Buhle Ndweni, Finweek journalist

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather pay high insurance for a great service than pay much less for sloppy service. I mean, what’s up with these insurance companies and sales consultants who know nothing but have their tongues hanging out when they think about the commission (supposedly 1% of your monthly premium) that they will get when they finally win you over as a new customer?

I am appalled by the fact that these consultants often get a day’s training and are then thrown right in the deep end to swim their way in, hooking customers.  I’m all for throwing new recruits in the deep end so that they learn, but this should be done cautiously, especially when people’s money is involved.

I recently cancelled my car insurance because although it would have panned out cheaper in the long run, due to no excess when claiming in the event of an accident or after being hijacked. The service was repeatedly very unsatisfactory. Firstly, I was not made aware that the insurance would be debiting money out of my account 15 days after I took out the insurance. Only after I called to ask why that was, were the reasons explained to me.

Passing the buck

And isn’t it just irritating when you talk to anyone and everyone in that call centre instead of one particular person that you know could know the specifics of your application and could clarify things or be accountable for misinforming you? This is just the tip of the ice berg considering the email they were supposed to send on asking some products to be removed from their insurance billing, that they never sent or the documents they said they would post to my postbox that I still have not received. Okay, maybe that could have not been their incompetence, but that’s another issue altogether.

Secondly, there’s the car tracking guys, referred to me by the car insurance company, who are just as bad. You see, I’m one of those people that really prefer to do extensive research before I buy a product, especially if it’s going to cost me an arm and a leg. Money just doesn’t grow on trees, as the saying goes.

One of the researches I did before buying my car indicated that a tracking device should be installed at the dealership, preferably a day before you take ownership of it. On the day taking delivery of the car, the car tracking company still has not called me about installation. I make a call to arrange for this – I really should have taken this as a sign not to sign up with them.

Dodgy deal

Anyway, I get in contact with the tracking company and they tell me they can’t install it that day, but can come install it over the weekend at my home. Now this sounds a bit dodgy to me. I pause and ask why. Their response is they have a shortage of staff and there aren’t enough technicians at the time, which was early January, and them coming to where I am would be for my convenience.

Really?  I could come up with a number of conspiracy theories around that, especially since the guy that finally installed the device in my car, (which had no car registration number or plate at the time), after I insisted it be installed at the dealership, looked a bit dodgy.

Like I said, this is purely a conspiracy theory and should be taken as such. But truth be told, what would have happened when they installed it at my home and then came back to ‘take it’ (or put more bluntly, steal it)? Then what? Especially since the tracker is supposed to be an early warning system, but in the weeks that I have driven the car, not even once did I receive a warning that my car was entering a danger zone, like Soweto when I go to my parents home, or in Orange Farm when I went to my grandparents house.

Now I have changed insurances and boy was I happy when they said they would cancel the other insurance for me and take over the car tracking system, since they use the same company, and actually have them come look at the car tracking system, at my place of work, to check what is wrong with the tracker. Now tell me the above was really a conspiracy theory. I think not.

Insurance companies, in my opinion, are making a killing with our money and claims they sometimes dodge paying, so why can’t they take that into investing more in getting their call centre agents more educated? And since they claim to record those conversations, why don’t they take check the records to find out the efficiency of their consultants?