Old Mutual versus an employee in the tourism industry who wishes to take a policy holiday / stop further payments whilst out of work.

Old Mutual versus an employee in the tourism industry, who due to the Covid pandemic has not received a regular salary since April 2020 and wishes to take a policy holiday/ stop further payments whilst out of work. OM is happy to sell retirement policies to folk in the deep rural areas, but when it comes to helping their customers, the OM consultants take 15 to 20 minutes to firstly answer the call, deflect the question and terminate the call after 5 minutes in the middle of the conversation. Result: a customer who not only hasn't been helped, but who still has the problem of OM taking money out of his account whilst he is not earning a salary during the Covid pandemic. Everyone knows that the tourism industry was the first to shut down and the hardest hit by Covid lockdown. Who knows when the tourism industry in SA will revive?

An email sent to OM on the same topic took over a month to be answered, inadequately and nothing was actioned or resolved. Another email sent to OM on the same topic was again answered inadequately with nothing actioned or resolved.

An OM representative actually came to talk to the hapless customer, telling him that OM will not stop taking money out of his bank account. If any UIF funds are deposited OM will commence taking funds out including accrued payments for months when the hapless customer had an empty bank account. The moral of the story: Old Mutual does not show care to its customers. It does not provide a way for a customer to converse with them. The telephone number given leads the customer to a point where the message played insists it is best if the customer makes an email enquiry or visits the OM website; a way to put the customer off trying to speak to a human consulant in the vain hope they may be of assistance. A year later, the same problem remains unresolved. The only winner is OM who has taken its payments from the bank account of a man without a salary during the Covid pandemic.