Terrible service from SANTAM

<p>On the 3rd of June 2016, I received a frantic call from my mother who had just been involved in a motor vehicle accident near Grahamstown in eastern Cape. Mrs Nqala is an insured driver of my car. The distress was as result of loss control of the vehicle as she was ducking ******s on the dirt road. In response to that I phoned Santam insurance company for tow truck assistance. It became apparent that it was going to be atleast 2hrs before we could get some kind of assistance as such in the interest of their well being I told them to drive to the nearest safe area.I spoke to the call centre consultant by the name of Ashely Bowyrs. It was obvious that she was more interested in saving costs of the potential secondary damages than well being of the client as she kept on reminding me of the liabilities as result of their action.Furthermore she refused to register the claim, reason bieng that my mother is in a distorted state to register the claim. After about 10min of gathering details of what had happened and ascertaining my mother's exact position, I phoned santam again and spoke to a reasonable consultant Samntha, who registered the claim. She made relevant arrangements with the tow truck as we received reassuring sms. However none of the things that she had promised materialised, as the vehicle is still sunbathing at the police station to date. We had requested that the vehicle be towed to the repair centre closest to our home, Kokstad was a feasible option. We requested overnight accommodation, as it is a benefit in my policy but we booked ourselves in Makana resort. On the 4th I followed up with auto panel repair centre, which had no record of the claim being submitted or registered to them.On the 7th/8th I received a call from another Santam consultant, who informed me that an assessor has been appointed to my claim and that he would update me with all the developments. I haven't heard from him ever since. On the 13th I enquired on the progress of the repairs from the authorised repairer. They informed me that they still awaiting authorisation from santam to tow the vehicle from Grahamstown. I subsequently phoned santam call centre and spoke Samntha who referred me to the appointed assessor by way of telephone details. I phoned the assessor- Mr Edward van Heeden who was too busy to attend to my queries. He promised to phone me back the same afternoon from his office, a call that never came through. Two days later he phoned to say that he had authorised repair, but when I probed for the details as to where and when the vehicle will be towed and repaired, he wasn't certain. On the 17th, another assessor from Durban phoned me to find out where the vehicle was, and informing me that he has appointed as a new assessor in KZN region. To my surprise and disappointment, the vehicle hadn't been relocated from Grahamstown, needless to say no repairs have been started.<br />It was my understanding that taking up this policy to cover all my assets would give me a piece of mind instead frustration and appalling a chain of poor, inconsiderate service. This experience has raised the following doubts, questions and concerns :</p> <p>When calling for assistance in distress, shouldn't a person with sound mind be worried about the safety of her clients first than financial costs?</p> <p>Who and when should the claim be registered?</p> <p>Who's responsibilities is it to enquire and follow up the progress?</p> <p>Does it usually take this long after you have registered the claim to have your car repaired?It's been more than 2 weeks, my vehicle hasn't even reached a repair centre. It's sunbathing somewhere.</p> <p>Is it because I don't have a benefit of courtesy vehicle that you stalling the process, as there are no cost implications to you?<br />I'm greatly disappointed with the service I received from Santam. With the amount of premiums I pay in their favour, I expected some degree of efficiency and professionalism, clearly my interests are misplaced.</p>