Shocking service for a simple Main member change

A simple task such as moving my Wife up to Main member and keeping our son on as a dependant as I was repatriated to the UK during Covid-19 Lockdown was simply beyond any one of the people we spoke to on the phone. We filled forms repeatedly as every time we spoke to yet another rude and unhelpful member of their staff they had no clue so seemed to start the process all over again.

2020/05/25 - At 11:11 am my Wife phoned your call centre to seek advice. My husband and principal member of the medical aid was being repatriated to the UK. He therefore no longer needed the cover but we still required cover for me, his wife, and our young son Thomas. During the course of the conversation, I had with the consultant I was advised that the necessary forms for the termination of his membership and the change of membership status from dependant to principal member would be sent to me. I was also advised that normally a calendar month's notice was required to give effect to the change but that given the nature of the circumstances, consideration would possibly be given to effecting the changes immediately which in turn would also have the effect of reducing the monthly subscription. 2020/05/25 - as promised at 12:46 the two sets of forms were emailed to me, namely (a) termination of membership and (b) change of membership from dependant to principal member 2020/05/26 - the above forms, duly completed and signed were emailed back to Momentum at 09:07 am 2020/05/26 - received an automated response acknowledging receipt of my email at 09:10 am 2020/06/01 - received an email from Momentum at 07:55 (a) confirming termination of the contract in respect of my husband, and (b) advising that a certificate of membership would be sent shortly (presumably reflecting the change to me and main member) 2020/06/01 - subscription debited to my husbands account for the full (unchanged) amount 2020/06/03 at 13:30 I phoned your Call Centre as I needed clarification as to whether the notice period had been waived as if so why the subscription had not reduced as expected. I need to state at the outset that the attitude and lack of willingness to assist was appalling. I was advised: That I and my son no longer had medical cover i.e. Momentum had canceled our membership. I was also advised that the reason the subscription fee had been processed in June was due to the fact that the May subscription had been returned unpaid due to lack of funds. This is not the fact and can be substantiated from the attached statements of my husband's banking account for the month of May and June. I was perplexed - I had previously received confirmation, as stated above, from Momentum which lead me to believe that both requests had been executed. On asking the Consultant to refer back to my initial email she imp**** that the apparent confusion was due to me having attached both forms to the same attachment. From this, I can only deduce that all the attachments were not actioned or the Consultant was not particularly interested or unwilling to help me understand the current status of my medical cover. The Consultant told me that the matter would be referred to the relevant department and that should I not have heard back from them within 3 to 5 days the onus was on me to follow up with Momentum using the following reference number ***.

It is now the 19th July, my Wife and son are still without medical aid, which at the best of times is necessary in South Africa, never mind during the current pandemic we all find ourselves in. Today my wife called the helpline again, and guess what... another 13 pages of forms to fill in!

We are now in the process of laying a formal complaint with the Council for Medical Schemes.