I, Abraham Philander, Id. nr: 6004135096085, and Dial Direct Policy holder of Policy 828303638 lodged complaints in January 2011 and in March 2011.Two claim nrs. had been allocated to me :828303638/1&2. An assesor came to assess the damage. Up to now Dial Direct did not react to my claim. I am thinking of leaving them depending on their answer.

After having a small accident with my car, I submitted a claim with dial direct. The claim was handled swiftly, and they informed me the excess amount is R5100 because I am not yet 25. I phoned and asked if they could assist me and reduce the amount and showing some goodwill. I am an excellent customer, and have never claimed for any accidents. Me and my wife are both engineers and Dial direct have all our business. I have also recruited a lot of my family members due to good service received. So I would say I helped Dial Direct before.

However when Dial direct had the chance to assist me when I needed it they didn't wanted to help. I know it's within their right, but they have made a lot of money up to now out of me. And my previous insurer a few years back did help me with the excess amount when there was a break in at our house.

I would therefore not consider or recommend Dial direct again to anybody as an insurer and as soon as this claim is finalised, I am moving to a different company that wants to help their clients.

One word of advice: Treat your customers as you would like to be treated and always try to help them where possible.

My car was damaged in an accident on 15 December 2009. Dial Direct appointed Quality Assured panelbeaters to perform the repairs. While my car was at the panelbeaters, the engine was damaged. They refused to accept responsibility and Dial Direct eventually enforced a cash settlement offer on me. When the car was returned to me, several parts were missing. Dial Direct undertook in writing to pay for these parts. Now the responsible person will not take my phone calls and his boss does not reply to e-mails sent to him. We are one week short of a full year since the accident occurred.

We bought a car the saturday getting a loan from Wesbank. Needed insurance of course and chose DialDirect because they were the most competitively priced at the time. The monday we got a call early the morning that the the loan has not gone through because my wife had to be the main driver and holder since she was taking out the loan. We phoned DialDirect 9ish to change this, and ask for another confirmation. No response. Phoned again, and again. We noticed that DialDirect's email queue system was choked and not sending out mails or faxes. Phoned again and asked for a manual email done. They mailed us the wrong one finally at 14:00 after 6 calls. Had to call again to get it done yet again with the correct details. Finally at 15:57 we were able to receive the confirmation. I never swore or raised my voice. Yet I had 1 guy putting the phone down in my ear, one promised to have it typed and faxed manually but it never came, one mailed it manually but the wrong one, 2 raised their voices at me, asked for a manager 1 simply queued me. This company's service is horrendous. I would hate to see how they handle a claim. Planning to change insurance asap, be smart stay away from DialDirect!

In 2004 I bought a 2002 VW Microbus to accommodate a sales team and due to all the Dial Direct ads then flooding the media, I decided to give them a chance with my newly acquired vehicle. Shortly thereafter, I moved to George and started my own sales business. Since then I purchased a few more vehicles, for personal use and for business, and as Dial Direct seemed a good, hassle free insurer, I insured all vehicles with them, i.e.
1. 2001 BMW 323i
2. 2000 VW Microbus destroys
3. 1992 VW Caravelle
4. 2003 Opel Corsa Utility
5. 2002 VW Microbus (mentioned above)
6. 2004 BMW M3
The last three on the list was still insured with Dial Direct till September 2008.
As you probably know, in the direct sales industry employees change quite often, thus the regular drivers to. Although all the above vehicles are covered for any driver, I took it upon myself to be a compliant and truthful client and notified Dial Direct each and every time the regular driver of any vehicle changed, even though notifying them pushed my premium up every time. In September 2008 when I cancelled my insurance with Dial Direct, I was paying a monthly premium of R2962.42 for the 3 vehicles still insured, never skipped a single month since inception, and I doubt they even took the time to look at my profile with their company before repudiating my claim.
THE ACCIDENT
On Saturday 31st of May 2008 at around 8:30pm, I had a big accident with my M3, I went to the garage to get fuel for a friend who got stuck, and on my way back to him, I had the accident in which my car was severely damaged. I called the Dial Direct hotline, but at the time I was very shaken and handed them over to the towing service that had arrived on the scene. The towing guys who happened to be a Dial Direct approved agent then loaded my car and took it to the SMD yard.
THE CLAIM
I only called Dial Direct on Tuesday 3rd June as I thought that the hotline guys I called automatically log the claim to find that it is not so and I still had to log a claim with Dial Direct. I then logged the claim and waited for a response. After a few more calls on the status of my claim, and Dial Direct telling me that they did not know my car’s at their yard, I finally got a response from Dial Direct via sms on Saturday 7th June stating that my car will be towed to an assessment center. With my calling Dial Direct, I found out that the person who would be handling my claim is Mr. Calvin Heiberg. I called Calvin the following Monday 9th or Tuesday 10th and he told me that the assessment would probably be complete by Friday 13th and that he is waiting on my application conversation. He also asked me if I was previously insured, I replied that I honestly can’t remember as it was so long ago, but think that I might have been on my moms insurance. He added that according to their records I’m on an NCB 5 and if I had no previous insurance I should only be on a 4. I then immediately checked through some old paperwork I had at my moms place and found 2 previous policies on my name(before which, I was on my mom’s policy), V Plus Brokers dated Feb 2003 and one with Santam after that, which was the last insurance cover I had before moving over to Dial Direct, and faxed the complete policy with all documentation to Calvin I got an sms confirming completion of the assessment on Thursday 12th and called Calvin on Friday 13th but he had left early and the person who answered told me that Calvin is still waiting for the conversation. I called Calvin on Monday 16th and he had received the conversation. He told me that according to the conversation, I said that I was previously insured for 4 years uninterrupted. I completely disagreed, and said that he should check if he’s got the correct conversation. I called again on Tuesday 17th, and Calvin told me that he called the previous insurance(V Plus) and they don’t have me on their system, and they’ve checked on all three client numbers found on that policy, but he’s still checking. Santam, apparently, also could not find the policy numbers I provided on their systems either.
THE REPUDIATION
On Thursday 19th June, Calvin called and told me that my claim has been repudiated due to me not being able to supply them with complete information on my previous insurance, this after I sent him complete policy documents of V Plus and supplied him with policy numbers for Santam. I asked Calvin how can V Plus/Santam losing my info now be my fault, and my claim be repudiated, to which he replied that’s just the way it is, I have seven days to get my car from the SMD yard and if I send them a letter accompanying documentation from V Plus/Santam stating that I was with them within 7 days, they’ll re-look at the claim. I told Calvin this is bullshit and he agreed. I asked Calvin who his superior is that repudiated the claim, and asked when I can come in to listen to the conversation and see his superior(John King). Calvin said he’ll speak to John and let me know. He never called. I called V Plus brokers on Thursday 19th and spoke to a manager, Suna Warrington, explained the situation to her and she told me that once a policy is cancelled, they remove it from the system and it gets archived so there is no way it will be found on their system. She asked me to give her a day or two to find it. I called Suna again on Friday 20th and she asked me to fax the policy to her as she cannot locate it on her side. I sent it to her and she called me back on Monday 23rd after finding it in their archive. Then on Tuesday 24th June 2008 at 11am I went to speak to John and listen to the conversation. In the application conversation I said that I had previous insurance for ‘I think ABOUT 4 years’ and John told me that since they cannot find Previous insurance for a full 4 years, he can do nothing.
Then a few days later I received another repudiation letter from Dial Direct, totally different to the first. It stated that the reason for repudiation is unroadworthiness of my vehicle. HOWEVER, my vehicle was inspected by an independent assessor (regarding a small 3rd party claim) 1 day before my accident, less than a week prior to their inspection, and found to be 100% roadworthy.
FURTHERMORE, This Is Also Not My First Claim From Dial Direct, It Is In Actual Fact My Second. My First Claim Was A Small Claim(+-R5500), Which They Had Absolutely No Problem Paying For. So If There Was Really A Problem With My Policy And My Previous Insurances, Why Did They Not Mention It With That First Claim, And Given Me A Chance To Resolve Any Discrepancies, Only Because The Claim Is Now A Large Amount To Pay(R247 000), Are They Giving Me Various Reasons Why They “Cannot” Entertain My Claim?
If I knew there were any problems with my policy, I would not have insured all those vehicles with them and risked so much if anything happened!!!
I also queried the matter with my attorney who advised me that this is a daily thing to them(agents get bonuses/commission for repudiating a claim), as they know that it will take about 2 years for the matter to reach the court room, by which time your legal bill is so high that you have to accept the 30% settlement they offer you in the passage. They know that no-one can really touch them, so they are free to do just as they please. My attorney’s advice was that I hand the matter to the Ombudsman for Short Term Insurance, as this was my only option, I did this in June 2008, which was futile as it took the OSTI a year to tell me that Dial Direct says they can’t find my previous insurance. WTF??? Useless!
IN CONCLUSION
Well as you can see, I am quite upset about the whole matter as I really do not see what my previous insurance has to do with the paying out of my claim. I have been a loyal, rule abiding client to Dial Direct for years, sticking to their requirements as well as I knew how. I have also lost my Bucks Back Bonus which was due. Is this not what insurance is there for, to soften the blow when you lose things dear to you, things you have worked so hard, even slaved for. Insurance premiums, whether it be my life insurance, car insurance, household insurance, is at the top of my priority list. Why is it that when we need our insurance, we are not at all a priority to them…

PLEASE ALSO NOTE THE FOLLOWING:
TELESURE is the ADMINISTRATOR under-which DIAL DIRECT falls, they are THE UMBRELLA so THEY make the rules and it is THEIR PRINCIPLES AND BUSINESS ETHICS which is the foundation of DIAL DIRECT.
THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES ARE ALSO UNDER THE TELESURE UMBRELLA:
Auto and General
Budget Insurance
First for Women
Woolworths Insurance
Prosper Insurance and
Unity Insurance

IT IS MY SUGGESTION THAT YOU STAY AWAY FROM ALL ABOVE MENTIONED INSURANCE COMPANIES AS AN UNPAID INSURANCE CLAIM, IS A KNOCK THAT CAN COMPLETELY DESTROY YOUR LIFE AND PUT YOU ON THE STREET IN NO TIME!!!