Saturday, March 25, 2006

first for bitches

Wow. I am truly flabbergasted. I know that insurance companies will generally cut corners as much as possible, or cross-examine your accident to confirm whether it was, in fact, an accident, but this has got to be the cherry on the top.

I have accidentally come across possibly the biggest insurance scam of the year.
(Unless of course any of you are aware of this.)

Investing no less than R650/month on comprehensive car insurance with First For Women/First for Bitches has got to be the most misguided personal error of the year on my part.

Oh my Christmas. The lady at the panel beaters phones me, and I was awaiting this phone call, to say that my car will be delayed. Oh but of course. I threw my toys and they agreed to give me a courtesy car. I ask her why the delay?
It so turns out that First for Bitches forced the panel beaters to order a “pirate bumper” for my vehicle.

My car is a new Beetle. The bumper forms a solid component to the front of my bonnet. It is henceforth more of a panel than a bumper. It takes up one third of bona-fide Volkswagen genuine part of the front of my car. And they wanted the panel beaters to fit something that has possibly fallen off the back of a truck in its place. We’re not talking about a fake VW steering wheel, or lights, or a radio, which wouldn’t make an iota of a difference to my car’s performance. We’re talking about the basis of the front of my fucking vehicle. This part costs about R14 000. With my monthly installments of R650, I am well over paying for this. In fact, I could buy two genuine bumpers.

Unlucky for First for Bitches, the panel beaters kindly informed me of this crookery.
Imagine my surprise when she told me that my car was going to potentially be a chop-shop experiment.
The part, the pirate-bought-on-a-road-in-Lenasia-part, didn’t fit my car as previously thought by the guy who is fixing my car. So he ended up having to order the original VW panel anyway, after sending back the pirate one, or more plausibly discarding it in the nearest dumpster. Hence the delay. The lady said that they frequently have these kind of troubles with First for Bitches. And the panel beater clearly stipulate they are a WV-approved genuine parts panel beater. They are supposedly forced to try out pirate parts first. Especially on older cars (pre-2000). My car is not old.

I am so cross I could literally pooh.

I investigate further, while the woman on the phone is becoming increasingly irate because this conversation could cost her this job, so she is demanding this be off the record.
Auto & General are the umbrella company that own First for Women, Dial Direct, Budget and Auto & General itself. According to her, this practice is normal. All these companies demand pirate parts for the most part, and most panel beaters across the country need to fit them. Because they won’t be paid for the part otherwise.

Another problem is that my car is under warranty. Come my next service in July, and they find that my bumper is not genuine, my warranty immediately falls away. And it would be MY fault. I have to have genuine VW parts in order to keep my warranty.

I frankly told her that I could sue the bejeesus out of the panel beater and my insurance company for fraud. Over a mission statement guaranteeing genuine parts. Which is obviously NOT what they are doing, because these insurers are forcing them to install otherwise bad parts.

I will notify the press across the country in the medium of a sensational letter, CCing the CEO of Auto & General in the process. I cannot wait to cause a scandal. This is my gig afterall. Carte Blanche, are you listening?

So…in a nutshell: If you were by any chance pondering over an exclusive All Women’s Club insurance by the name of First For Women, don’t.

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

Geez, that's fucken daylight robbery.
Thanks for the heads up. I'll be telling all my lady friends about this.

It's a bastard of a business plan: Heavily target only women, who traditionally know less (care less?) about cars, and then scam them for all they're worth.

Anonymous said...

So - do you think they call it "First for Women" because they think that they can hoodwink women who wouldn't know better?

How disgusting - I'll start a campaign with you, and have some Carte Blanche producer friends if you're keen!

Marc said...

Eish, thats hectic...
I agree, take this to the top...its daylight robbery

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you highlighted this Peas...I'm not with FFW...they wouldn't take a Monkey Boy no matter how well he dressed and how affected he spoke...but my guessing is this will be pretty much an industry wide issue in South Africa...and I didn't know that they're all A&G...makes phoning around for competitive quotes a joke.

BTW have you used hellopeter.com...it's a South Africa consumer complaint web. Good place to let others know the issue, I always us them before making purchase decisions.

Anonymous said...

I have this comprehensive theory about insurance, which I don't like to get into unless I can spare a few hours... Issues like these feature prominently in it.

I'm with you, go get 'em!

Anonymous said...

Jeeez laaaik it, FFW/FFB are wankers!!!

Sorry to hear they tried to pull the cotton over your eyes but so glad you're letting the big dawgs know about it!

ps: You should put this on hellopeter.com. You'll get lots of airtime there as well!

pss: Martin, I like the "comprehensive theory about insurance" hehe.

Peas on Toast said...

Thanks everyone, I will definitely keep you all posted.
I will pen the letter today.

The bitches are going down.

Billy said...

Peas: Before you put to much effort into it check your policy wording. If you go public and they are in the right you could have a problem on your hands. I have been through this before......it lasted 5 months and i got properly screwed, i never even got a hug out of it.....

Peas on Toast said...

Thanks Billy - hectic. I'll sift through the reams of First 4 Women documents tonight to check for some loopholes.
Thanks for the warning, what happened??

Billy said...

I rolled a car (rolled 4 times and flipped twice), they "fixed" it at some back yard shit hole of a panel beaters who gave it back to me without a few forward gears and a new feature for Golf's: the ability to do a U-Turn at anything between 20 and 120km/hr if i took my hands off the wheel.

The car went back 36 times for faults, not little things like a paint fleck or anything but for creases in the roof or body panels falling of. When i tried to make an issue of it in the public domain (after getting the same automated responses from the cousin f*ckers that deal with the panel beaters and claims) i was warned by some knuckle dragger that he would make my life a misery if i caused "problems". The legal issues surrounding when they are at fault also gave them ammo to sue me if i made public comment without giving them the time to remedy the situation and help, this doesn’t have a time limit on it and "help" means as little as giving you some code 3 death trap as a courtesy car.

They also have a policy of repair instead of replace whereever possible as i foundout to my detriment.

Peas on Toast said...

Oh my God! 36 times???? I would've become addicted to Vicodin years ago and by this stage would need a straight jacket. I will certainly check that this doesn't happen to me. Thing is, my insurance recommended this panel beater because it is approved. The irony is almost too much.

But will check the papaers and thereafter hopefully will be able to write a scathing letter. Let's just hope I don't accidentally get shot.

Anonymous said...

Never, ever trust anything or anyone related to Auto and General. I was once insured with them, I had a friend who worked there, no one had a good experience with them. They are CROOKS.

Peas on Toast said...

Anon - That's what I thought. I just hope my letter is enough to bring them down. Or otherwise convince more people to come forward with tales of rape and pillaging.

Anonymous said...

This is outrageous, and to think I was thinking of changing to FFB!!!
I am a journalist, would be interested in following up on this trend....and how much them screwing u over is allowed thru policy wording...plz email me the scenario and what u've got...fran@sapa.org.za

Anonymous said...

I'd seriously get some good advice from the short-term insurance ombudsman before launching a bad PR campaign against A&G.

Just get the solid facts and your rights first.
just make sure that it's not the panel beater who made a slip and revealed their own dirty truth.

Anonymous said...

As an independant broker, I can tell you they are not even close to being cheaper. It's a lot of crap!I've yet to see their product beat the nomal type policy.

Anonymous said...

It'd be a totally different kettle of (stinking) fish if they sold cheaper insurance, upfront, on the basis of "we've gonna patch up rather than fix" your car. The fitting of pirate parts is also a potential means of disputing a claim, in the event of an accident. Blow em out the water!!!

Anonymous said...

You've got me thinking about changing away from FFW. I am crazy about my Ford Focus and I guess I better check out Hollard because they're not in that group mentined by Peas.
A car is a really big investment and you gotta get good and honest insurance back up. Pirate Parts!!! What a scam! I guess they don't know NOT to mess with women - we unite and conquer ... hey girls?

Peas on Toast said...

Thanks guys.

I must post an update, but I received an anonymous call from somebody at First for Women a couple of days after this was posted on Moneyweb. They basically told me to delete this off my blog.
"Why?" I ask. They couldn't give me an answer.

So this post will stay. And hopefully inflitrate many more potential FFW clients that don't know how these people operate. Because they obviously have something to hide.

(If I die unexpectedly, it was no accident!)

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