Well, in the case of Sulette Abu Ajineh, she phoned Bidvest Insurance.
Having woken up early one Saturday morning to let in her domestic worker, Sulette couldn’t believe her eyes when she discovered that her gate was open and her brand new Toyota Corolla was no longer parked in front of her house.
“I think I must’ve been in shock because at first, I wasn’t sure what was going on, but then I realised that my car had been stolen,” recalls Sulette.
To make matters worse, Sulette’s husband was overseas at the time and with two small children to look after, Sulette turned to Bidvest Insurance for help.
“They were amazing. I had only had the car for three days, so I didn’t have any information on hand, but after assisting me in getting the engine number and VIN number from the dealership I’d just bought the car from, they processed the claim straight away,” says Sulette.
Initially distracted and worried about her stolen car, it was only later that day that Sulette discovered her house had also been broken into!
“I felt violated. To know that my children and I had been in the house while they were breaking in… that’s when I became hysterical,” says Sulette. “But Bidvest Insurance were so good to me.” Within hours of making her claim, a locksmith was sent out to her home to change all her locks and a package was hand delivered the next day containing a R1000 debit card, a cell phone with R500 airtime and all the documents she needed to apply for a new Identity Document and Driver’s License. Sulette says: “I must tell you, I used everything! With me being effectively a single mom, I don’t have my husband here to give me cash in an emergency, so that helped like you cannot believe.”
Fortunately, Sulette had a tracking device installed in her car, and it was soon recovered, but both sets of car keys were gone, and so were her handbag, iPad and her children’s school bags. When she discovered it was going to cost more than R17 000 to have her car’s entire lockset replaced, Sulette was shocked and didn’t want to run the risk of affecting her no claims bonus on her regular insurance. Instead, she claimed through her Bidvest Insurance Theftbuster Plus policy for R5000 toward her iPad and R500 to replace her personal documents, while her Keyguard policy covered the cost of having both her keys and lockset replaced in full. Plus her brand new car was professionally valeted inside and out, and returned to her as good as new!
Best of all? She didn’t have to pay any excess!
Bidvest Insurance Theftbuster Plus and Keyguard policies were able to provide Sulette with all the help she needed. For an affordable, once-off payment when she first bought her car, she has peace of mind knowing that Bidvest Insurance will be there for her, every step of the way.
