Incompetent AIA

Context: Premium payment to AIA for my mum's health insurance policy is done via autodebit from my CIMB debit card. There was no issue for years until now. Also, each time I call AIA to enquire, they request to perform verification with my mum.

Some dates below are approximated.

(1) 26th Aug:

Received sms from AIA saying that the autodebit failed and that they would try again in a few days. I decided to manually pay for it via their app to avoid the possibility of my mum's policy voided.

(2) 27th Aug:

Received sms from CIMB that my debit card was charged by AIA. A check with CIMB showed that the payment had yet been deducted from my account and so they asked me to check with AIA. AIA confirmed that they received the manual payment but not the autodebit payment. They asked me to call back once my account was deducted but I voiced my concern that I would not be with my mum then and so verification would not be possible. So, they did two things: (a) they sent instruction to the processing team to immediately effect refund upon receipt of the extra payment, and (b) they gave me the case number so that I could call to enquire using it.

(3) 29th Aug:

I noticed that my CIMB's account available balance was lower than the current balance by exactly the autodebit amount. CIMB told me that it normally takes 3-5 working days for the merchant to accept the payment and thus deducted from my account. If nothing happens after 14 days, then CIMB can legally void that transaction but they can't do it earlier. They advised me to ask AIA to void the transaction, instead of waiting for refund.

Called AIA and gave them the case number but they still wanted my mum's personal verification! They offered to call my mum to get it. Hours later, my mum called me that AIA did the verification with her and asked her to tell me to call them. Yet, they still asked for verification despite that! I told them the whole story and they reluctantly told me me the same thing: instruction was given to processing team to refund a.s.a.p, which meant that they also didn't entertain CIMB's suggestion to simply void the transaction.

Hours later, my CIMB account was deducted the extra payment i.e. current balance = available balance.

(4) 5th Sep:

It's been 5 working days since my account was deducted. I asked mum to enquire with AIA, who then told her that they processed the refund on 3rd Sep. Why didn't they do it on 29th Aug when clearly my money was deducted from my account, something that they asked the processing team to do so immediately? So the 5 working days timeline restarted today.

(5) 7th Sep:

Received sms from AIA stated that the refund was credited to my debit card and to call them if my account "has not been credited after 5 w/days".

(6) 13th Sep:

Another 5 working days had gone and yet still no refund. Once again, mum called AIA and again they moved the goal post: "5 to 7 working days",

(7) 18th Sep:

7th working day after receiving sms but still no refund.

(8) 19th Sep:

Mum called and AIA asked me to double check with CIMB, claiming that they had refunded on 5th Sep. They also asked mum to call them again if there was any problem. As expected, CIMB confirmed that there was no refund from AIA, asked some details from me (including the phone number that we used to call AIA) and created a report out of it for investigation within 3 days. AIA in turn said they would check with their finance department and would call my mum that day or the next day.

(9) 20th Sep:

CIMB called me in the morning and told me that the refund would get through later that day. When queried, they said that they spoke with AIA and checked through the list of information that the latter needed to submit to effect the refund. Turns out that there were missing information. I got the refund late afternoon. Finally, this nonsense ends.