1 reviews | Active since Jan 2014
No "emergency" service - and only willing to pay out out 2 thirds of what the repairs cost
I called SA Homeloans Insurance to log an EMERGENCY claim for a burst geyser at 18h39 on 17 Aug 2023 - after which they responded that "non of our service providers are able to come out before the next day" (this was in Stellenbosch - not really a "remote" area where a weak excuse like this in the case of an emergency would've been understood/acceptable). They promised to call me first thing the next morning, but didn't, so I had to follow up with them again from my side. They eventually got a plumber out there and informed me only at 16h23 that their plumber (who I specifically requested had to please ensure that they replace the geyser before the weekend, seeing that the tenant staying there have not had warm water since the previous evening), would not be able to replace the geyser, but that they would be willing to pay out a cash amount and that I could then proceed to arrange for another plumber to replace it over the weekend. At that point I thought it was the best - or rather only way forward to ensure that the tenants had warm water again asap, only to realise the next morning that the cheapest quote I could get from a reputable plumber was more than R6000 more expensive than what SA Homeloans were willing to pay out on this claim. I went and had a look at my policy - which states that in the case of an electric geyser you are covered for up to R12000 - and in the case of a solar geyser (noting that this claim was indeed for a solar geyser), you are covered for up to R20000. SA Homeloans however only offered to pay out R11231, whereas the cheapest quote I could get was R17300! SA Homeloans also used the excuse that "because it is a solar geyser - they couldn't get any service provider out there on the day that the emergency call was logged - or before 16h00 the next day - "because they don't have many service providers who work on solar geysers" (yet they gladly accept your higher premiums to have a solar rather than electric geyser insured with them?)! This is 2023 and loadshedding has been with us for a number of years - many people do now have solar geysers - surely if you're going to charge additional to cover solar geysers, you need to be able to have service providers on standby who can indeed assist, especially in the case of emergencies?! I then tried following up with the agent, Vukani Nkosi, last week and was promised by another SA Homeloans call centre agent that "Vukani would get back to me straight after lunch" etc, but am still waiting to hear back from SA Homleoans w.r.t. all of this... based on my experience I can't recommend SA Homeloans insurance...
