Jason Manuel/Sanlam - THE WORST SERVICE EVER

<p>I would not have expected this from a HUGE company like Sanlam. But the service that I have received from Jason Manuel leads me to believe that Sanlam is a highly unprofessional company. I wanted to move my retirement annuity from another provider to Sanlam since I was not getting good returns. I had engaged with Sanlam and I was advised that a Jason Manual would contact me. When he contacted me, I agreed that I would see him at the Sanlam office in Bellville. I was quite pleased after our chat as he informed about all Sanlam RA options, he worked out a projection that I was happy with and in turn he was happy with my conditions for him to be my advisor. I advised that I wanted a proactive advisor, someone who would regularly meet with me, someone who would make changes when the policy required it, etc. Basically, I needed someone that would actually work for the money he was getting paid. Jason Manuel said he would be a great advisor. Because of this, I signed him up as my advisor. However, after signing up things started going seriously downhill from there. He stopped replying to emails within good time, sometimes day went by and on another occasions I would need to wait a week or so. In the last email I sent, I advised him that I no longer wanted him to be my advisor and that all I needed him to do was email me to let me know when I had been assigned a new advisor. That was early in November 2016 and I have still not received a response from him or Sanlam. Jason Manual does not listen to instructions as I asked him to quote me for additional cover excluding specific items I already have cover for, yet in his quote he included those items. I ended up not taking that policy with Sanlam because of him not taking me seriously. I asked him to cancel another Sanlam policy and he told me that it was cancelled only for me to get debited again. I had to stop/reverse these debits with my bank and cancel with Sanlam myself. I don’t even know what happened to the money that I carried over from my previous RA. Who knows if it was transferred? I wonder if I need to take out a case of ***** against Sanlam and Jason Manuel. After our my first few interactions before all these issues with him, I decided to also inform my fiancé about his services but then he cancelled his first meeting with her, saying that he was assisting his brother who is having a divorce. He cancelled another telephonic meeting with her, 30 minutes before the time saying that he needed to attend a Sanlam presentation. Last year sometime, I told him that I would inform Sanlam of all this and all he needed to do was get me a new advisor and still, even to this day, I have still not heard from him. All of this after I was extremely explicit about my previous bad experiences with advisors and the type of service I am looking for, yet he still wanted to be my adviser. When I met Jason Manuel for the first time he had mentioned how well he is able to assist his clients. How he advises them on their finances. But now this has to happen to me and my fiancé. I wonder what is so different with us that we have to get service like this. Perhaps it’s because we are coloured. I thought things had changed at Sanlam and that it was a company for all people now. I can’t help that Sanlam decided to send me an advisor that works mainly for Southern Suburbs clients. I went with this option since I work in the Southern suburbs although I don’t live there. So perhaps it is because I don’t earn as much as actual Southern suburbs clients and hence we have been treated this way. But you know what, I am still trying to do the right thing with saving up for my future even if it is not as much as more affluent people are able to save. However, if this is a problem, Sanlam and Jason Manuel then please forgive me for not being rich as certain of your clients. Also, please accept my apology for being coloured and less well off than your white clients. I was born this way so hopefully you can forgive me for that. Hopefully, you have an advisor over there that is willing to deal with a coloured person and who will give me professional service. But again, apologies from my side.</p>