"Missing Car, Unauthorized towing"

One would assume taking out car insurance will give you “peace of mind”….

Well that wasn’t my experience with King Price :

On the 05 June 2020 (Friday)I had an accident. My vehicle was still drivable, I called King Price about the incident, at that time Precision Towing was already on the scene which I asked King Price agent to confirm if Precision is a service Provider to tow cars, The agent confirmed they were, spoke to the tow truck driver and confirmed with me that the car can be given to Precision auto for towing as it was "not safe" to drive the car (I guess out of shock, everything is exaggerated).

After consulting the 3rd party (Outsurance), who was at fault, and admitted. His insurance agreed to fix the damages on my vehicle. I realized there was no need to keep my vehicle at King Price’s/Precision “storage”… I called them on Monday the 8th Of June, Exactly 3 days after my vehicle was taken to their storage: I requested to Withdraw my claim, with obviously an intention of Keeping my claims history intact- hence I pursued claiming from the 3rd party. I was then advised the claim has been withdrawn, as per my request, and a release letter will be sent in the next 10-15 minutes. 1/2 hours later I took off and went to get my car from the towing company, wow! This is where the fiasco, began: I was asked to produce a “Release letter/form” from King price, I called King price , asking for the Release form two hours later the promised time- as Precision wanted it, and told me they’ll only release my car if I Have that form. I then started getting a number of excuses from King Price (over 5 different agents)

Herewith listed excuses:

"We did not authorize your car to be towed". "According to our system, your car is at home, therefore the system can't generate the release letter" - How can I request a release letter if I have my car? Am I releasing the car from myself? "We do not work with Precision Auto, so it's impossible that we authorized the towing". - Even management gave this excuse. "Our records do not show that you called us on friday" - like how else would i submit a claim without calling? Better Ask Nthabiseng who registered the claim. "We do not know where your car is". - I also wouldn't have known where my car was if it didn't have the BMW APP or Netstar Tracker App Frustration and uncer*****y started being the tone of that day, I called King Price again, after a “ Push and pull”- then it was my word against theirs…Eventually I went to the King Prices offices and a guy came and assisted me from the parking lot, He had to call one of the claims guy from his whatsapp and I had to speak to that other guy via whatsapp and gave him my policy details again via whatsapp. It's now about 2'PM and I've since left my house at 09'AM going up and down with these people, at about 02:30PM i got an email that my car is now released and I should collect it at the storage.

Still, It didn’t End there : I went back to Precision Auto with the email from the Head of Business they then told me I’ll get my car at 4 pm- that wasn’t the agreement when I got there in the morning. They only wanted the release form, then strange enough, I was asked to collect my car at Pretoria at the storage by Weskoppies. Bare in mind, I didn’t have a car and I reside in a secluded area, where being mobile is a prerequisite. I had to fund all these back and forth trips from my own account. No sense of empathy or sympathy from my “so called insurer”. I bet I was irritated, for wanting my own car, not for even a month did I miss a premium , but I had to literally beg them to bring back my vehicle. Fast forward: Just few minutes before 4pm while on my way to Precision Auto Storage, I got an Email , that read:

"Good day,

I was just informed by my manager that this vehicle was dropped by SMD as initially instructed.

Chantell"

There were emails coming back and forth and talking about SMD sandton and my car being towed and moved from the initial location which the car was earlier spotted. Thank God , I have the tracker app on my cellphone, I checked if the vehicle was at the same location as it was that morning…I decided to proceed to the agreed destination, where I earlier saw my car (Because I was live tracking my car with my BMW App). When I got there (Precision storage) I called the number on my invoice, with an intention to advise them I’m outside, and awaiting to collect my car. The phone rang for such a long time, unattended, Eventually -the guard told me the number on the invoice is the old number and it wasn't working (that explains why my calls were not answered), and the guard could not open because He did not get a "go-ahead" to open for me - eventually after a such rigorous effort, they opened for me to get inside the storage; which was filled 90% of cars that looked like they were written off, strange enough, my car was only damaged on the rear bumper ONLY.

King price really left a bitter taste in my mouth. Best of the worst! They could not advise their very own towing company to release my car! Had I Not fought, Was I going get my car? I had to tell them where my car is, does it mean If I didn't track it down then it was game over for me? Or does it mean their consultants don’t even know their very own product? Do they even know the guys in that s****yard of a storage yard even threatened me that I am going to lose my car and King Price is not on my side, I thought he was wrong but later learnt that he was spot on!

I’m certain fellow South Africans would appreciate being enlightened about this, I guess Hello Peter would be the best platform for such, It was nice being with you if I didn't have any claims to make, it seems our relationship is only one way. I am sure Outsurance will be glad to have me as their client as they finalized my claim and fixed my car in three days. There are other bizzare things that your agents said to me in trying to make me liable for this and distancing yourselves from this matter - I didn't know that your "lockdown comprehensive cover" is a third party only cover.

Best Regards,

Mohale