side - The description on the very same report clearly stated that the direction of impact was from the side) and informed that my claim was voided as the damages was less than the excess - I accepted it and asked the agent whether I am still eligible for King Price's legal department to pursue the other party for the money I need to pay to fix the damages to my vehicle - The call desk agent informed me that this cannot be done as there is no claim - King Price only provides legal advice to clients but cannot carry out any legal proceedings if the claim is less than the excess. I was quite shocked given that a couple days earlier I was informed that they would do this for me however it appears not to be the case. The call desk agent put me through to their legal department for further assistance and they informed me of the same thing. I ended up having to reach out to the other party on my own. After doing so the person who was responsible for my damages refused to pay, after providing them with the damage report which was all I had they claimed that the direction of impact was false and that I was trying to make them pay for damages they did not inflict on my vehicle. I informed the King Price legal department of this and they tried to advise me as best as possible but since they were not going to pursue him for the money I didn't have any luck with the outcome - Going back and forth and trying to resolve this got nowhere. After this experience I decided to close my account with King Price, false promises were made, the damage report was not up to standard and indicated false information which gave the other party enough grounds to refuse paying for the damages and I would eventually have had to take it up in small claims court with no guarantee of success. Shortly after closure of my account I received a call from King Price's legal department stating that they have pulled up the recordings of the call desk agent that told me they would pursue the other party on my behalf to get my money back. The King Price legal department agent informed me that they did make a mistake in what they stated to me on the phone and I was offered the opportunity to allow them to help me and pursue the other party on my behalf, infact they already called the other party and arranged for them to claim from their insurance using my accident reference number opened at the Police Station for this matter. Unfortunately this was too little too late as I had already cancelled, signed up with another insurer and taken my cars for assessments to be done as per the standard procedures when signing up with an insurer. I ended up paying only 200 rand more at my new insurer but my excess is R 3500.00 rand less than what King Price was offering me. Given my experience I was not willing to accept their assistance and declined it. I decided I would repair my own car and move on from this entire situation with another insurer that offers me better benefits and has not made false promises to me. Overall I feel disappointed in King Price Insurance as I have been let down to some degree on the first incident and there was a lot of negligence from King Price and the panelbeater on the second incident. I believe a lot could have been avoided and that the panelbeater should have provided a more accurate damage report as per according to my initial statement. Further the cost of repair was far less than what other panelbeaters assessed me for which makes it feel like my claim was voided on purpose - to be honest I am not sure what to think but I am sure that I will not be a client of theirs again!