I work at a call center for an insurance company. Insurance rates are determined by many factors, including personal details like credit, location, prior claims, etc.

Customer: “I need a quote.”

Me: “No problem. I just need to get some basic information about you. Can I please have your name, address, and date of birth?”

Customer: “I don’t want to give you any personal information. Can you just tell me how much you charge for insurance in [State]?”

Me: “There are a lot of factors that go into insurance rates. I can’t give an accurate quote without some details about you, as well.”

Customer: “I don’t want to give you any personal information!”

Me: “That’s perfectly fine and understandable, but I can’t give you a quote if that’s the case.”

Customer: “Can’t you just give me a price? I’m in [State]; it can’t be that hard.”

Me: “Well, based on the information I have, I’d guess somewhere between $50 and $10,000.”

Customer: “You’re useless. I’m going to call [Competitor] and get a quote from them!”

Me: “Sounds good. I hope you have a great day!”

Customer: *Click*

Related:
Not Much Assurance About The Insurance, Part 13
Not Much Assurance About The Insurance, Part 12
Not Much Assurance About The Insurance, Part 11
Not Much Assurance About The Insurance, Part 10
Not Much Assurance About The Insurance, Part 9

Automated System: “Hello, and welcome to [Insurance Company]. How may I help you?”

Me: “Person, please.”

Automated System: “I understand that you would like to speak with an agent. Please help me make sure you get to the right person by saying [list of categories].”

Me: “I don’t know. Billing?”

Automated System: “All right. I’ll get you an agent in billing. To better serve you, please state the nature of your problem. You can say [list of categories].”

Me: “None of those apply.”

Automated System: “Please say [list of categories].”

Me: “Which category do I pick for ‘My medication is temperature- and moisture-sensitive, we’re in the middle of a hot, humid August, and your company is making me get this through the mail? A mailbox, by the way, which is over a mile from my house?!'”

I am a bit angry. Just a bit.

Automated System: “Getting you a billing agent.”

Agent: “How may I help you?”

Me: “Hi. I have a medication that is temperature- and moisture-sensitive. I can’t use your mail service. I need to buy my medication at a real store, but your company won’t pay for that.”

Agent: “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you with that. Let me transfer you over to approvals.”

This song and dance went on for over an hour. I transferred back and forth between half a dozen departments. In the end, I was told that I could either pay $400 for a bottle at my pharmacy or sit by the mailbox all day. Oh, and I could make sure it got there at an expected time by paying an overnight delivery fee of $25! Yay!

Fed up, having no money for either fee, and feeling exhausted, I decided to get it through the regular mail. The medication did not come within the promised week.

I was taking the medication for a blood clot. I ran out of my medication, and my doctor had to prescribe a different type of medication — one she didn’t like because it was dangerous for me to take — just to hold me until the real medication arrived. They paid for the second one in store because it was a new medication, even though it was twice as expensive.

Another week passed, and my doctor called them, very angry. They decided to send my medication overnight as a “complimentary service,” which meant that they had never sent my medication in the first place.

No amount of complaining has done anything. I am stuck with these guys until they succeed in killing me.

My car has been off the road after a car accident with a little old lady driving on the wrong side of the road. She had insurance and admitted fault at the scene, and the damage was pretty minor. I needed a new front bumper and a new light but that was about it.

I thought it would be a quick turnaround, but then the weeks turned to months, and after multiple phone calls, I finally got my answer.

The garage hadn’t started to fix my car because the insurance wouldn’t pay out, due to their client changing her mind and now claiming I was at fault and that she now had a witness!

Doubting myself, I checked the dashcam footage; luckily, it was still there.

Not only was she on her own in the car — no witness — driving on the wrong side of the road after going the wrong way around a roundabout, but it also picked up her hitting another car, smashing a light before hitting me.

I passed the video to the insurance company, who told me that she would be reported to the police for effectively failing to stop at a scene of an accident when hitting the first car.

I finally got my car back, and I asked the insurance company:

Me: “What’s going to happen to the old lady?”

Insurance Company: “She risked putting her insurance at risk for lying and, due to how oblivious she was hitting the first car, she potentially will have her licence revoked.”

As bad as I feel for her to start with, she was clearly dangerous behind the wheel, and lying about the accident stopped me feeling too bad.

I find a note on my desk after lunch that has a patient’s name and contact info on it. It states that she wants to know about vision coverage for her glasses. So, I brace myself, because you just never know how conversations on vision coverage are going to go, and I call her.

Me: “Hello, this is [My Name] from [Optical Store]; I got a note that you have some questions about your vision coverage?”

Customer: “Yes, thank you for calling back. I just want an estimate on how much insurance will pay on my glasses.”

Me: “Okay, what is the name of your vision insurance?”

Customer: “Oh, I don’t have any yet. I’m trying to decide whether it’s worth paying for.”

Me: “Oh… Well, unfortunately, there are quite a few companies offering vision coverage and each company has multiple plans that can vary greatly, so I’m not able to give a ballpark figure on how much they will pay. I can, however, give you a ballpark price on glasses.”

Customer: “But I don’t want to know how much the glasses will cost. I want to know how much the insurance will pay.”

Me: “I’m sorry, but I’m not able to come up with that number because there isn’t a flat rate that all vision plans pay. It varies greatly. Once you have coverage, I’ll be happy to look into those benefits and explain them to you.”

Customer: “That’s ridiculous! How am I supposed to figure out whether it is worth paying for or not if you can’t tell me how much it pays?!”

Me: “I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to help with any coverage amounts until I have more information to work with. Like any other type of insurance, the coverage depends on the company and plan that’s chosen. Again, once you have vision coverage—”

Customer: “Fine, whatever…” *Hangs up*

My daughter has moved out and my auto insurance agent informs me that he can no longer insure her since she’s moved to a different state. My wife recommends an online insurance reseller that we’ve done business with before, albeit for life insurance.

Even though I typically have my — young — adult children handle their own affairs, this is a new situation for my daughter and I don’t want her to get talked into coverage she doesn’t need. Therefore, I put the online quote in her name, but the contact information is for me so I can review it. I receive a follow-up call from Online Auto Insurance (OAI).

Caller: “Hello, this is [Caller] with OAI. Is this [Daughter]?”

Me: “No, this is her father.”

Caller: “May I speak to [Daughter]?”

Me: “No, she’s not available. I’m the one that requested the quote. We’re still reviewing quotes. Your company is one of our finalists, but we need a few more days to decide. We’ll call you back when we’re ready.”

It should be noted that I’m being totally honest; their quote was one of the best.

Caller: “I need to speak with [Daughter].”

Me: “I said we’re still reviewing quotes and we’ll get back to you. We liked your quote.”

Caller: “I need to talk to [Daughter].”

I don’t recall the specifics of what he says, but it is basically, “I’m going to keep calling you until I talk to [Daughter] because she’s the only person I’ll accept ‘stop calling me’ from.”

Me: “You know what? I’m done. You were one of our best quotes, and it was likely that we’d have selected your company. I’ve told you nicely that we’re still reviewing quotes and will be in touch. But you’ve made me mad with your unwillingness to do things on our timeframe, so we won’t be calling you back or doing business with your company in the future. Goodbye.”

Caller: “Okay. Goodbye.”