Claim not paid and Funeral had to proceed on debt

I am extremely disappointed with the service we did not receive for a Standard Bank funeral claim. My mum submitted a claim on the 10th January 2018 for the funeral claim for my granny who sadly passed away on Saturday, 6th January 2018.

The processing of the claim took place on the 10th January 2018 (11:45am) after all the documents were submitted as required. An sms was received on the said date and time which stated that the claim will take 48 hours.

We then made a call on the 13th January 2018 trying to figure out whether the claim was processed, my mum was advised that she would receive a call regarding the increase calculation she made in September 2017 (Standard Bank called her to inquire whether she would like to increase her funeral policies) she then agreed and this obviously resulted in her premium being increased to R271.00 which was debited through a stop order on the following three dates:

9/2017 - R271 10/2017 - R271 1/11/2017 - R271 1/12/2017 - R271 3/01/2018 - R271

This being said, the fact that the premium could be increased and deducted so smoothly why is it such hassle to claim when the actual funeral takes place. I called on the 13th January 2018 , just to be put on hold for almost an hour with no answer. I then returned the call on the Saturday after I received instruction via the voice prompt of the operating hours being from 8am- 1pm on a Saturday. When I called this morning (13th January 2018 - day of the funeral) I was once again holding for a consultant, keeping in mind that all this calls is costly, to my sadness no answer. This resulted in a funeral service not being paid for, this indeed was stressful to experience in a time of mourning and I will not advise anybody to ever do business with Standard Bank insurance sector due to this situation.

I expect a full payment (R15000 - the amount due to the policy holder) to be made by no later than 15th January 2018. I was told by my mum that she was advised of a 6 month waiting period before the increase claim amount of R15 000 can be paid out. My mum never received paper work to this regard and this was not told to her in the call that was made to increase the funeral policy in September 2018. She was advised that the contract will be posted to her and to this day nothing was received. This issue will be escalated if the process is not finalised by the said date. I am once again on the call waiting for a consultant and again no answer since 10:20am and it is now 10:49am.

This is ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!!