Telkom Insurance is a *****

I am sending this report in connection with service that I received from Telkom Insurance underwritten by Finrite Administrators (Pty) Ltd.

I have been a Telkom client since July 2015 and have been paying all my bills religiously to date. I am a loyal customer who pays between 1500 and 2500 monthly on my bills to Telkom.

In January 2017, I bought two Samsung J7 Prime phones at a Telkom Store in Cape Town for myself and my little brother. I was happy when I was advised that Telkom now offer their own insurance for their products. Without hesitation, I made sure that both my phones were insured on that same day.

Unfortunately, in September 2017 my brother’s phone was lost while he was on the train from school. He contacted me and I immediately advised him to go to the nearest police station and open a case for insurance purposes. After he received the case number, I immediately called Telkom to have the device blocked on the system and that was done successfully. I was advised to contact Finrite Administrators (Pty) Ltd as they were the ones dealing with insurance claims. I contacted them and they instructed me to submit my ID and affidavit detailing how the phone was lost.

An affidavit was completed on the 27th of September detailing how the phone was lost, the ITC number confirming that the handset was blocked as well as the police case number received when we opened the case. I attached on email, the affidavit as well as my ID as instructed and sent it to ********** and my claim was given TC #. Terry-ann Thompson a call centre agent also requested me to provide her with details on how the phone got lost (All of this was in the affidavit). I rep**** her and gave her the details as explained above about how the phone was lost.

In June 2016, I had to suspend the sim card in my brother’s phone due to personal reasons and I went ahead to provide an email confirmation from one of the Telkom Customer care representatives detailing when the sim was suspended, which phone used the sim as well as an order number for the call.

After responding to the email, I received a response from a lady by the name Kayleigh Walker requesting me to provide them with a suspension letter which I was supposed to get from Telkom as she “cannot accept a typed email”. To understand the type of document she requested, I went ahead and called her to provide context and explain to me why she could not accept the email from the Telkom Rep. I was accused of trying to make ********** claim as I can easily liaise with the Telkom Reps and get a **** confirmation (This call is available on record I presume). I even asked her why she is making such an allegation or is it because it’s a black person trying to make a claim.

I was paying for my insurance for both phones even if the sim was suspended.

I tried to get that suspension letter she requested but all the Telkom representatives told me that there is no letter like that. Even called the guy who assisted me with the contract application is he can produce such a letter from the store and he said there is no such confirmation.

The next thing I did was to set up a conference call with Kayleigh Walker and the Telkom Rep from the call centre. The conference call was a success and I managed to have both the “Insurance People” and the Telkom Rep to explain to each other what type of confirmation I should get and they failed to reach and understanding themselves. Kayleigh Walker had the audacity to tell me to go figure it out myself. She did not show any client remorse or even the willingness to assist me with my claim.

I managed to go to the Telkom Store at a nearby Mall during the weekend and try to get the confirmation letter which Miss Kayleigh Walker was requesting for. The lady at the store managed to assist me with some printouts of my Telkom accounts showing when the sim card was suspended. I submitted the documents with this email: “Please find attached supporting evidence that I have managed to get from the call centre as well as the Telkom Shop at ##Mall. I have been informed that the suspension letter you request does not exist and you failed to explain the letter to the Telkom representative via the conference call I set on Thursday. I have managed to do everything in my power to provide the requested evidence but the treatment and allegations made on one of the calls that I am trying to make a ********** claim did not reconcile well with me.”

On the 17th of October, Miss Kayleigh Walker responded and said that “Please note we are not rejecting your claim we are simply gathering all the information as to why the SIM was not used in the handset at time of loss in case we need to escalate the claim to the underwriters.” I had tried all within my power to give context and explain why the sim card was not in the phone at the time the phone was lost.

I made a follow up on the 3rd of November 2017 and I was told by a different representative that they are waiting for a confirmation from the underwriters that my claim was rejected. I then asked her if they have any confirmation on file from the underwriters and she said no there was no confirmation yet. My next question to her was if there is no confirmation on file why is she certain that the underwriters rejected my claim. It seemed to me that they have already made up a decision to delay my claim and frustrate me.

This treatment is so ********** and it’s frustrating your loyal customers.