Death Becomes Her Accident

(I work in accident management but unlike cold-callers, we work with insurance companies who refer clients to us. We have a maximum deadline of ninety days after the accident, but only if the vehicle is still roadworthy. Procedure is to call three times after the accident. One day I take a call: the accident was four months ago and she has a broken headlight.) 

Client: “I believe my insurance passed you my details to sort out my repairs but nobody has contacted me.”

Me: “Okay, let’s have a look. I can see we called you on [first date], [second date], and [third date] and left you both text and voicemail messages asking to call us back.”

Client: “I got those but I was so busy. Can I arrange that now?”

Me: “Unfortunately, we only have ninety days after the accident to arrange our service, so you will need to go back to your own insurance to make arrangements with them.”

Client: “How was I supposed to know that?”

Me: “Our third and final message we sent will have stated the deadline. I’m sorry, but we will not be able to help you.”

Client: *crying* “I don’t need this. My husband died last week.”

Me: “I’m really sorry to hear that.”

Client: *suddenly completely fine* “Does that change anything?”

Me: *shocked* “No.”

(She then started screaming at me for having no heart. In the end, I terminated the call and sent her insurance an email letting them know she was their problem now. She called back and told my manager I’d been rude but my manager listened to the call and took my side.)