Extremely Poor Customer Service

My name is Clive Kgositsile *****o and my mother's name is Angelina *****o(policyholder)

On the 14th June 2023, we woke up to the sad news of the passing of my grandmother Leah Agrinette Mthembu who was registered on a Sopema Funeral Policy. In the morning we contacted the Sopema office to inform them of the passing of Gogo Leah, and shortly we were contacted by Phumzile from the Sopema office. She was indeed very helpful and very professional to cut the story shot Phumzile arranged for Gogo's pickup by the undertaker from your offices and Gogo's body was picked up speedily and smoothly with no delays at all. I am a happy customer till thus far.

The two gentlemen for the pickup advised us to immediately come to your offices and do a formal claim for the deceased. They advised us to go to the Dube branch as it is the closest to us together with the ID's (deceased and policyholder) and the policy details.

Upon arrival myself and my mother we were assisted by Winnie who requested ID's and policy information, contact number to register the claim. After completing to register we were asked to wait in the queue and someone will assist us. We waited close to 2 hours with no assistance. I eventually went back to Winnie to find out why is it taking so long for us to be assisted and she referred me to her colleague Goodness who answered the is only one person available to assist us the rest of your staff members were apparently on leave. Sick staff members should not have to be a burden for your customers. Customers must suffer because of sick staff members and queue in your offices over 3hours. I was now very irritated and decided to go out for some air to calm down at the same time my mother went to the bathroom. I was less than 5 minutes out only to come back to find my mother stressing and shaking with shock as one of your staff members took her policy documents without her approval and to top it up assisted another family which came to your offices after us who were complaining at the time and your two ladies answered they thought we were the same family because they are dealing with many people and blamed me for going outside without even bothering to contact the number they themselves asked for i.e my number.

I was so disappointed with the service that your office in Dube offered to us. To be more specific I am the one who pays for the funeral cover every month for a couple of years now. My mother came to your offices well and now she wants to collapse because of your staff members incompetence and poor service. Eventually I asked to see the manager and the two ladies said your office I Dube does not have a manager. Without any apologies and without being asked the ladies decided to arrange for us transport to go to the Orlando office which I was not keen to go to because it seems we are now boring them but because of the frustration I ended up going.

Upon arrival at your Orlando office we were immediately assisted by Tshepiso who was very outstanding and demonstrated professionalism. Big UP's to sister Tshepiso who went an extra mile and out of her way arranged transport for us to go to the police station. The driver Tumelo was very humble and professional. Big UP's to the driver Tumelo.

I will be honest today I had a very poor service at a time when you need Sopema at most i.e during a funeral. It is clear and without doubt that an office as big and beautiful as your office in Dube were the two ladies use apple Mac's but runs without a manager or supervisor in the office, staff members do as they please and service is not outstanding but very poor.

Later in afternoon just after 4pm Phumzile contacted me and apologised for the above mentioned incident which I am very grateful for her concern. Personally I don't think that I would like to step into your Dube office even though it is closer to me. In fact it is a Mickey mouse or circus running in your Dube office and I feel you should rather close that office as it is useless because it failed decimally to assist it's own clients or customers.

Today's incident unfortunately is gonna cost you a loss of a loyal customer. I take today's matter very serious and hope and wish that Sopema's top management will do something about our 1st time claim experience at your office. Please have a manager present at all times in all your offices and staff members that are prepared to assist customers not play around and waist customers time. We had other very important things to do today as well which we had to cancel because of being at your office.

Black people please we want to support a black man's business from Ekasi but the experiences we experience are shocking and unbelievable.

Thank You

Kind Regards

Clive