They say a Department (Business) is only as good as the people working there and the people who manages it. ***, oh ***, what a terrible experience I have had...

They say a Department (Business) is only as good as the people working there and the people who manages it. ***, oh ***, what a terrible experience I have had...

I am specifically referring to the Contact Centre employees namely: 1) Daylan (terrible manager); 2) Engela (extremely rude and no telephone skills); 3) Louise; 4) Suzette; 5) Wayne.

On 06/04/2023 I submitted a claim to be refunded for Doctor's consultations of R1200-00 each I had to pay cash for November 2022, December 2022 and April 2023. On 11/04/2023, I submitted another claim to be refunded for Doctor's consultations of R1200-00 each I had to pay cash for January 2023 and March 2023.

During the payment run for April 2023, I only received the refund for the claim that I submitted on 06/04/2023 and not the claim that was submitted on 11/04/2023 - so I contacted the Medihelp Contact Centre to enquire.

I spoke to a Contact Centre agent (I unfortunately did not write down his name as I did not expect that I would receive this poor service from Medihelp). He informed me that the reason I did not receive the refund for the claims submitted on 11/04/2023 was due to their email system rejecting the email as a duplicate. Apparently, the system saw the claims submitted on 06/04/2023 and 11/04/2023 as the same and rejected the latter one. He said that there was no human intervention - it was purely a system fault. I accepted his explanation. I explained to him that I need this refund urgently as I need to make a payment of R6000-00 to the Doctor on 18/05/2023 otherwise I will not be able to schedule my procedure. He informed me to forward the email to *** and add [PREFERENCE] as a prefix in my email subject - which I did.

Days passed and I did not receive any feedback from Medihelp therefore, I contacted them again.

I spoke to Engela - tried to explain the situation to her but she repeatedly interrupted me to the point that I had to ask her to please stop interrupting me and give me the opportunity to explain the reason why I am calling - again. Her tone of voice was also very hostile and I could hear that she is definitely not in the mood for this conversation and that she is not capable to resolve my issue. So, I requested to speak to the Manager.

I spoke to Daylan - also not very interested in assisting me - no wonder the Contact Centre experience that he provides is so 'amazing'. I explained the situation to him and he could also not give me any reassurance that my issue will be resolved in time - he will simply escalate it. Great example hiss sub-ordinates.

Again, I do not get any feedback from Medihelp and Daylan does no follow up as I would expect from a Contact Centre Manger who is responsible for an escalated, urgent query.

Days passed and I phone again. I spoke to Louise - again I must hear that it will be escalated but there are no follow up to ensure that the query is resolved. Medihelp - I would suggest training on "Follow-up on queries and 'First time call resolution' - to name only a few - because the Contact Centre - including the Manager's capabilities in these areas are pathetic.

Again - no feedback and guess what - it is now 18/05/2023!!! After my consultation at the Doctor - I phone again. Spoke to Suzette. I again tell her the issue. She said I must hold on - she is going to phone Daylan. She keeps me on hold for so long, the call eventually cuts for some reason.

In true Medihelp-style - guess what - Suzette nor Daylan phones me back after the call cut - so I phone again. Spoke to Wayne - told Wayne that he must ensure that Daylan phones me back ASAP as I will not be kept on the phone a minute longer due to their incompetence and total disregard to their patient's needs. A need that has been communicated now to Medihelp for more than a month!!! He said he will email Daylan and try to phone him but by now we all know Daylan by now - and obviously he is to small of a customer service employee to phone me back.

Joan, from Claims contacted me on 19/05/20023 and said that she is now busy processing my refund. I asked her why I am only getting feedback from Medihelp now? She said that my query only reached her on 16/05/2023!?!?!?!? I don't know how it takes 3 days to process a claim - she received my request on 16/05/2023 already and it was made clear that I need to make the payment of R6000-00 to my Doctor on 18/05/2023!!!!!! I told her that this was not only escalated once. She said the other requests was not marked as 'Urgent'. I told her that I, myself emailed *** and added the word [PREFERENCE] to the subject line in order for it to be identified as 'Urgent' - as I was advised to do but this was also just ignored. But surprise, surprise - Joan also does not have the ability to take ownership and simply said the failure in the process was due to the Contact Centre and not her - even though it takes her 3 days - 3 days!!!! to process an URGENT claim!!!

Well done, Medihelp. You really employee competent people to provide one of the most important services to your clients. Yes, Contact Centre employees might not be doctors, specialists, pharmacists etc. but they are the face of your company and one would expect that these employees would understand the importance of providing excellent customer service/experience.