Santam third party claim

I expected a long standing and reputable insurance company like Santam to handle third-party claims with at least a shred of professionalism, but my experience has been nothing short of appalling.

While my car sat at work, a Santam-insured driver sc****d both the driver-side and passenger-side doors, damaging the locking mechanism and leaving my belongings vulnerable. That’s where the nightmare began.

For weeks I had to chase Santam for basic updates. My emails went unanswered, and when I finally enabled read receipts, Outlook showed they were deleted without even being opened—astonishingly rude. The validator, Maurisha Pikaan, disappeared on month-long leave, stalling the claim entirely. When following up with any of the emails provided in her out of office email, I received no response for close to 4 weeks. When phoning the number provided in the emails, I was informed that “an assessor has been allocated and the case is in progress”, however Maurisha informed me on her return that my case was only reverted to an assessor on the 5th of May ( A full month after providing all the requested documentation). Her predecessor, Marvel Madua, didn’t bother to contact me at all initially despite my constant emails for over a week. This resulted in a massive delay as I was not aware of any additional documents they needed to begin the insurance claim process.

Meanwhile, the at-fault driver’s car was repaired more than a month ago. I only just received my settlement—and it’s a full R4 000 short of the two independent quotes I supp****. Treating third-party claimants as second-class customers is indefensible.