Lose your mind waiting

Naked's ads should be changed from "Lose the wait" to "Lose your mind waiting".

My vehicle was ****** on the 1st of June 2024 and recovered on the 2nd of June 2024. I still do not have my vehicle (2.5 months later).

My claim took 14 days to approve, having provided them with all necessary documentation pertaining to ownership from the outset. We went through a lengthly validation process (which I can understand considering *****ulent cases), but I hoped that would be the biggest delay in this process.

I was told that an assessor would be in contact with me to verify the damages of the vehicle, which only happened after I sent an email to Naked a few days later stating that I still have not been contacted by the assessor. The assessor phoned me and treated me as if he was doing me a favour. He could not provide me with the information I required regarding the approved repairs, and I had to then reach out to the panel beater directly to ask them to send the approved repairs to me. These approved repairs amounted to around R16k of damage for a vehicle that was ******, had multiple bullet holes in it due to the military recovering the vehicle on the border (some through the windshield, bonnet, driver side door) as well as had its battery ****** in the police yard.

The vehicle was assigned to a panel beater with a 2.6 trust rating on Hello Peter and a 3.5 rating on Google Reviews, which I queried but was subsequently ignored. The vehicle sat at the panel beater for 2 weeks without an update, so I decided to personally go and view the vehicle to assess damages myself. The panel beater is in Pretoria, I am based in Johannesburg, so this was already difficult as I needed to organise transport to view my vehicle - something I feel should be outside of the responsibility of a client in this situation.

The extent of the damages were immediately apparent to me. I asked the panel beater why no repairs had been done on the vehicle yet (it hadn't even been stripped down for further inspection) and they told me that the process with ****** and recovered vehicles is for the owner and the assessor to review the damages prior to them starting repairs. I was livid that a further 2 weeks had been wasted (I had already been without a vehicle for over a month) and phoned Naked to raise my concerns. I initially tried to phone the assessor directly, but after 3 attempts at contacting him without answer (he has never tried to call me back since) I phoned Naked directly. I requested that the assessor be changed as I was not comfortable with his ability to handle my claim. I was told that this would be handled with the utmost urgency and that they would be raising my issue with the assessor with their head assessor and claims team. I also requested a car as this was beyond the reasonable wait time for repairs to be concluded, but was denied (after apparently discussing this case with management).

The vehicle was then uplifted to another panel beater (which has a much higher trust rating and Google rating which made me feel more comfortable). This was on the 8th of July (more than a month since it was ****** and recovered).

I eventually decided that on the 24th of July that this process had gone on long enough and phoned Naked direct. I requested to speak to a management member so I could voice my dissatisfaction with this entire process. I couldn't immediately get into contact with someone, but was told that I would most certainly get a phone call back on the same day. Which, as you can imagine from the above, didn't happen. I then received an email from the claims manager ignoring the fact that I had asked to speak to someone higher up in the chain.

I eventually did get this phone call which shed even further light on the mismanagement of my claim from Naked. It was of their opinion that my vehicle was moved because the initial panel beater was being liquidated - which was news to me. Not only was the vehicle moved because of my complaints (in actuality), BUT the panel beater that they assigned was in financial trouble and trusted with my vehicle which is unbelievably poor service. I wonder how long it would have sat there without me raising my concerns. The 'manager' once again rejected my request for a hire car, stating that it was not on my policy when the vehicle was ******. You would think that a business that is quite obviously aware of very bad service would at least do something to appease a client. I voiced my concerns, asked the manager to send me the further approved repairs (I did receive communication from the panel beaters during this period of time) which he stated he would most definitely do. As you can imagine, that never happened and I once again had to reach out to the panel beaters directly to get the final approved amount - roughly R160k worth of damage. I was also told by the manager that the the case had been taken over by the head of assessment, however, upon asking for the authorisation document I was told that the name of the original assessor was on the new authorisation document - so in fact the assessor was never changed and they attempted to cover this up by assuring me he had.

The last communication I received from Naked insurance was on the 14th of August stating that it is now in paint prep. I had to provide the panel beaters with documentation for Toyota parts that Naked could easily have provided them with (considering I supp**** everything that was needed from the onset).

Naked is great for small claims - I have been a client with them for many years now (2021). However, this experience has absolutely *****ed anything they have done in the past. I would suggest if you absolutely cannot afford a more expensive insurance then this is the only reason to use Naked as your insurance provider.