Standard Bank Insurance: ***********, unprofessional, *********, lacking responsibility and accountability

Whoever reads this review, I strongly recommend that you avoid Standard Bank Insurance. If there could be a negative five-star rating - this would be more appropriate. This company has the slogan, "Insurance made easy"...

I have had two claims with Standard Bank Insurance over the past two years - and both have been dealt with unprofessionally and *********ly, with the organisation and their appointed contractors lacking any form of responsibility or accountability. The following provides a snapshot of my experience.

Claim 1 was related to flood damage - where four separate retaining walls collapsed after a flood event. I had *********** people pretending to be engineers coming to the site to assess (the guy told me that I should have dug to the bottom of every retaining wall before purchasing my property); the assessor only submitted a claim for 1 wall (not four); and being told to please forget about the people coming to the site to assess when I requested their names and qualifications, among other things. This took over 50 calls from my side to SBI - with most taking well over an hour to speak to a human. It took four months for SBI to approve the claim, and then three months of construction work. Total of 7 months.

Following Claim 1, I found out that each wall should have been issued with the design plans for each wall, a certificate of compliance, and signed off by an engineer (No engineer was on site to sign off and approve - so I believe some ***** has happened here). I requested these months ago, but I am still awaiting a response. I wonder why...

Claim 2 directly relates to Claim 1 - where one of the large retaining walls collapsed following minor rainfall in June 2023. We began the whole process again. SBI's own assessor came out and their report states the wall collapsed due to being "substandard" - in terms of design and workmanship. Subsequently, the contractor from Claim 1 came on site, was rude to me and tried to shift blame and responsibility, then tried to suck up to me after I disclosed the findings of the assessor's report, subsequently offered to purchase me gifts to make up for things, then got his independent engineering "friend" to come onto the site to submit a report, among other things.

SBI has offered to pay me out for the repairs - but they say that they will not undertake the repairs. I want them to take ownership, accountability and responsibility and oversight for these repairs - which were, according to their own assessor "substandard" in design and workmanship. Why should I project manage and oversee these repairs?

Nearly 5 months have passed without any action. My life has been disrupted for 5 months! The damage has impacted my neighbours on several occasions. I am tired of being told "We apologise about the bad service", "this is not what normally happens", "I am going to escalate" and "I understand" (no - they do not). The complaints department does not have the cognitive ability to comprehend what is going on, and do not assist. They do not call back when requested.

After my two claims with this company, I can say that the company is purposely structured and designed to make customers frustrated and give up with regard to their claim and complaint processes.

I strongly suggest to anyone reading this review to avoid doing business with Standard Bank Insurance. Does this sound like "Insurance made easy"?