DOVES Funeral Services no longer cares. That is the verdict of relatives of deceased people who had paid-up policies with the company, which prides its service as “over a century of caring”.

The funeral company is facing charges of reneging on agreements to provide full burial services once a policy holder dies.

Angry relatives who spoke to The Standard last week said the country’s largest funeral home was taking advantage of the transition from the Zimbabwean dollar regime to the multi-currency system to renege on the agreement to offer burial cover to all paid-up policy holders.

Some relatives said Doves was arguing that the monies that policy holders contributed over the years were gobbled up by inflation.

One of the affected people, Chipo Karoro said her family had a hard time when her brother James Tichasara Mashura (policy number 127930), passed on in January.

She said they had to foot most of the expenses after Doves refused to cover all burial costs although he was a paid-up member.

Doves only dressed the body and offered transport from Parirenyatwa Hospital into the city centre, a distance of less than five kilometres, she said.

“My brother was a fully paid-up member having been contributing for more than 10 years but when he died, Doves refused to provide full burial services,” said Karoro.

Three weeks after Mashura’s death, Doves Funeral Services published a list of policy holders who were supposed to get full services without paying extra money in the press.

A total of 4 420 people were on the list that was widely publicised on February 24.

Mashura’s name was among them.

This prompted relatives to go back to Doves to claim money they had used at the funeral.

They were shocked when the funeral home said it could only pay US$100 to cover transport and for the coffin.

In a letter dated February 17, addressed to Mashura, Doves managing director, Talent Mazibisa said: “The funds will be available from the 3rd of March and please note that your policy is now fully active and you don’t need to make further payment.”

But Karoro is fuming.

“They want to give us US$100 and yet when we tried to hire transport from them (Doves) to Chihota in Seke, they charged us US$275,” said Mrs Karoro.

“The disparities in figures show that Doves is not sincere when dealing with its customers. How do they expect us to cover the deficit?”

Another relative who requested anonymity said Doves declined to pay even a single cent when his brother-in-law died late last year saying his contribution had been gobbled up by inflation.

Family members had to contribute to ensure a decent burial although he was a paid-up Doves policy holder, he claimed.

“It pains us that we had to foot the bill although our relative had been contributing for several years,” he said.

He claimed there were several other deceased people whose policies were not being honoured by the funeral home.

Apart from that, some names of fully paid up members are also missing from the list published by Doves.

An official at Doves said the company had been inundated with complaints from policy holders whose names were not on the list.

Doves chief executive officer Chabvemhiri Shaka said the company made an undertaking to pay full services to its clients on February 26 and before that they were only providing “critical services”.

He said they were paying US$100 to every member who had only been offered the “critical service” as an ex-gracious payment.

“This money will be reviewed as we go on,” said Shaka, who however had difficulties explaining why Doves was offering only US$100.  He also confirmed that there were fully paid up members whose names did not appear on the published list and urged policy holders “to visit our offices to correct the anomalies.”

A few years ago, Doves cancelled policies that attracted low premiums citing viability problems caused mainly by inflation.

Some of the affected subscribers have lost their jobs or are old and on retirement with low pension payments, while others are low-income earners, making it difficult, if not impossible, for them to review their monthly premiums upwards.

BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE

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