Unfiltered Story #99190

(I work in a call centre answering travel claim queries. For ease, it is quite common for customers to have had the treating doctor submit their claim, especially for the particular client as their customers are often of retirement age.)

Me: *general opening how can I help you spiel* 

Customer: “I’ve received a letter but I’ve not been ill and I’ve not made a claim.”

Me: “Okay, well let me take your reference and look that up.”

(Some time later in the call after the customer has given me the info.)

Me: “So I see here you saw the doctor and there was a mention of chest pain they have billed us for [treatments for X amount] so we wrote to you to see if you had expenses.”

Customer: “No, no, that’s all wrong. I’ve paid it all.”

Me: “Okay, I’m sorry, it’s just the clinic—”

Customer: *cutting me off* “No, no, I didn’t go to a Doctor.”

Me: “Okay… so nothing happened then?”

Customer: “Well I fell over a lounger, and the doctor came to me, no clinic.”
(I feel slightly more relaxed about this now, sometimes we do get completely fraudulent claims from clinics. This customer did have a doctor visit though and it’s billed to the clinic. I take some time to explain how this process works including how the clinic might bill for time, and ask the customer how their chest is feeling now.)

Customer: “It wasn’t anything to do with my chest! it was my ribs. You obviously haven’t got a clue about this. I haven’t made a claim.”

(It took another 20-minutes to explain that your ribs are in fact part of your chest and that a minor language barrier understandably lead to this description. The real kicker is that she wanted me to call her back after her hospital appointment due to residual pain in her chest.)