Most costly 'quote' ever!

I have had the most stressful and appalling experience with Outsurance since February, simply because I called them to get a comparative quote. I admit my own foolishness in allowing myself to be strong armed into letting the extremely pushy salesman and his manager strong-arm me into agreeing to sign up before I was ready. Long story short, I cancelled in good time for the debit to not go through, but money was deducted from my account and I have been battling to be refunded ever since. I have called and called and hung on for over 20 minutes at a time. Everyone is charming. Everyone apologises. Everyone admits the owe me the money. Here is the whole saga as outlined in an to a supervisor on Thursday 8 June (who promised me that the money would be in my account within 48 hours and it is now Wednesday June 14). Here is the email: Sent: Thursday, 8 June, 2023 11:24:31 Subject: REFUND Debacle and Cancellation Notification For Policy OT***9

Good Morning Ismael,

We spoke on Tuesday the 6th of June regarding the saga of my refund due back to me from Outsurance. You asked me to send the statements showing the debits. I have not had time to do this until today as I am under immense work and time pressure at the moment. Please find them attached. If you listen to the recordings of my phone calls to Outsurance, you will hear that I have been patient and polite all along, but this failure on the part of Outsurance is becoming beyond tenable.

Here's the story again, for the record. I had called in February to get a QUOTE!!!! Simply a comparative quote because I felt I was paying too much for my insurance. I got the quote and got high pressured sold into agreeing to cancel my existing insurance and have a debit go through at the beginning of March. I immediately regretted it because I felt completely strong-armed and high-pressured and completely regretted simply trying to get a quote. I also realised when I compared the proposed cover that it was very basic and did not cover household contents, or portables like computers, etc. So I called to cancel. As is my right under the Consumer Protection Act. Once again, I persuaded by the very high pressure retentions people not to cancel but to postpone until April. At that stage, I had every intention of moving my insurance to Outsurance but I had a claim in with Discovery and I also wanted to ensure that I had all the serial numbers for cell phones, computers, etc, that would itemised separately. Being an extremely busy freelancer, I didn't have time to get all of those. I phoned during the second half of March in good time to cancel the debit order set to run in April. I spoke to the lady in the email thread below, AMANDA NCAPHAYI. She promised me that she would cancel the policy and the debit WOULD NOT run. I said, are you sure? Because I CANNOT, CANNOT afford to have both my Discovery debit and an additional Outsurance one run. She promised.

The first debit was going to go through in 2 parts. The first was a pro-rata payment of R49.32 for the first month, so that the debit could run on the requested date. When I saw that first one go through on the 2nd of April, I immediately refuted the debit and had the money returned. I then called Outsurance and was eventually transferred back to Amanda. I had to go through the whole saga and explanation. I told her that I had refuted the first debit, which incurred bank charges to me, and now I have to assume the second debit for R1500 was going to run. What should I do? If I just refute the debits and the policy is not cancelled, then I will get into trouble, even though I have done everything I needed to. I told her to listen to the phone call, seeing as all calls are recorded for 'my protection'. She did, along with her manager. They called me back and apologised profusely. The policy was supposed to be cancelled along with the debit order but 'there was a mistake in the IT department'. She asked me NOT TO REFUTE THE DEBIT. She said they didn't want me to incur more bank charges. So please let the debit go through, and she will organise a refund along with any bank charges I might have incurred.

Stupidly, I believed that Outsurance would follow through on its promises and did not refute the big payment of R1500.77, and deeply regret this. The money was NOT returned within the promised few days. I called again. Could never get through to Amanda again. I was told that the refund has been approved and all the public holidays are causing the delays with it reflecting in my account. I waited another couple of weeks. Called again. Had to speak to a different person and relate the saga again. Oh no, the refund was approved 4 April but will only be released for payment on 4 May. So I waited a few days after the 4th of May. Nothing. Called again. A different person. Promised to sort it out. I called again a few weeks later. Held on for 20 minutes with my cell phone air time as a very lovely lady, who did not give me her name, promised she was sorting it out with her manager. The payment would be through in a day or two. Nothing.

I have been more than patient but this is honestly an appalling failure in service delivery. How can one believe Outsurance will pay out on claims when they cannot even refund money they should never have taken in the first place? All of this has been extremely stressful and taken a lot of my time, and my time is how I make my living. There's a cost to each hour for me, that I have to spend on this. I will most certainly never phone any insurance company again and speak to a tele-consultant just to get a quote. I will only work through a broker from now on because at least a broker (most of the time) listens to what the client actually wants.

Please, please could you sort this out. Consumers should not have to resort to months of phone calls and holding on and never being given back to the same person to sort it out, because I have asked to speak to Amanda again, have asked for managers. Only the last time after I had to get really angry and threaten to go to the Ombudsman, Hello Peter and social media did I finally get put through to a manager. Why should this be the case? It's shameful for a big company that advertises amazing service. Now, after all this time, I am being asked to prove that the debit order did indeed go through my account, meaning I have to share my personal bank records. Shame on you Outsurance. Please, please sort this OUT now. I need my refund. I would also love an explanation as to what the 'mistakes' are that keep being made which have meant the refund never processed. If there is internal ***** going on, why not just admit it and apologise? Please, put yourself in my shoes and ask yourself how you would feel in this situation?