I work in an insurance office. It has been a stormy night, so people call for notification of claim.

Caller: “Hello. My name is [Caller], and because of the storm, the roofing felt on my shed came off. I need to know what to do now.”

Me: “We need some pictures of the damage and an estimate of costs, or an invoice if the damage has been repaired already.”

Caller: “No, no, you need to tell me what I have to do now.”

Me: “If you provide us with the pictures and an invoice, we can pay for your costs instantly.”

Caller: *Getting irritated* “No, I need to know what to do right now!”

Me: “We cannot cover your expenses if we don’t know how much they are. And we need the picture as proof for your claim.”

Caller: “You don’t seem to understand! You need to tell me HOW TO FIX MY ROOF!”

I work in a customer service call center for a long-established life insurance company. About once a week I have one of these conversations.

Customer: “Hi. My father died and I found some paperwork from your company in his office. Can you tell me if the policy is still good?”

Me: “I would be happy to help you with that.”

After a round of questions and answers:

Me: “Okay, it looks like the policy was taken out in 1979 and the last payment was made in 1981.”

Customer: “So, what does that mean?”

Me: “The policy is not active.”

Customer: “So, do we get any money?”

Me: “No, sorry, it lapsed about thirty years ago.”

Customer: “Well, can we get back the premiums that he paid?”

I work for an insurance company. I’m in the department that assists with level of coverage changes — “cover review” is the internal term for it. People call my area to upgrade or downgrade their coverage, depending on whether they need insurance for certain procedures in a private hospital. Usually, people have a general idea of what they need and what they don’t need.

Customer: “Apparently, I need to review my coverage. It’s too expensive! What can you do for me?”

Me: “I’d be happy to help with that today, ma’am. I can see here that you are currently on our highest level of hospital coverage.”

Customer: “What does that mean?!”

Me: “It entitles you to be covered for—”

Customer: “Stop! Just tell me what I need!”

Me: “All right, ma’am, you are currently covered for pregnancy, hip and knee—”

Customer: “Stop! Stop! Stop! I don’t want to hear all that! Just tell me what I need!”

I think, “Okay, perhaps she needs me to slow down and check each item of coverage individually.”

Me: “Okay, ma’am. Do you need to be covered for pregnancy?”

Customer: “What does that have to do with anything?!”

Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am. I’m just going through the items your current policy covers to see if you still need them and therefore would need to stay on the highest coverage. If there’s something you don’t need, you can go to a lower coverage that doesn’t include it.”

Customer: “I do not understand why you are making this so hard. Just tell me what I need!”

Me: “Okay, the difference between your current policy and the one below it in coverage and price, is that it does not include private hospital coverage for hip and knee replacements, pregnancy—”

Customer: “Oh, my God!”

Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am, is there something wrong?”

Customer: “You’re just going to read everything, aren’t you?! You’re just going to read it! What the h*** use is it speaking to a person if you can’t just tell me what I need?!”

Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am? I’m not permitted to make assumptions—”

Customer: “Fine! What is the difference between the coverages?! Since you’re soooo good at reading!”

Me: *Pauses* “The highest coverage includes everything you would ever need to be insured for in a private hospital, the medium coverage excludes hip and knee, pregnancy—”

Customer: “You already said that! Oh, my God! I cannot believe how useless you are! This has been a complete waste of my time! Complete waste!” *Click*

Yes, ma’am, I agree.

I am a customer service rep at an insurance agency. Part of my job is working with customers and the claims department when there is a claim. I’ve seen a lot of customers upset with their claim representative, rightly or wrongly, but this takes the cake.

Customer: “I don’t want to work with that lady (the claim rep) anymore. She doesn’t know what she’s doing!”

Me: “All right, I’ll see if I can get your claim reassigned. Was there anything specific she did that was a problem?”

Customer: “Yes! She came on the line as if she knows everything about her job, but I can hear that she’s black! I know they’ve only been hiring blacks for these jobs for twenty years! I’m black myself; I know!”

Usually, I won’t try to get a new claim representative assigned if the rep didn’t actually do anything wrong, but I made an exception in this case. The poor representative didn’t deserve to deal with that. I still can’t get over her thinking that African Americans have only been hired for insurance jobs since the year 2000!

My insurance broker calls me one morning the month before my car insurance is set to renew. She tells me that my premium is supposed to go up significantly but suggests switching to the company that my home insurance is with for a discount.

I have been working from home these last few months and never got around to updating my car insurance, so I mention that. The agent tries to pull a quote from my current company but has to call me back. When she does…

Agent: “Is [Father] related to you?”

Me: “Yes, that’s my father.”

Agent: “You were signed up under a multi-vehicle discount with him. When I went to update your policy, it was coming up more expensive because you’re not at the same address.”

Me: “But I haven’t lived at that address the entire time I’ve owned this car!”

It wasn’t the agent’s fault, so I guess I got an extra discount for a decade?