I feel like I have been fowl played!

I feel like I have been fowl played! For most people in South Africa, purchasing an insurance cover, whether for household content, for Life, for career, and for car insurance, is to avoid a financial difficulty which usually occurs when an unfortunate eventuality in the form of an accident, death, or crime, happens. Paying a premium to an insurance company that promised to cover all these eventaulities is what many (myself included) strive for every day of our lives. One continues with everyday life knowing (or I should say, hoping) that one is covered. No one really wishes that any of the above aforementioned eventualities happens, even when there are insurance covers in place (subscriptions), because these are all traumatic experiences to go through. The pain the bring, the inconvinience they cause, the distabalization they cause in ones life. At times people lose their lives through these life threatening situations. The worst ever experience though, is when the insurance that you religiously subscribed to for years, turns against you, when an accident happens. When your own insurance company “shows you a middle finger” when it’s time for them to show up and rescue you when the accident eventuality happens. When your insurance company shows you that they were not in it to help you during difficulty times, instead it runs away and let you sink and drown alone. It never stops to pain, when the insurer shows you that it is working hard to find a reason not to rescue you (or should I say, to honor their promise). One may wonder why I started this writing the way I did. This is to put into perspective, the situation I am in with my insurer (MiWay Insurance). Even though, it is clear that my car was hit on the back side by another car, MiWay Insurance still rejected my claim. Now listen carefully, to their reason for rejecting my claim, “ Non compliance with the reasonable request by MiWay and Driving under the influence- Not Tested”.

The accident happened in the morning of 20 March 2022, at an intersection of N1 South on ramp and New road in Midrand. The third party vehicle did not stop at the Red traffic signal and I couldn’t run fast enough to avoid it despite not expecting it. Even though South African Police service personnel arrived at the scene and inspected any possible injuries. MiWay insurance is under the view that I am the one who caused the accident because they suspected I was under the influence. Bear in mind SA police service personnel were on the scene and never observed any drunk behavior on me, let alone the need to test or breathalyze, despite having drunk no alcoholic beverage that morning. I don’t know what type of relationship MiWay insurance has with FRA Towing CC personnel, Reagan Marnitz in particular, as he misinformed them about the possible drunken driving on me on that morning and MiWay seemed to be convinced about this lies despite having no evidence about this. Upon reporting and registering a claim to MiWay, they requested that I should send them the consent letter (to be taken by them to SA police service)for them to investigate me of any drunken driving case on me that day of accident, and MTN letter to give them permission to obtain my cellphone signals (cellphone beacons to try locate my cellphone before the accident). The due date of these documents were on 21-04-2022. I have sent these documents to one of their assessors by the name of Cidelia Barker on the 20-04-2022 by 15:00. To my surprise, On the 22-04-2022, the lady denied having received any email from me on that date and rejected my claim on the basis that I did not comply with their reasonable request (Which is to send them these documents before their due date) and subsequently sent me a claim rejection letter and cancelled my policy with MiWay insurance with effect from their so called non compliance day. Now I am prepared to go the legal route with Miway, AND I am awaiting response from their internal claims dispute as I have requested a review of my claim on the 25-04-2022.

If Miway doesn’t resolve this matter, I can assure them, that they stand a chance to run short of their clientele to other insurance companies. This is how they possibly may feel the pain also, or depending on how big their clientele is: • I insured 3 cars with MiWay at R2000 premium/month, (surely I shall leave them if they don’t resolve my matter) • 65 of my Relatives have insured their cars, household content and others on average R1500 premium/month. My Math tells me that (65 * R1500/month = R97500/month)*12= R1,170,000/year). They surely will leave Miway after hearing my claim rejection news. • I am on WhatsApp groups with high school and varsity friends total of more than 80 and I know for a fact that most are insured by MiWay insurance, well given the type of conversations we have in that platform, about making companies respect people they get money from, I can assure you they will leave MiWay to join its competitors. If their average subscription is R1500/month. (R1500/month*80 = R120,000/MONTH) *12= R1,440,000/year. Miway will lose all of these subscription. • On Facebook, I have more than 800 friends (who possibly have their number of friends too), most of whom are people I know own cars and houses. If I share on my timeline my demise with MiWay, everyone wants value and peace of mind for their money, surely most of those who are using Miway as their insurer will be shaken. Assuming only half of the people in my timeline use Miway and have average subscription of R1500/MONTH. Then 400*R1500/month= R600,000/month*12= R7,200,000/YEAR is how much MiWay could miss out on. Ignore the fact that these people will share this with their friends on their timelines too. In total if my math serves me correctly, (R1,170,000 + R1,440,000+R7,200,000 =R9,810,000), this is how much MiWay, could lose in their revenues. May be an interesting question would be “what is the value of the claim they are rejecting?” Well, my Nissan Juke, 2015 TEKNA CVT, is valued at R230,000 and they indicated to me that the claim would be a write-off if successful. Although the damage on my car is on the side, affecting mainly the left back wheel, I don’t think it warrants a write off. Be that as it may, the maximum they will need to compensate me on is R230,000. Given the fact that they will sell that car on Auction at a value not less that R110,000 possibly, they only stand a chance of taking out of their pocket, only R120,000 and most importantly, possibly avoiding running a risk of losing R9.8M. But I am not a manager at MiWay insurance business, they surely know their business way better than their subscribers would imagine!!!