Standard Bank Insurance's misconduct.

Standard Bank insurance is most probably the worst Insurance brokers I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with. Our Home Loan is with standard Bank, which caused me to take a chance on them. It was however the biggest mistake ever!!!! The first claim we had with them, we had reported a faulty front gate motor. Standard Bank sent a contractor to our residence and they quickly let us know that the motor had to be replaced. The motor was on the older side and we did not need much convincing to let us decide to have the motor replaced. Shortly after this, our gardener accidentally knocked out a 1800mm x 900mm safety window with a rock while mowing the lawn. Once again a contractor was sent out to quote and replace the window. The workmanship was totally unsatisfactory to start off with. I subsequently contacted Standard Bank Insurance to ask how much the contractors invoiced on this particular job. At first I was told that they are not allowed to discuss the costs with me, which is ridiculous. One of the operators eventually informed me that they had paid R15000 for this specific claim. I was shocked! PG Glass would have done a better job, for an emergency call out fee included(which it was not) and with a safety glass 1 replacement, for a mere R3600. The difference is immense. My questions were, "who signed off on this amount and why?!" Somebody has got their hands deep in the pockets of my insurance company! On the 10th of June, we had an impact claim on the very same gate motor that was replaced on the 22nd of November in 2023. The contractors were sent out again, and again they claimed that the gate motor needed to be replaced because of damage to the gears. I was immediately very suspicious, since the gate was hit from the inside of the property, and was working for a few days, before it started acting up. It opens slightly and then jumps from the one side to the other. Since we were suspicious of Standard Bank Insurance's previous misconduct, we requested that the amount that was quoted by their contractors, be paid out to us in order for us to get the gate motor fixed by a company of our choice. Firstly, the quote received was for more than R10 000. A new motor would cost me only R4800. Surely the labour would not cost more than R5000?

The pay-out had not happened yet. I have been phoning since the 11th of June, to try and sort out the issues. If they don't cut me off, they make promises that the money would be available in the next 48 hour. It has been three weeks of excuses and empty promises. We are looking for a new Insurance broker in the mean time, since we do not trust Standard Bank Insurers to have our best interest at heart. We suspect that serious misconduct is at play. I am convinced that the motor, they now claim to be unrepairable, is not all together damaged to the extent that it needs replacement. My suggestion to anybody involved with Standard Bank Insurers would be to demand that they inform you of the the amounts quoted by their service providers. They are much too eager to sign off on large amounts of money to be paid out to their service providers. They told me that the amounts we claimed for, would not make an impact on our annual fee increases. At the rate that they are willing to pay their service providers, we would in no time have claimed to the value of hundreds of thousands of rands. One thing is for certain...., it would be beneficial to be one of their service providers.