Unlawful Debit - without option of refund
My mother-in- law who is a pensioner has been on the medical fund for the last 4 years and have been paying a pensioners rate. An email was sent to my wife's email account to confirm if she is still pensioner. The email was not read by my wife (as it is not her primary mail account) , and Bonitas chose to change my mother in laws income status from pensioner to highest possible (clients are billed according to income) and have since triple debited the account 3 months in a row, without authorization. After querying, we were told that the account has been reset to pensioner, but no refund will be processed for the additional funds debited. It should be noted that there was no calls made to my mother in law or any other notification sent other than the email, and there is no option on the application forms for postal details, email is the only option of correspondence allowed, which is not ideal to a 77 year old. More than R7000,00 was debited from the account without authorization, and I have been told there will be no refund. This is highly irregular, and the funds should be refunded noting that proof has been sent confirming pensioner status.