Unfiltered Story #193903

(I work in the claims center for a well-known major insurance company. Like most insurance companies, we also own a couple of smaller insurance companies, and customers sometimes do not realize that the companies are affiliated. In the claims center, we cannot handle billing questions, but whenever a person gets fed up with the automated system and presses 0, it comes to us, so we have to transfer to policy services for their company for any billing issues. A call comes through with a policy number, but no other information, and I don’t like to rely on policy numbers alone because the system can sometimes match a recycled phone number with an old policy and it’s not the correct one.)

Me: “Thank you for calling the claims department. My name is [name]. How may I help you?”
Customer: “Yes, I just got a new debit card and I wanted to give you the information.”
Me: “Okay, let me get you over to policy services so they can help you with that. Are you with [main company] or [smaller affiliate company]?”
Customer: “Yes.”
Me: “So you’re with [affliliate]? Or [main company]?”
Customer: “Yes.”
Me: “Ma’am, are you insured with [main company] Insurance or with [affiliate] Insurance?”
Customer: “Insurance. Car insurance.”
Me: (trying to come up with some other way to get the company name) “Do you happen to have your policy number so I can get you to someone who can help with billing?”
Customer: “I’m on an automatic pay plan and I just got this new debit card so they told me to call you and let you know.”
Me: “Okay, let me transfer you to someone who can help update that information.”

(I ended up transferring to policy services for the company of the policy that may or may not have been correct. I hope it was! But then I have to wonder how long it took for that rep to get the new debit card information out of the customer.)