Moving Backward

I logged an incident for storm damage on 7 December 2020, claim number HLC20/005735. The claim was for storm damage to one off my solar tubes and power supply for our geyser.

Standard Bank appointed Domestic Industries to access solar tubes and Ice Pro Electrical to power supply. Both suppliers confirmed there were storm damages.

I have been phoning Standard Bank Insurance everyday since the service providers came to site. At first there was a delay from Domestic Indutries with regards to their report. After about a week, they said that they are trying to find the solar tube.I even gave Domestic Industries details of a service provider who can supply the tube.

I have been phoning thru daily and each time the consultant that anwsered my call, apologized for the bad service but never did anything to escalate my issue. No one bothered to take ownership of this claim. I even asked them escalate the issue and get the team leader to contact me. To date no Team Leader has contacted me.

Around the the week of 20th of December, Domestic Industries said that all their suppliers are closed and can only supply the quote next year. This was very frustrating as we without hot water for 2 weeks and now we would be without it for Christmas and New Years.

I suggested to Standard Bank Insurance to least connect the geyser so we can have hot water. Ice Pro came out on the 23 December and connected geyser to electrical power supply. They did not replace the damaged unit.

After a little while the geyser burst and hot water started coming out from the overflow pipe(I have a video of it). I contacted Ice Pro Electrical to tell them what had happened and contacted Standard Bank Insurance to report the leak. I received an SMS stating that a service provider has been appointed and to date this service provider did not contact me nor did they come to site.

Since it was Christmas and New Years and Standard Bank were happy that their paying client would go without hot water, I didn't bother following up daily.

I phoned through on 4 January 2021,and to my dismay, Domestic Industries said that they cannot source the part. The consultant said that are waiting for the report from Domestic Industries so that they can pay me out for the broken solar tube. I asked about the faulty power supply and blown geyser. She could not give me an answer. She told me that this is unacceptable service and I should lodge a complaint.

I phoned the complaints line, *** and spoke to a lady. She apologized for the bad service and said that agent who logged the claim should have taken ownership and followed it up until the matter was resolved. She informed me that this lady would be going for a disciplinary hearing. She said that she would be escalating this issue. She did not give me a reference number and said that I must use my claim number as reference for now and she will forward me a complaint reference number later. Unfortunately I cannot remember the name of the complaints agent who took my call.

I did not receive any communication from Standard Bank for rest of the week and I phoned the complaints department on Friday 8 January. I spoke Mohammed, who also apologized for the bad service. And to my dismay, he said that there were no complaints logged about my poor service.

I told him that since Standard Bank cannot find a service provider, I would do their job for them and find a service provider to sort out my issues. To which he agreeded and said once I receive the quote and fault report he will submit it to claims.

I forwarded an email with quote to *** on 12 January and a follow up email on 13 January. I sent the email from ***. I didn't receive any response so I phoned on Thursday 14 January and spoke to Mohammed again. He said that my service provider did not supply a fault report and he should re submit quote with fault report and he will forward for approval.

I forwarded quote and fault report on Monday 18 January and phoned Mohammed later in the day. He said that someone will give me feedback yesterday. I have not received any feedback. I tried calling the complaints department and my call was cut off for 2 times and the other 2 times, I held on for about 20 minutes with no anwser.

I forwarded this above as an email to Standard Banks Complaint Resolution Department on 18 January. I did not get any feedback so I phoned thru on 20 January and I spoke to Terral Kisten who said that I must forward her the quote and she will escalate the issue, to which I did. She refused to give me a reference number and said that I must use the claim number as a reference.

I received an email from Clint Petersen on 22 January with the complaints reference number, ***.

I phoned Mohammed to find out what's happening and he said that i need to resubmit the quote as claims department rejected the quote. They needed a report. I forwarded the reporon 28 January and Mohammed acknowledged the email.

I then received an email from Clint on 2 February stating that Mohammed is handling the case and if I shouldn't get any feedback from Mohammed, then I need to contact him.

I contacted Mohammed who was surprised that claim has not been resolved as yet. He told me someone from claims will contact me.

I got a call from Gingirikani Chauke on 2 February, who wanted my banking details to which I gave her. She told me that payment of the claim will take 48 hours.

I sent another email on 8 February requesting the hold up of the claim. I got a response from Gingirikani that she processed the payment and I must contact The Claims department to see whats going on.

Is this not the function of The Complaints Resolution Team, I guess not

I don't know what else to do.

But one thing, I need to state is that each time I phoned Standard Bank, the agents always brought my attention that there is R1250 access that I need to pay. Is Standard Bank more worried about R1250 access or are they worried about giving their paying clients a service in these dire times.

I am based in Pietermaritzburg but Standard Bank is using service providers from Durban. Are there no service providers in Pietermaritzburg registered with Standard Bank. If a service provider cannot provide a service surely common sense will prevail and Standard Bank should appoint another contractor.

We are boiling water daily which is a very big inconvenience. Myself and my wife tested positive and recovered from Covid. And still we await our incident to be resolved.

I am writing this review in the hope someone from Standard Bank will help resolve my issue

Please put yourself in my shoes and advise me what would you have done differently.

Is this what "MOVING FORWARD" is all about.