THE WORST EXPERIENCE EVER!!!

I opened a funeral cover with Assupol for a few members of my family, including my cousin over 2 years ago, I have been paying my premiums monthly and timeously. Second week of December 2017 my cousin sadly passed on. I forwarded the docs to Assupol on the 14th of Dec 2017 and on the 15th Assupol paid R2600 into my account for groceries. I was expecting the rest of the payment to be done but it was not. Days passed without the payment, naturally I didn’t think it would take a long time as I knew the claim was legit and that my premiums were up to date, when I released that it was not paid by Thursday I made arrangements to borrow some money to help with the funeral costs thinking I would repay it when the payment comes through. During the funeral preparations my family members kept getting calls from Assupol saying they were confirming the relation between myself and the deceased which is strange as the relation was on the application forms when I initially took out the policy. The relation was then confirmed by my family members but Assupol kept calling them nonstop asking the same questions. After the funeral I called to follow up on the 20th and I was told they are busy with investigations.

After a long battle and endless calls with their *********** consultants who seemed not to know what they were doing and kept passing the bug and sent me from pillar to post, I finally had enough of it and advised them that I was going to take legal steps against them, when they heard this then on the 24th a consultant called and apologised for the delay and the service and payment was processed. After such a painful and long experience I was relieved it was over but this was only the beginning of a long harassment process that left not only myself frustrated but my family too including the bereaved mother of the deceased. From the 27th after payment was made, Assupol kept making endless calls, more than 6 times in a day, calling different members of my family: my brother, his wife, the deceased’s mother, her sister, our uncle, our cousin, this people were specifically asked if I had used the money from Assupol to help with the funeral costs. I cannot begin to explain how appalling this experience has been, after paying monthly premiums for over 2 years I get to be treated like a *********, the only drastic step short from this process was Assupol asking to exhume the body of my cousin and have DNA tests done to confirm our “relation”, by this I am trying to explain just how terrible the whole process was. We as black people believe in taking some time off to mourn the loss of a loved one shortly after the burial, but unfortunately I had made the biggest mistake of my life of taking out a funeral policy thinking it would help me and my family in our time of need but turned out to add more stress and trauma to our loss the mother of the deceased as she kept getting endless calls from Assupol asking the same questions over and over again which was pure harassment.

The reason why I chose Assupol from all the Insurance companies was the hustle free promise they make on all their adverts, they actually promise to process claims within 24-48 hrs of receipt of the docs and a painless claim process, this was not to be for my claim. I am left disgusted ,insulted and embarrassed at the service and experience I had with Assupol, I paid my premiums in full for over 2 years and not once have they called me to question me about anything regarding my policy, at the time that I needed them for a service I have paid for I was then treated like a ********* and was made to wait over 2 weeks for the payment, the purpose of the funeral policy was to help me in case of a funeral therefore it defeats the purpose if I am going to go through so much stress and have to run around to borrow money for the funeral whereas I have a funeral policy. And to top it all up have my grieving family be subjected to such an appalling experience of being harassed. .

I have consulted with my legal team who has advised me to first contact the Ombudsman as the first level of contact as I have not received any assistance with Assupol even after lodging a formal complaint with them and requesting for my remaining and active policies with them to be cancelled/dissolved as I do not want to be treated the way that I was ever again. I would like some assistance regarding this matter from you regarding as I did what I thought was best for my family by taking out a funeral policy that would help us when the need arises, which turned out to be a nightmare at the most difficult time of our lives. What Assupol did to me and my family as their client is completely unacceptable and I am not going to let it go until they are brought to book!