Chose Insurance wisely

Be Careful of Insurance Company Choices:

It is important to make sure that when one takes an insurance for anything makes a sound and informed decision unfortunately I did not have that choice it was imposed. Some Insurances and their brokers do not fully serve the interest of their clients. My car insurance is managed by the Admin House as brokers and Yard Insurance being the insurers. My Merc Benz got hijacked while being driven by my mechanic testing it and it was recovered in Soweto unfortunately vandalised. It was towed to recovery section of the police but it took so long to be removed to a safer closed place even after the police had cleared it. The insurance brokers had so much bureaucracy just for the process to be completed to move it, and it was really annoying as it was exposed to rain since some windows were broken. After it was moved on inspections there were a number of body damages noted and tempering on the engine section. The insurance selected their company to do the quotation which I was never shown but was only called by the Assessor for clarification of certain things. At our meeting there were obvious things we agreed on and he outrightly told me that he won’t cover the engine as he did not suspect that there could have been any damages over such a space of time considering that it was recovered within 24 hours. I showed him that there were signs of tempering on the engine and it was not starting. He promised that I will receive my car in running order as it was stolen being driven. After the repairers finished the car, it still could not start but they advised me to take it to my mechanic as the engine side wasn’t covered by insurance. I paid for the Excess they required and towed the car to a company to check the cause of failure to start. They discovered that the engine had ceased and on lifting the car they noticed a damaged block with big hole and cracked starter indicating that the car had hit a hard object most probably when speeding and had lost all the oil. I immediately informed the Admin House brokers who tossed me to and forth but eventually told me that the engine was not covered. My argument was the damage was from the hijacking incident and needed to be revisited as I did not receive it in its original running condition as promised by the Assessor. The insurance did not honour my request even after they received quotations to that effect. Surely there was negligence or ona light note oversight on the part of the inspectors when the car was being inspected and the Assessor should not have taken off the engine inspection/ running from the quotation. They just looked at the body and visible sections and never checked underneath although the car wasn’t starting.

All I am saying is that the interest of clients are not fully covered and there compromises by some insurances to save money at the expense of clients. Be careful not to be a victim of such by researching and choosing wisely. As it is they did not even give me a formal rejection letter hence I have handed the matter to OSTI, worse still some of the things I complained about which had nothing to do with the damaged engine have not been resolved to date. On pursuing the case one of the official of the Admin House brokers said to me the file is closed. I am not sure now whether my case was presented properly to the Main Insurance Company as I did not get the opportunity to communicate with them directly.

ITS A SHAME.