“Sanlam - and as previously Merchant Wealth - failed to invest my inheritance correctly and failed to give appropriate advice on pensions. Instead seeking funds and schemes which profit the company rather than acting in the best interests of the indivdual despite the separate fee paid for this advice. This has been detected by the Regulator (FCA) and investigations undertaken - however, even with these, they still fail to recompense individuals fairly and reasonably for their known failures. I continue to battle within this faceless and (my opinion) uncaring company but quite simply - my advice if you are considering investing your life savings (or in my case - inheritance)... don't. Just don't. Think about alternative companies, review Financial Service Ombudsman complaints and Financial Conduct Authority sanctions. Of course - you may be lucky, but who wants luck when they are investing everything they have. My battle continues - yours does not need to begin!”
“If you don not want to throw your money away, avoid Sanlam.
Pay out is always an issue.
They never explain to you the full terms and when you need your funds they will give you excuses.”
“Worst client service. They do not even bother to ask for details, or even look at them. This"Mbali" gave me an answer before asking for my details. She wouldn't even check, then immediately left the chat. Honestly I wasn't expecting such a run around from SANLAM.”
“The worst lack of customer service..I have officially ever experienced. When you not holding on the line for over an hour,none of your countless emails ever get responded to. They have a unreliable WhatsApp where the agents are as useless as they are unresponsive. , Particularly one agent called "Mbali" . The annoying thing is their incompetence cost people money and Time.”
“Sanlam in some way not made clear is now trading as Atomos. Atomos have had quite decent reviews so maybe things will improve. We have had investments with Sanlam since 2013. The money would have been better placed in the High Street. In a low risk investment plan we have lost £10,000 in 18 months. We know things are difficult but surely a reputable company should have performed better than this.”
“Shocking customer service! Not helpful at all. They failed to allocate my accounts payment accordingly for over 4 weeks (after I paid using the reference on my statement). I was then told that it was my fault for paying with the supposedly wrong reference number - I used the reference number on my statement. They then send me an email saying my credit score has gone down 21% for missing a payment (that THEY didn't allocate)!!!! I am fed up! I phoned and emailed them several times.”
“Avoid! All nice and well until you ask for a transfer on your own money into your own bank account. Always been told money would be available if needed. Truth is, it it not. They just work for themselves and the so called financial advisors who work for them and of course cannot do anything to get your money back in time. Keep away from them...”
“I regret investing with them. I saw a customer being treated poorly by the receptionist. The receptionist even went ahead and got on the phone and instigated other staff to treat the customer poorly. The staff were unproffessional and the information offered on their products when signing up was incomplete thus poor purchase decisions
Do not invest your money with them. Sanlam Kenya is just a scam.”
“Sanlam were appointed to administer my late father’s estate. It has been over 7 years since his passing and as the nominated heirs, my siblings and I, have had to involve The Master, The Chief Master, and The Financial Institute of South Africa, due to several instances of what we believe to be failings and poor conduct within the management of the estate, whereby the estate has suffered direct financial harm as a result of the executor’s failure to act on their fiduciary responsibility and accountability to the estate.
The heirs have made countless requests for clarification, provision of documents, and expenses borne by the estate where we believe these actions and decisions to have not been in the best interest of the estate. However this information has yet to be provided to us at our reasonable request, with some of these requests now ongoing for several months and years.
The Administration of Estates Act is clear in that legally, an executor and their agents, are required to conduct themselves transparently, and to provide full disclosure to the nominated beneficiaries of an estate. This has not been our experience at all, and on this basis we wish that our father never entrusted his estate to Sanlam to manage.
For over 7 years we have been denied the opportunity to fully reconcile the loss of our late father, and after this experience we feel that we have a very long way to go before we can get closure on our grief, given our memory of his death has been irreparably tarnished by our prolonged experience with Sanlam.”
“Please avoid Salam. There cost are ridiculous and make more money from your investment than you do. On top of the exsorbident % cost has increased.
Cant believe it and totally helpless because of the extremely high cost related to moving my investments else where. DO NOT INVEST WITH SALAM. Bunch of crookes.”
“I had a very bad experience with Sanlam. I buried my Father without any payouts from Sanlam. There is nothing tangible coming from Sanlam, I had to send 3 payslips to prove that I have been paying my premiums. There is no sense of urgency In handling issues.
The service is very bad.”
“Cannot get hold of them on phone.
Waited 25 mins this time 20 mins last time in the end gave up!!!?
Coronavirus will be the excuse but I don’t have trouble with anyone else, very disappointed with service.
No experienced team member seemed to be working !!!?”
“I am very disappointed and disgusted by the lack of client service with your institution. Your consultant take forever to respond. You provide different references for the same issue. Whenever I phone to enquire your consultants are confused, there are no previous notes. Management does not follow up on complaints. The service is poor on all levels. I am still waiting for a positive response for almost a year now. On 02 November 2022 I wrote a letter to Sanlam requesting them to cancel few insured members from the policy. On 15 December 2022 I received a letter that informed me that the policy had lapsed. When I enquired about the lapsed policy, Sanlam admitted to having made a mistake by cancelling the entire policy. The consultant that assisted me promised to fix the error by escalating the matter to a special team. I was later informed that the case was still under investigation when I enquired about the hold up. You made an error but I am the one who pays the price. Fast forward 6 months later I was told that I needed to pay for the months that the policy was cancelled and I clearly refused. My reasons for refusing are merely the fact that I am not covered and have not been covered for the day the made the error so why should I be in debt for the months that they erased my policy from their books. Now they still refuse to reinstate my policy until I pay for the months. I am still taking this up until you do something about this and fix your house and your mess. Hire competent people who are ready to provide effecient and effective customer service. You treat Sanlam as an illegal somalian spaza shop with no license and expired items. You have been the worst institution I have ever come across and you are not willing to listen or change. Sanlam Life you have been the worst. I trusted you with my life. I had a life cover with you but clearly you have n o interest in the lives of the people you serve.”
