Careless insurance
On 29 May 2020 I reported to Standard bank home insurance water leaks which has taken place on the plumbing pipes outside my house. A reference number was issued via sms and email as a confirmation of my claim. On the date (29 May 2020) a plumbing company (McEwen solutions) was immediately appointed to help me.
On 01 June 2020 the appointed company came to my house to fix the water leak and immediately required the deposit (R1200) to be paid upfront. On fixing the water leak, the appointed company cut the water supply which supplies water to the one of my shower rooms and such pipe was supplying cold water to this shower and to the basin which they are all in the same room.
After cutting the pipe they rerouted the cold water supply only to the shower by braking the wall tile inside the shower and connect the supply water. The basin was left with no cold water. The broken tile was never replaced and the whole work was left untidy and was left in such a way the I could not use this shower anymore.
The company also connected an unsafe black valve on of the one of the outside water pipes which are on the walls of my house and such valve is not necessary as it doesn't control any water movement. It is unsafe because it's so easy to open and when it's opened it spills cold water out and my kids are playing on it.
Photos of the whole damages are available.
Then the company informed me that they will inform my insurance that another work of supplying cold water to the basin is required and they will wait for the insurance to authorize that and if the insurance can't authorize it means they won't come back.
On 03 and 04 June 2020 I phoned the insurance to report this as clearly explained above. I was answered by a lady and a guy simultaneously on both dates. They both told me that they are surprised that the company was given an authorization as there was no quote of the work. They were surprised even by the fact that deposit was made already as there was no quote and there was no report sent by the company. They promised to contact the company and come back to of which that did not happen.
On 05 June 2020 I phoned the insurance and I was answered by another lady. I explained my problem to the lady. On her response she said report of the work done by the company was not there and she asked me to give her few minutes as she wanted to contact the company to get story and the report.
The lady contact me back after few minutes. On her explanation she indicated that she got the report and on the report it is indicated that the whole work would exceed my limit and with that, I'm supposed to be given a settlement (R3000-R1200) for that claim. So she informed me that the whole matter has been reported to the other avenues within standard bank housing insurance as it wasn't clear as to how did the company start the work without a quote showing the limit exceeding as under normal circumstances, if the claim is exceeding, the client would be advised as such and be a settlement would be paid out as mentioned above to fix the water leak.
The lady promised that I will get a feedback on 8 June 2020 on how the matter can be fairly resolved.
On 09 June 2020 I formally complained to the standard bank complaints division (***). On my complaint I put all the information as explained above with the photos showing all the damages done in my house and left unattended.
Until now, the complaints division has not yet contacted me at all and the damages are still there at my house.
So if appears that standard bank home insurance is not serious about its clients at all. I totally regret to have my house insured at standard bank. I think who ever had thoughts of having his/her properties or items insured at standard bank must not do that at all, I have a very bad experience with this insurance company. They are enjoying milking our money on a monthly bases and they don't make any mistake of not deducting. I would not even recommend them to my people at all. I really regret having standard bank in my life.
This is not the first that the insurance send the company that is not competent enough for the job.
Now I'm seating with some problems as a result of the insurance that care very less about its clients and as a result of the *********** company that was sent to my house.
Kind regards Nceba Mkondweni *** ***