Outsurance -Where you get Nothing Out

My name is Aaron Arumugam,

My Outsurance ref no: ********** 38

On the 21 of October 2018 my vehicle was ****** from Blue Lagoon (Lagoona pool area) in Duban. We were there, as we were holding a church event. My vehicle was ****** from the parking area, whilst we were busy having lunch, I received a cell phone call from a tracking company asking me if I had any knowledge of my cars whereabouts, which startled me at first, thinking it was a prank call. I was told by the gentleman on the other end of the call, who identified himself as (Simkhosi from Tracker), who then told me he’ll wait on the line until I go and check to see if my car was still parked in place I had left it.

Upon doing this I realised my car was taken. He then proceeded to tell me that the car was found, and that it was in Umlazi. Upon his recommendation/advise, I was told to get the nearest police station and open a case as soon as possible.

I don’t have tracker or a tracking unit in my car,hence my surprise when I received this call, my car was found in the vicinity of another vehicle that they the tracking company was following. It was apparently abandoned and left there when they saw the Tracking team, but everything that was of importance was taken. My wifes Tracey's handbag which was in the car containing money and her identity document, her wallet, my wallet (all of which was containing our driver’s licences, bank cards etc). They (Simkosi) found a salary advice (mine) in the car, which was from Dis-Chem, upon phoning that branch they managed to get all my details and cell phone number therefore he was able to contact me.

So we proceeded to the nearest police station which was at CR SWARTS in Durban and open a case. The officer at the scene in Umlazi (Durban)then informed us that the vehicle will be moved to the Police Pound in Isipingo.

The next day we contacted the insurance company gave them all the required details, the case number (CAS 788/10/2018)etc, as well as the specific details the time we arrived at Blue lagoon, and the times we received the call from the tracking company.

On the 24th October 2018 the car was removed from the Pound after I had met with a representative from Outsurance and positively identified my car. It was thereafter taken to Outsurances Assessment centre at the old Durban airport ,so I was told. The representative at the pound named Chris Barnard, assured me this was a relatively simple task of repairing the vehicle, as from what he could see, it was merely cosmetic damages, and that he will inform the Assessment centre for "my" peace of mind to conduct a radiator and compression test on the engine, so I therefore insisted on these check been done on my vehicle.

After the assessment centre had assessed the damages, the insurance company (Charlton Naidoo) called me to ask which one of their service providers I would prefer the car to go too ,and I said the one that closest to my home, as I hadnt had a car hire option on my insurance policy , to which he told me would be in Cornubia industrial site. The car was moved to Black Diamond panel beaters on the 25/10/2018 and it remained there for almost four weeks, where the service providers allocated by my insurers seemed to procrastinate the work carried out on my car, with my wife and I constantly emailing an checking on them and the insurance company. A customer liasion consultant Daniel van Huyssteen (Outsurance) was thereafter allocated to assist us in ensuring the Panel Beaters would speed up their process.

Last week Wednesday 21/11/2018 we were contacted by the Panel Beaters (Black Diamond), stating the results of the compression test were now in and that it showed lack of compression on the 2nd cylinder and low compression on the 3rd and 4th cylinders, however cylinder number 1 seemed to performing ok. The test were done again this time a wet compression test was done showing that the 2nd cylinder remaining the same, and an increase in the 3rd and 4th cylinder.

The test were carried out by a third party service provider, whom the panel beaters had enlisted to assist to carry out this test, with authorisation from the insurance company.The RMI approved machanic (Cornubia Auto)then forwarded a copy of his findings to the panel beaters who then forwarded it to both myself and the insurance company stating the way forward is to open the head of the engine in order to diagnose the problem further. After forwarding this email, there was no response from the insurance company, after pestering Outsurance for almost three days, we were then told they were awaiting feedback from the Assessing Manager (Mr Rowan Ross). We tried every day from last Wenesday till Monday (21st to the 26th/11/2018) to contact the insurance company for a way forward, until Tracey and I decided with the faults that have now been incurred on this vehicle, seems to be quiet severe, and that it should be written off or the engine needs to be replace with a new one from VW, cause the last thing we want is have the insurance do a patch up job on the engine, only for us to eventually find in a few months we are stuck with a problematic vehicle . As previously stated our vehicle is our only means to work and back and we cannot afford to have a problematic car as we travel daily in peak hour traffic.

That was what we relayed on emails and telephonically to Outsurance. On Tuesday we received an email From (Bronwyn Msipe) a customer liasion consultant from Outsurance stating that the Panel Beater (Black Diamond) must round up their work and that the car now needs to be taken for a second evaluation on the engine. This email was sent to her, to be forwarded to us via Rowan Ross (Assessing manager -Outsurance)

Upon speaking to the customer liaison Manager on the 27/11/2018 Javon Harding (From Outsurance), I was told they need to investigate further to see if the damages incurred to the car’s engine was done by the perpetrators’ who stole the car, or if it presented itself before the incident. When Tracey contacted Rowan Ross the (assessment manager- Outsurance),he relayed the same sentiments to her, but he also informed her that he was moving the car to "their" Motor Mechanics who will conduct the further testing.

So with this in mind it brings us to a number of questions, but namely if they are getting their own mechanics to evaluate the car, would these machanics not be bias towards Outsurance as they basically conduct business with them regularly, and won’t want to damage their relationship as such, OR Why didnt Outsurance get their motor mechanics to evaluate the cars motor before they started work on the vehicle as this was what we had requested from the very begining.

This car has been passed from service provider to service provider over the last 6 odd weeks, with so many different people sticking their fingers into it, how am I now to know what is really wrong with this vehicle. Considering I myself have not even seen this vehicle after all the so called repairs where conducted. And finally, my car was in use every day until this incident, it is my only means to work and back, it was serviced at regular intervals, and well maintained.

When ones pays for something, one has a tendency of taking care of it, and thats what we did.

Even on that day when this incident took place, I drove my car to the Blue Lagoon, and there was no problems , I dont understand how can the insurance company now be able now tell me they investigating to see if these problems were present before the incident, I wonder were they (Outsurance) present when these people stole my car, or did they(Outsurance) see how they drove my car, so then how can the insurance company now tell me they investigating these problems to see if thery were present prior to the incident when they never drove my car or even seen my car prior to this incident or for that matter answer my questions as to how they think these people who stole my car drove it . My family and I have been traumatised by this entire ordeal, we have had many sleepless nights. We don't have a second car and currently I have borrowed a vehicle just to travel to work and back, and to transport my children to school, whilst they were writing their final exams for the year. We feel we are been cheated by our insurance company right now, cause we were under the impression that buying insurance, is something we do to prevent un-foreseen situations like this. The insurance in my mind is like a rewind button that should take us back to the few minutes or hours before the incident took place, therefore putting us back in our vehicle in the same condition that was in, prior to that incident. My wife and I are frustrated trying to speak to our insurance company, cause we seem to be getting nowhere, these guys dont care about their customers, all they care about is their pockets. I always assumed Outsurance was the best an I stayed with them out of loyalty, but I've now come to learn that "Outsurance is the place where you get nothing Out" . There is no compassion for customers as long as they receive our installments on a monthly basis they are happy but when its times of unforseen circumstances like this they worry about themselves and their pockets and not their consumers.

Kind regards

Aaron Arumugam