SANTAM leave my almost brand new car undrivable...

So I have been patient with SANTAM now for 8 months, but my patience has now officially run out & now I want the world to know my story.

I had a MVA in Strand, Western Cape on 3 June 2018 and SANTAM appointed one of its Platinum Repairers in Strand to carry out the repairs.

My almost brand new vehicle had severe suspension damage, which to date has STILL not been properly repaired and my vehicle has NOT been restored to its manufacturer’s specifications. Note that my vehicle is still under warranty.

My vehicle was purchased brand new on 24 November 2017, which means when the accident occurred my vehicle was only 7 months old.

The Repairer then dragged its feet in completing the repairs and my vehicle was eventually only “ready for Collection” on 31 July 2018.

The Repairer is recognized as one of SANTAM’s Platinum Repairers, who is KIA Approved and an OEM Approved Repair Facility, however, my vehicle was sent off to KIA Helderberg to have the suspension parts fitted. Surely being KIA and OEM Approved means that the Repairer has the required technical expertise onsite to fit the parts itself?

As if that isn’t confusing enough, it was then brought to my attention BY THE REPAIRER himself that he had DRIVEN my vehicle with its severe suspension damage from his workshop to the KIA Helderberg Service Centre for the suspension parts to be fitted. This means that he drove my vehicle in it’s damaged state a total of 6km with a severely damaged suspension. Why was my car not transported on a flat bed from the Repairer to the KIA Dealership and the cost thereof billed to SANTAM as part of the total repair cost?!

TRACKER notified me of several abnormal ignition alerts AFTER HOURS, sometimes after 20:00 & 21:00 in the evenings of which I confronted the Repairer about. The excuse was that they work late at night sometimes and my car needed to be moved. However, I have it in writing from Tracker that my ignition was tampered with...

Parts were ordered from a different KIA Dealership by the Repairer for the repairs to my vehicle, however we have since discovered that some of these parts were never actually fitted to my vehicle despite SANTAM having been invoices for them.

This was confirmed by DEKRA as well as another one of SANTAM’s Platinum Repairers in Johannesburg, DANMAR Autobody Boksburg. Note, that DANMAR assessed my vehicle upon SANTAM’s instruction only after I had complained repeatedly about the dissatisfactory repairs which had been carried out by the Repairer in Cape Town.

Prior to the accident, I had just moved from Johannesburg to Cape Town to start a new job and a new life and I had only been in Cape Town when the incident occurred.

My SANTAM Reputable Broker at the time, together with SANTAM then misinformed the Repairer that I had to pay an excess on my vehicle of R4000.00, however according to the policy my excess was R0. However, the Repairer would not release my vehicle until the excess was paid. I eventually managed to settle my excess on 10 September 2018, by which time I had notified SANTAM of the entire Saga I was facing with its Platinum Repairer and newfound damage to my vehicle which had happened whilst my vehicle was in its possession. Further to this the Platinum Repairer also withheld my vehicle ********LY until 24 October 2018 for an unrelated financial matter where the Repairer was demanding additional monies from me for minor scratches he alleged I had done to the Courtesy Car they had borrowed me for a few days because my car rental Term had been reached with the car SANTAM had hired for me, and the repairs were taking longer than we had originally been told.

My job was completely reliant on me having a vehicle to get to my various client sites and SANTAM and it’s Associate was well aware of this.

I was eventually forced to consult with an attorney at my own expense because SANTAM just didn’t care that it’s Platinum Repairers Conduct was ******** and my attorney issued the Repairer with a demand letter in which he was given 24 hours to release my vehicle. However, the Repairer blatantly ignored the demand letter and further denied me access to my vehicle.

I was thus forced to return to Johannesburg to my parents as I had lost my job due to my vehicle being withheld ********ly which left me with no transport to get to work. Because I was held up in Cape Town trying to get my vehicle back from the Repairer, the consequential losses I incurred were devasting. I was ****** in my apartment and my daughters inheritance which was a 18ct white gold half eternity ring with 7 diamonds valued at R53700.00 was ****** among other valuable items. SANTAM was made aware of all of the ongoings yet Stiaan Pool who is a CRM Manager in Cape Town insisted that SANTAM had fulfilled its side of the Policy contract and could not get involved in any agreements made between the client and repairer. That’s just the point, there was NO agreement!

To date the Repairer has been unable to provide any form of proof that I was in fact responsible for the alleged scratch’s on the Courtesy vehicle and SANTAM’s Representative, Andre Le Roux did not even bother asking the Repairer for proof, but instead backed the Repairer all the way, despite its ******** conduct. Stiaan Pool also assured that he had run the matter past SANTAM’s team of legal experts and they allegedly agreed that SANTAM could do nothing to assist, however if this was infcat the truth, surely SANTAM’s team of legal experts would have advised him that the Repairers actions were ********?

For 2 tiny little scratches I had allegedly done to the Repairers Courtesy Car I had to fork out a R7500.00 excess before he would release my vehicle. I could only eventually settle this on 23 October 2018.

I then had to hire a private driver to drive my vehicle back to Johannesburg, which according to the Policy, SANTAM was supposed to have covered the cost of delivering my vehicle back to the address specified on the policy summary after repairs it had authorized, however, by this stage, SANTAM had wiped its hands.

SANTAM had agreed to covering the excess of the Courtesy Car, however needed a claim number from the Repairer to do so, but the Repairer refused to submit a claim through his insurance as he said it was not beneficial for such minor damage and insisted that I settle the excess in cash. SANTAM didn’t even try to force his hand, despite knowing the financial devastation this entire matter had on me and my father who is the Policyholder.

In fact, SANTAM cancelled my Fathers ENTIRE policy which is a multicover Policy for “unfavorable claims experience” due to the disagreement I was having with its Platinum Repairer over the newfound damage to my vehicle and the fact that he was withholding my vehicle ********ly.

I had to plead with SANTAM to reinstate my fathers policy and remove myself and my vehicle as the coinsured as I did not feel it was fair for my father to be penalized. SANTAM agreed and his policy has since been reinstated.

On 24 October 2018, when the privately contracted driver arrived at the Repairers workshop to collect my vehicle, a pre delivery inspection was carried out and recorded on video. In the video, a representative from the Repairer is seen placing fastening clips to the undercarriage of my vehicle AFTER the driver had pointed out that the undercarriage was not secured. Yet those same fastening clips were billed for on the final costing. Just shows u how parts are billed for and not fitted.

There is also an ongoing issue over a mag replacement which has been confirmed by DEKRA, Wheel Collision, Mag Magic & Nick Koen Auto Alignment to never have been done, yet SANTAM was invoices for the replacement mag...

Note that the Repairer was well aware that my vehicle was doing a trip of +/- 1500 km, yet my vehicle was still released in an unsafe state. An estimator from DANMAR Autobody confirmed that my vehicle should never have travelled such a distance in the state that it was left in as the safety of the vehicle had been compromised.

My vehicle arrived back in Johannesburg on 25 October 2018 and on 26 October 2018, the Assessor and Motor Assessing Manager for Coastal Region both came to my residence in Johannesburg to inspect my vehicle as I had filed several complaints which the privately contracted driver had notified me of during the trip with my vehicle back to Johannesburg. The biggest issue was that my car was pulling severely to the left and had a steering vibration at 100km/h.

I was instructed by the Motor Assessing Manager to take my car for an assessment at another one of SANTAM’s Platinum Repairers where it was confirmed that the damage had been misdiagnosed and therefore not correctly repaired, and that further damage had been caused by the vehicle being driven prior to repairs in Cape Town and again with “defective repairs” all the way from Cape Town to Johannesburg.

I later learned that KIA had an issue with the alignment on my vehicle after the new suspension parts were fitted and my vehicle was then taken to Hi-Q to rectify, however they too were unsuccessful in rectifying the pull to the left.

The Repairer released my vehicle back to the driver knowing full well that the steering was defective and confirms this on the final cost report by stating that a vehicle status inspection was carried out on 22 September 2018 in which the steering was deemed as unsatisfactory and the car unroadworthy. Yet SANTAM accepted this without even blinking an eyelid.

After the Platinum Repairer in Johannesburg had assessed my vehicle, corrective repairs were authorized by the Assessor. My vehicle had been undergoing major suspension repairs for 4 weeks already, when the Assessor notified the Repairer that SANTAM was no longer willing to cover any costs relating to my vehicle as per instruction from Stiaan Pool.

The sub frame of my vehicle had already been bent in an effort to try rectify the pull to the left, however the Repairer could not complete the repairs if SANTAM refused to cover the cost and my vehicle was returned to me in a weakened unsafe state.

Following this, I then took my vehicle to DEKRA for a Technical Inspection and the results have been conclusive in Proving that my vehicles current state is unsatisfactory and unsafe and that it should therefore not be driven.

I requested a letter of decline from SANTAM however to date, I still have not received one.

I have escalated to just about every department within SANTAM and even resorted to private messaging the top dogs on LinkedIn in an effort to get some assistance from SANTAM, but to no avail. Legal has made promises which have not been fulfilled and no one bothers to return my calls or emails!

SANTAM have effectively just cut me off.

I recently also learned that SANTAM’s Representative Andre Le Roux signed a release note with the Cape Town Repairer for my vehicle on 20 August 2018. I am well aware that a release note must be signed in order for the Repairer to be paid, however, surely it is against the law for the insurer to sign such forms on behalf of a client without their knowledge and consent.

Funny how I only settled my vehicles excess on 10 September 2018, and the car was NEVER test driven by SANTAM,s Representative, yet he signed the repairs off.

Majority of the issues are only detectable whilst driving the vehicle, which he never did!

I queried this with SANTAM in January 2018 and the query was sent to Andre Le Roux himself and he was asked to please explain to me why he had signed my vehicle off with the Repairer, however as always, I have yet to receive a response.

I am beyond disgusted with SANTAM, and this matter is in the process of being referred to the SAIA Ombudsman for non compliance as well as OSTI.

If SANTAM won’t communicate with me or acknowledge my repeated complaints, what other option do I have other than to file the necessary complaints against it?