Unfair Treatment

I don’t know what more to say and do about Momentum.

I have been a client of Momentum for years, having various policies with them and paying thousands of rands each year.

Earlier this year, I made a decision to cancel my Momentum gym benefit due to personal reasons, I specifically asked the consultant that I dealt with, if there would be any conditions to the cancellation should I wish to reinstate my gym benefit plan and she said no, I confirmed this more than once and she assured me that I would not be penalized for cancelling my benefit.

A different consultant called me to confirm the cancellation and again, I asked if any conditions would apply to the reinstatement and he said no, I then went ahead and cancelled. If I was told that conditions would apply, such as, me paying back all the premiums since I cancelled in order to get the plan back on track, I would NOT have cancelled the plan. I did not cancel due to financial reason so it would not have been an issue for me to continue with the gym benefit.

When I called back about 1 and a half months into the cancellation to reinstate, I was told I need to pay all premiums back since cancellation in order for the plan to commence. I was shocked at this as NO ONE EVER mentioned this to me and I specifically asked because I was unaware.

Momentum then said that in my contract, a document that I most likely signed years ago, it states that fees need to be paid in order to reinstate the membership, this made no sense to me as I had no benefit so why should I pay for cover that I never had and also, no one ever mentioned this to me. Even if the contract does state that fees must be paid since cancellation in order to do a reinstatement, the advice that Momentum’s representatives gave me overrides this, as the last thing I was told is that no conditions apply when requesting a reinstatement.

I had a back and forth with Momentum and I was not winning, I even sent the CEO of Momentum Multiply and email and I assume my email was forwarded to a complaints resolution consultant because shortly after my email a consultant responded only to tell me what the contract states and that if I want cover I need to pay any “outstanding fees”.

I lodged a complaint with the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud’s offices, and it seems like they’ve forgotten about my query, all they’ve done was send my emails to Momentum and then send Momentum’s response back to me, at one point communication just stopped.

Life is so busy, and I honestly do not have the time and energy to fight for these types of things, I want what is right and what is fair.

I wanted my plan to be reinstated so that I could make use of the gym benefit and continue making payments. I don’t understand why Momentum would not want this. A Momentum advisor once told me that the plan that I was on with at Momentum does not exist anymore and I think this is why Momentum does not want to reinstate because they do not want to allow me the discount that I was receiving.

This entire situation is wrong and unfair, I don’t understand how a huge corporate company like Momentum does not abide by the laws of TCF.

Once again, this saying proves to be true “if you want loyalty, get a DOG!”