I work in customer service for an insurance company, opening claims for adjusters to later process and helping customers get answers about their ongoing claims. I get a call from an older lady to open a claim, and she outright tells me she isn’t all there and forgets a lot of things. She is sweet and very apologetic.

After looking up her information:

Me: “Oh, it seems we already have a claim opened, by your daughter-in-law. Everything seems to be in order; the adjuster should be able to process everything within a few days.”

Customer: “Oh, that is good. I’m so sorry to have bothered you for nothing.”

Me: “That’s no problem at all. We’re here to help.”

Customer: “You’ve been so nice about it. Usually, people get quite upset with me.”

She has gotten audibly emotional and it’s breaking my heart.

Me: “I’m so sorry. Nobody deserves that. You’re probably the nicest customer I’ve spoken to today!”

Customer: “That is so nice of you to say. If you were any closer, I would bring you cookies!”

We chatted a bit more and then ended the call. She probably forgot me by the following day, but if I even made one day better for her, it was worth it! I can’t imagine having to live with the stress of memory issues AND people being unkind about it.

I worked as a tech support for a global insurance company. Our old manager retired. He was a cool guy, not a micromanager. We got this new one who was, right away, very confrontational. He was a “my way or the highway” kind of guy, even when we explained the bureaucracy of our company and processes. For whatever reason, he had it in for me; he went as far as making comments in front of everybody about replacing me.

At one of our employee review meetings, he said he was getting complaints of me “not smiling enough”, which I found very odd because I consider myself a likable person and I’m always joking with other users and employees, which I’ve found helps with the job.

He even went as far as to show me how to smile.

I proceeded to give out the most forced, creepy smile humanly possible every time I interacted with a user, every single time. People asked me what was wrong, and I always answered, “Following an employee review, I was instructed to smile more, so I’m smiling.”

I was doing this for a couple of days and after an interaction providing support for Human Resources, with the smile and the explanation, I went back to my desk.

A couple of minutes later, I saw the HR lady go to my boss’s office. They were there for like half an hour. After she left, my boss called me in.

Boss: “You don’t have to smile anymore.”

Me: *Sarcastically* “Aww, do I really have to stop?”

He just looked at me for a moment.

Boss: “That’s all.”

He left like a year later. No one, not even the other managers, liked him.

Back in the day, I worked in a call center processing cell phone insurance claims. Most issues were covered, except for water damage. We were required to get a description of what happened, though, even if the phone was lost. The management was pretty relaxed about it, but you did need to provide a description that fell within the allowed coverage reasons. I could give a brief overview of what their policy covered before I took their description, and most people were smart enough to understand that if their phone had water damage, it was better to just say it was at the bottom of a lake, i.e., lost. “It just stopped working” wasn’t covered, but “I dropped it and it doesn’t work anymore” was covered. You get the idea.

One guy thought it was ridiculous that he needed to tell us what happened to the phone. I reiterated the policy summary, hoping he’d take the hint and make up a story, and we could both move on with our day. He did… in the least effective way possible.

Me: “Could you please describe what happened that caused the phone to stop working? Please keep in mind that I cannot make any changes to your statement once you provide it.”

Caller: “I dropped it. My toddler hit it with an axe. It got left in the rain. I stopped quickly and it flew off the dashboard and out the window of the car.” *Insert several more unlikely scenarios here.*

Me: “To clarify, all of these things happened to the same phone on the same day, just before it stopped working, and this is the source of the damage? It wasn’t just one thing?”

Caller: “Yes. All of those things.”

I typed furiously because I was required to document all of the incidents. I read the summary back to him, asking if this was complete and correct, and reminded him again that once he agreed, I couldn’t change his statement.

Caller: “Yes, that’s correct.”

Me: “Based on your description, sir, I’m sorry, but I’m not able to approve your cell phone insurance claim today. As I mentioned earlier, any water damage is excluded from your coverage, and as you described water damage as part of the incident, I’m not able to approve the claim. I’ve also consulted with my supervisor, who has advised that we aren’t able to distinguish the cause of the damage based on your description of events.”

Caller: “I want to change my statement of what happened.”

Me: “I’m sorry, but that isn’t possible. As I stated, no changes are possible once I’ve read the summary back to you and you agreed that it was correct.”

Caller: “Fine. I’ll call back later and start over.”

Me: “I’m sorry, sir, but as you’ll recall, we gathered details about your phone, including the serial number, before you described the damage. We have a record that you attempted to make a claim, and no further claims on this phone will be possible.”

Caller: “You’re the rudest customer service representative I’ve ever encountered! Get me your supervisor!”

Me: “Certainly, sir.”

In the UK, it is the law that if you have a vehicle taxed for road use, then the vehicle must be insured for road use. All vehicle tax and registration are managed by the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency), and there is also the Motor Insurance Database (MID) that has every UK-insured vehicle on it.

This is not a closely-guarded secret; you can literally go to a website and pop your vehicle registration in and it’ll flag if it’s insured or not. There is also something called SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification); if you intend to not have your vehicle insured or use it on the road, you need to go to the DVLA and get it SORN’d

I work in vehicle insurance. The plus side is that whilst we need to have good customer service, we don’t have to be nice to clients due to the nature of what we do. This client has called to cancel his insurance. He has me on speakerphone, so I can hear a lot. He’s also been pretty rude and difficult so far, getting snappy at me regarding DPA and stuff we have to do by law.

Me: “So, why are you looking to cancel the insurance?”

Client: “It’s winter, idiot. I’m not gonna ride it.”

Me: “Have you had it SORN’d?”

Client: “Nah, don’t see the point.”

Me: “I need to make you aware: if your vehicle is taxed for road use and you do not have insurance, the DVLA could fine you up to £1,000, and the vehicle can also be seized and even destroyed by police. I would recommend getting your vehicle SORN’d as soon as you cancel the insurance; you can do it on the government website and it’s free.”

Client: “How would they know it’s not insured?”

Guy In The Background: “It’s called askMID.”

Client: *To the guy* “Shut it, mate.”

Me: “As your friend has advised, there is the Motor Insurance Database run by the Motor Insurance Bureau, which the police and the DVLA use to verify if a vehicle has insurance.”

Client: “Well, how are they gonna know the reg if they can’t see it? It’s gonna be in the garage. Suck on that, sugar t*ts.”

Me: *Dryly* “The DVLA are the ones who gave it the registration plate. They’re the ones that issued you the V5. If it’s UK registered, the DVLA knows the registration, make, model, colour, etc. of the vehicle, who owns the vehicle, and where that person lives. You could take it to Timbuktu if you really wanted to, but if it’s registered and taxed for UK road use, the DVLA is going to be able to find out if it’s insured. You don’t have to SORN the vehicle, but again, it’s free, and if they do decide to check it, you could lose out on up to £1,000.”

There’s a rather awkward silence.

Guy In The Background: “I went on holiday to Timbuktu.”

Client: “Shut up, mate! And… I’ll… uh… get it SORN’d.”

Me: “Lovely. Let’s get that cancellation calculated. I’ll just pop you on hold.”

Guy In The Background: “She ain’t gonna do anything to try and get you a discount on the cancellation after you called her ‘sugar t*ts’.”

Client: “Shut it—”

At that point, I put the client on hold. And yes, I left the cancellation fees at full costs; we can choose to waive them at our discretion, though it does reflect on our scores if we go under a certain amount on average.

My doctor miscoded a visit to her office. Instead of it being covered as a free annual physical under my insurance policy, I was charged $300.

I understand; doctors are fallible and rushed these days.

But when I called the doctor’s office to get the visit recoded, I was stonewalled. There was nothing they could do. (Really?)

Finally, I showed up in the doctor’s office waiting room with a stack of magazines. I politely explained to the receptionist that I wasn’t leaving until the error was rectified. I also politely explained to everyone who entered the waiting room why I was there.

It took an hour before a nurse came out to tell me the error had been corrected. I resubmitted the bill to my insurance company and all was right again.

Related:
Not Much Assurance About The Insurance, Part 19
Not Much Assurance About The Insurance, Part 18
Not Much Assurance About The Insurance, Part 17
Not Much Assurance About The Insurance, Part 16
Not Much Assurance About The Insurance, Part 15