Insurance claim nightmare

Why are we paying so much for less options? I’m incredibly dissatisfied with the replacement devices I received. I feel like Vodacom Insurance is taking advantage of its customers. After losing both of my iPhones in a taxi, each insured for R10,000 to R15,000, I filed a claim. However, the contact center only gave me two choices: a secondhand device or the same model. I was fine with the same devices, but one of them, the iPhone XR, had been discontinued. I wasn’t allowed to choose the next available model, the iPhone 11, and was instead forced to accept a phone valued at R7,200, which was the value of the XR.

The iPhone 12 was offered, but only with a R3,800 excess fee (30%) due to a prior claim I made in November 2022, less than two years ago.

After multiple calls to the call center failed to resolve the issue, I escalated it to the complaints department. They maintained that it wasn’t an upgrade but a replacement of my original devices. Left with no better options, I had to accept a Samsung A55 (with a R3100 excess fee for the A55) for the iPhone 12 and an Honor X7b for the XR. I then requested to cancel my insurance and find a provider that charges less than the R500 I was paying for the iPhones.

A few days later, Vodacom’s customer retention department called, saying the store should take back the phones and provide the next available iPhone models, which is what the insurance actually covered. The store had been helpful from the beginning and was surprised when I came back with instructions to return both devices. They asked the insurance department to reopen the claim and cover the replacement, but every effort failed. The insurance department stopped responding to my emails, and the claim was closed.

It’s now September, and my insurance wasn’t canceled until just two days ago, after I followed up yet again on the retention department’s promise. Now, I’m being told I either need to make one final payment or request a refund for the cancellation I requested a month ago.