Appalling service from Momentum

How I wish your Safety Alert panic button provided your clients protection against your very own service consultants. A certain Irvin Makhema made my 58 year old mother cry yesterday. He was rude, insensitive, condescending and disrespectful to her. And yesterday was not the first time my mom complained about his service, but yesterday he reached new levels of appalling service.

My mom has had a 55 Plus policy with your organisation for over 2 years. she was a model client, who paid her premiums in time and who did not make any claims. In December 2022, she received a letter informing her that her premiums will be increasing. Like any model client, she was shocked that her premiums were being increased and put forward reasons why she believes they should not be increased. Some of those reasons were the security she has at her home with Maxidor burglar bars throughout the house, armed response security, car parks in a garage and is fitted with a tracking device and most importantly, she had not claimed anything for more than 2 years.

Her reasonable argument fell on deaf ears and, understandably, in frustration she cancelled the policy because this made her feel unappreciated. Within a week of her cancelling the policy, I was visiting home and had a conversation with her regarding her insurance. I had initially found the insurance for her while it was still Alexander Forbes and I pleaded with her to revisit her decision and give you guys a chance.

She contacted you and said she would like to resume her insurance, which at the time was based on a premium increase which was not as big as the initial increase was. She got an email which on the body of it stated her premium from January 2023. What the body of the email did not state, was that there was a once off policy 'adjustment' fee she was supposed to pay. She did not know this and just thought she would have to pay the premium that was stated on the body of the email . I think the omission of this figure on the body of the email was malicious and intentionally done to ensure that she does not query it and just sees a massive debit order go through. I think such a major inclusion should have been mentioned boldly on the body of the email, in the same way the premium was. Especially when this once off fee is almost equivalent to the annual sum of the amount her policy had been increased by. Was this Momentum trying to sneakily get their increase by hook or by *****?

I just think making a model client, who was with you for 3 years and had cancelled her policy for less than a month, have to pay to be a client again is just greedy and predatory but more than that, is disappointing. Disappointing to see that Momentum engages in these type of actions even though you're one of the leaders in the industry.

Maybe this is why consultants like Irvin treat clients the way my mom was treated yesterday, maybe it's the culture at Momentum. Maybe it's the norm at Momentum to treat customers in an appalling manner. Maybe it's the norm at momentum to make a 58 year old woman cry.