Left hand / right hand cluelessness. Broken client care system.

There was a time that I thought investing in life assurance companies like Sanlam was as good as it gets. I don't think that anymore. Returns aside, their communication is S-L-O-W, and that can cost us, the clients, dearly when we need things done. Here's my latest series of dealings with Sanlam as I finally cut my ties with them after 20+ years.

On 5 April, my independent financial adviser, who deals with all of South Africa’s financial houses, sent an email to Sanlam to inform them that I wished to early retire my RA with Sanlam.

1. On 6 April Rob Smith at Sanlam rep**** and said they needed a scan of my ID and bank confirmation letter. I immediately emailed an existing bank letter but that account had been registered under a former company’s name (which had in turn been inherited from my first sole prop). Sanlam told my financial adviser they needed the letter in my personal capacity.

My bank (Absa) took an unacceptable two weeks to open a new account in my name (they got a Hellopeter review for that too) and provide a confirmation letter, which was password-protected. I sent this letter to Sanlam on 18 April.

2. No contact from Sanlam until eight days later (26 April) when Asemahle Sentile rep**** and again asked for my ID and bank letter. I smiled patiently (I am dealing with Sanlam employees after all), and emailed both in PDF format.

3. No word from Sanlam for another eight days until 4 May, when Rob Smith (again) asked for these same documents! I smiled again, counted my blessings that I was ditching Sanlam for good soon, and emailed them for a third time and AGAIN added in BOLD: "NB: Please use (account number) to open the attached bank letter PDF."

4. No word for six days (10 May) when I got this (not totally unexpected) reply from Brunhilde May: "Please note that - due to internal security measures - we are unable to access your attachment because it is password protected or the format is of such a nature that we cannot open it." Included in her email was a PDF which contained internal correspondence from Pinky Maroya and directly below that, quite clear, my email which included the sentence "Please use (account number) to open the attached bank letter PDF."

You can only laugh at the ineptitude of this organisation and the quality of staff they seem to employ.

And yes, I sent the letter a FOURTH time in reply. I’m wondering whether someone – ANYONE – at Sanlam will figure out how to open a password-protected PDF. To be continued…