STANDARD BANK INSURANCE - THE GENERIC REJECTION

Having been a loyal Standard Bank customer for over 3 decades. Many have warned me against Standard Bank but alas I remained. However, I am now quite disappointed by my recent experience with an insurance claim we had submitted on 20 February 2025, both the agents and the insurer as a whole.

The contract came out to the property on 21 February and assessed the damages and reasons. The contractor advised that the collapsed ceiling was most likely caused by the storm winds and the repair should not take more than 3 days to complete. He further advised that he would submit his quote to Standard Bank on the same day (21 February 2025) which should be resolved in no time.

Not only was the customer service horrible, as 1. I could never get a hold of the agent assigned to our case (Lebogang - ***), 2. not once through this entire process had she made any contact with either one of us. If I were to mention every agent (Thabile, Thuli, etc), we had to deal with to try and get some progress/status of our claim, this review would be pages long. With all of them saying the same thing, STORM damage claims MUST be finalized within 10 days.

It took just about 2 weeks for us to even get the assessor (Sikhangele Zimela) to come to the property after Johannesburg continued to experience more storms. Not only were we given this timeframe but when enquiring on why an assessment on the quote submitted was needed, we were constantly told that it is due to the contractor submitting over their mandate. This was the same response from Sikhangele Zimela on 05 March 2025 when he "assessed" our property in less than 15minutes and reiterated that he was assigned to do this as the contractor submitted a quotation over their mandate. Mind you he did not even use a stepladder to do a thorough assessment, just took photos and 2 measurements. On confirming what this “mandate” comment meant, he (Sikangele Zimela) said "they (the contractor) quoted over their cost threshold”.

He further went on to indicated that had the contractor who assessed and submitted the quote, quoted within their mandate, he (Skangele Zimela) would not even have had to do an assessment because the work would have been approved and completed. He recorded the visit. This further brings into question the neutrality of his assessment if the reason for his assessment is based on cost of repair versus possible reason for incident.

Contrary to all of the above Standard Bank Insurance came back with a rejection to the claim with a subject now not even related to the damages caused stating “miscellaneous” based on there being no "insured event" and "poor workmanship". Even when asking the agent about this on 06 March 2025 (exactly 2 weeks after the incident) the agent told us that it was our responsibility on buying the house to ensure that the ceilings were fixed and done correctly in line with the “prescribed standards”. He further indicated that we bought voetstoots and therefore we are liable and basically insinuated that we should have “done a better job of inspecting the home before buying”. Taking into consideration that the bank, upon approving the loan, evaluated the property. Neither me or my partner are engineers, because it seems that’s what you need to buy a home when doing so with Standard Bank. The agent at no point during the discussion attempted to thoroughly review the incident and engage on the order of events to address likely discrepancies between the contractor and assessor’s report. He then rather passed me onto Maggie Ndalane the team leader, who just kept referring me to the rejection letter and process to follow and went as far as telling me that this is not her "space" and she cannot provide anything other than to refer me to said letter. She confirmed that the letter would be emailed to my registered email by 4pm on 06 March, this did not happen.

Upon not receiving the letter on 06 March, several calls were with one excuse after the next the agent(s) at Standard Bank that the letter would be emailed before 12H00. At 14H00, with not receiving the letter, follow up call were made but a new agent advised that there was an IT system error that was not allowing the letter to be emailed and released and that they were logging a fault with their IT Department. This was never communicated in the previous calls made. Eventually after 4pm on 07 March an agent (Nomaswazi Goba) called me stating that they were trying to send me the letter but it kept bouncing back, stating that the email address was incorrect. This stunned me, as I have been with Standard Bank for decades, always had the same email address and always received their bills on this email address to now be told it is incorrect, was astounding to say the least.

Since the incident of 20 February with every call, mention was made by me of the fact that the delay was causing more damage with the continued rains and storms being experienced in Johannesburg. And with every occasion the response was the same, we will have an outcome in 48 to 72 hours and the assessment is because of the quote being over the mandate.

Having been a client to Standard Bank for almost four decades, this begs to question how loyal customers are treated, not only by your service agents but all associated to Standard Bank. Based on the above (in-part) sequence of events, the conflicting reasons provided between the contractor and assessor and the inadequate thorough inspection of the actual cause and effect which gave rise to the claim, we now find ourselves having to remain in a situation we thought a "reputable" insurer would cover us for!!!! What a **** as all they do is print generic declines, make contradictory statements and leave you to deal with the mess!!!!