“The Royal Treatment” by King Price insurance. Is the royal treatment really royal? Or does King Price insurance just take your money, promise full comprehensive cover at the initial sale and give you a royal rejection letter and escort you out when you

<p>Insurance Company: King Price Insurance</p> <p>Claim Number: CKP ********** /1</p> <p> </p> <p>We insured our 2007 BMW 3-series A/T, with King Price Insurance for full comprehensive cover on the 6th June 2016. After King Price Insurance financial advisor, Mr. Mohammed Kasiem had noted all personal details with regards to insuring the above mentioned vehicle, also consenting them to complete a full credit and other necessary checks (ITC), we were made aware that our vehicle was fully insured. The insurance was activated from the 7th of June 2016. The full comprehensive insurance was taken out on Mr. J.S Coetzer name with Mr. M.N Abrahams noted as a regular driver.</p> <p>According to the financial advisor for King Price Insurance, Mr. Kasiem, we were approved for full comprehensive cover with King Price Insurance since the 7th of June 2016. King Price have deducted the insurance premium every month with the understanding that we indeed have “Full Comprehensive Insurance Cover”.</p> <p>We had an accident on the evening of 29th September 2016 with the vehicle, which supposedly had full comprehensive cover with King Price Insurance. After getting out of the vehicle, King Price Emergency services was immediately contacted for assistance. The consultant notified the regular driver that there is indeed FULL COMPREHENSIVE COVER on the insured vehicle and that King Price Insurance will arrange a towing company to remove the vehicle from the accident scene. They returned the phone call within minutes with a towing company that King Price Insurance suggested to utilize. Thirty minutes later the towing company arrived and towed away the vehicle. After the vehicle was removed from the accident scene the consultant requested that the claim was to be lodged during office hours and that we will be contacted by King Price Insurance the next day.</p> <p>The next day (Friday, 30th September 2016), the consultant, Shaakira Mallam ********** took down the necessary details with regards to the claim to start the claim process. The consultant requested to speak to the regular driver of the vehicle in order to record the event of the accident. She spoke to my fiancé which was the regular driver and notified him that the vehicle indeed had full comprehensive cover and she will contact us with regards to the following steps of the claim process.</p> <p>The following week (3-7 October 2016) we were notified that the claim process had been initiated and that an assessor will be in contact with us. After contacting King Price Insurance, speaking to numerous consultants (Mallam, Becker and Molese) later that same week with regards to any updates of the process, the consultants confirmed that the vehicle has been written off but awaiting further confirmation notes from the assessing department. We were given contact details by a consultant by the name of Ivan Molese for the King Price Insurance Assessing Department’s manager, Philip Venter. Shortly after contacting the Assessing department’s manager, an assessor, Mr. Henry Nel ********** was assigned to the claim. We were notified by Mr. Henry Nel that he has already assessed the vehicle and needs to setup a meeting with Mr. M.N Abrahams (the regular driver of the vehicle).</p> <p>During the following week (10-14 October 2016) a meeting was held at our home on the 10th of October 2016 in Somerset West. During the meeting, agreed upon by the claims assessor, Mr. Henry Nel and the driver, Mr. M.N Abrahams was a recorded conversation and questionnaire regarding the accident. The questionnaire was answered to the best of Mr. Abrahams’ knowledge as agreed upon. During the meeting the assessor confirmed that the vehicle was indeed written off and further processes in finalising the claim would be done by the end of that week. After the meeting, Mr. Abrahams took the assessor to the accident scene, where photos were taken by the assessor. Before leaving, the assessor notified Mr. Abrahams that he would contact the witness/witnesses from the night of the accident as it is part of the assessment process. By the end of that week, after contacting King Price Insurance numerous times yet again, we were notified by a consultant that they are awaiting further details from the assessment department and that they would be in contact with us.</p> <p>During the following week (17-19 October 2016), King Price Insurance was again contacted numerous times with regards to the claim as we had no feedback from the assessor, Mr. Henry Nel. During this week we spoke to numerous consultants regarding the claim. Numerous emails was sent by the consultants to management and the assessor to contact us, which they failed to do. None of the consultants could give us answers, so we requested to speak to management on the 19th October 2016. We were put on hold and transferred to a manager at the claims department. The manager notified us that she cannot get hold of Mr. Henry Nel nor any of his managers within the department where the claim was at that point. The claims manager also notified us that the claim was in the ‘final process’ but could unfortunately not give any details with regards to the claim.</p> <p>On the morning of the 20th October 2016 the assessor, Mr. Henry Nel, contacted and notified us that the claim has been rejected due to a “Material Misrepresentation” on page 1 and 2 stating:</p> <p>“During sale stage of the risk on 6 June 2016, you Mr. Coetzer were requested to disclose if you or anyone you intend covering under this policy have defaults or judgment/s past against you or them. You answered no. During the processing of the claim it was discovered that the noted regular driver, Mr. MN Abrahams, with ID Number 870404[...] has defaults against him.”</p> <p> </p> <p>As per the telephone recording of 2016-06-06, [11:21] ([mm:ss]) of the sales process, the King Price Financial Advisor, Mohammed Kasiem asked four questions requesting a simple yes or no answer. The questions below are directly from the telephone recording, and are confirmed on page nine of the policy statement. Please see transcribed telephone recording:</p> <p> </p> <p>“Kasiem: [11:21]: Just these four questions, yes or no, Right.</p> <p>First Question: have you or anyone you intend on covering ever had covered cancelled by an insurer, been refused renewal, been advised to arrange alternate or special terms and/or conditions placed on a policy?</p> <p>Coetzer:[11:33] No.</p> <p>Kasiem: [11:34]: Have you or anyone you intend on covering ever been placed under debt review or administration? </p> <p>Coetzer: [11:39]: No.</p> <p>Kasiem: [11:40]: Have you or anyone you intend on covering have defaults, judgments or found guilty of any ******** offence?</p> <p>Coetzer: [11:46]: No.</p> <p>Kasiem: [11:47]: Have you or any company you involved or anyone you intend on covering been insolvent, sequestrated or liquidated?</p> <p>Coetzer: [11:54]: No.”</p> <p>After rushing through these questions, Mr. Kasiem did not explain any terms and conditions with regards to the questions nor has he explained the outcome and reasons thereof. Mr. Kasiem has not specified the importance of these four questions and that it would affect our full comprehensive cover. The fact that King Price Insurance requested permission for an ITC check put us at ease that nothing was out of the ordinary.</p> <p> </p> <p>According to the Policy schedule, page 9, received from Mohammed Kasiem on the 6th of June 2016, King Price Insurance requested permission to do an ITC check on the regular driver. This has not been done as we have now requested from Transunion Credit Bureau to query if any credit checks were requested by King Price Insurance on the regular driver at the time (or after) the policy was activated. The documents from the credit bureau clearly states that NO credit checks were done by or on behalf of King Price Insurance.</p> <p> </p> <p>King Price Insurance failed to do the necessary checks with regards to any defaults found on ITC on the day King Price Insurance agreed to activate our full comprehensive cover. Before ending the phone call, we were welcomed by the King Price Insurance financial advisor, thanking us for our business and assured us that we are now fully covered – we, not knowing that when we should have an incident, King Price Insurance were going to look for reasons (which King Price Insurance have solemnly failed to check on or after the day the full comprehensive insurance was activated) not the pay-out the claim.</p> <p>Had the credit check been done by King Price Insurance, as Mr. Coetzer and Mr. Abrahams given permission as stated in the policy schedule, King Price Insurance would have comprehended the default on Mr. Abrahams' name. Therefor failing to notify Mr. Coetzer that the cover is going to be affected and not approved deeming any future claims null and void. Since the day of cover was activated, King Price Insurance have debited thousands of rands for FULL COMPHRESIVE COVER but failed to cover us after our claim was lodged.</p> <p>During the call on the 20th of October from the assessor - Mr. Nel explained that the claim had been rejected due to above mentioned reason. He also stated that King Price Insurance would deliver the now written-off vehicle to our residence as our policy is now cancelled by King Price and the vehicle has to be removed from the salvage yard soon or we will be billed with daily storage fees not giving us as the client ANY time or option.</p> <p> </p> <p>We asked him who we can speak to with regards to the outcome as we felt the outcome is ridiculous and prejudiced. He made it clear that the insurance decision was final and that should we have any disagreements with regards to the outcome, we should contact the King Price Ombudsman ********** <p> </p> <p>This outcome makes NO sense at all as King Price Insurance has accepted and activated Full Comprehensive Insurance on the vehicle. On the 6th of June 2016, after taking down all necessary details by the King Price Insurance, financial advisor Mohammed Kasiem, King Price Insurance had access to all personal details on activation and allowing them to complete full credit and other necessary checks (ITC), but they failed to do so. Now only, after we have claimed, they are doing “necessary checks” they should have done in the initial sales process.</p> <p> </p> <p>We feel this is unfair as the insurance company can just take your money and be ready to cover you at the initial stage, yet when it comes to a claim it can simply be rejected by a “material misrepresentation” as King Price Insurance states. They simply give you a call and a “royal” rejection letter, but would not allow any further communication as the claim is referred to their in-house ombudsman should you want to appeal the outcome of the claim. There is nothing royal about King Price and their service – when you claim they simply seek faults, notify you that they will return your premiums (less claims processing costs) and escorting you out by delivering your smashed (written-off) vehicle when we thought we were fully covered.</p> <p> </p> <p>1. Can insurance companies just reject a claim after promising Full Comprehensive cover?</p> <p>2. Is it legal for insurance companies NOT to do the ITC checks, giving false cover and using it against the client should they claim?</p> <p>3. Should the ITC processes not have been done initially by the insurance company?</p> <p>4. Can King Price now claim that they have been ill informed when they have not done the necessary checks and when their sales consultants do not explain very important information/questions thoroughly?</p> <p>5. What can we do in this situation? We need URGENT legal advice!</p>