I get a caller on my line, one of the few who were just absolutely angry right off the bat. I work in commercial insurance, but not in claims, but people don’t usually pay attention to phone tree options and just button-mash until they get to a person. Bear in mind, I usually don’t get these calls at all in my department, and I’m not sure how he got to me through the system, but I’m professional anyway.
I give them my usual greeting.
Me: “Insurance Company Underwriting, [My Name] speaking.”
Caller: “Okay, I need you to tell these idiots that I have insurance with you so they will take my appointment!”
Me: “Okay, that’s usually claims who handles that—”
Caller: “—NO! I tried them, and they’re all useless! They don’t pick up the phone! They can’t help me!”
I sigh a little and figure maybe I can get this guy off my back if I give these people his policy number and direct them to the right place.
Me: “Okay, do you know the policy number?”
Caller: “No! You’re supposed to know that.”
Me: *Holding in a sigh.* “Okay, can I have your name?”
Caller: “[Caller’s Name] and my social security number is [Number].”
I pause at how dumb it is to just blurt out your social to a random person on the phone, but I try to move forward and not dwell.
Me: “All right, and what company do you work for?”
Caller: “[Company Name].”
I ran a check, but I can’t find that company in the system.
Me: “Okay, I’m not coming up with a policy under that name. Do you know if they have a parent company?”
Caller: “No! Look, I gave you my social, now help me!”
Me: “We don’t keep Social Security numbers on policies. Claims might, but I’m in underwriting and I don’t have access to the systems in Claims.”
Caller: “My social is the policy number!”
Me: “…Our policy numbers don’t follow that format.”
Caller: “Why are you jerking me around?! Put my social security number in your little machine and find my information, now!
I take a breath and decide how to respond. I can hang up, and I’m tempted to, but instead I grit my teeth and soldier on.
Me: “Okay… fine, but—”
Caller: “—No buts! You’ve all been like this! Every time! Now you type in my social security number and stop wasting my time!”
Me: “Listen, we don’t use social—”
Caller: “They told me all I had to do was give you my social! Now do it!”
Me: “I don’t know who ‘they’ are, but—”
Caller: “Do it now, at least try! Prove that you’re not incompetent!”
Okay, so we’re at that point. Fine.
Me: “All right, go ahead. What’s the number?”
I type the number in and nothing comes up, predictably, because we don’t use SSNs for policy numbers. Nobody does. It’s a serious security risk to do so.
Me: “Nothing has come up. As I said would happen. As this is underwriting. We do not handle the same information that Claims does. NOW, what I can do if you’ll allow me to ask a few questions, is figure out what policy you are covered under, give you that information, and then connect you to someone in claims who can take that information and help you. Will that work?”
Caller: “Okay, yes.”
I proceed to ask a few questions to figure out what employer he’s covered under, but not much is coming up. Finally, I do get a hit on a search, and with a little checking, I think I can help him.
Me: “All right, thank you for bearing with me. I believe I have something here. And what I will do is call down to claims, give them the information, tell them your situation so you don’t have to explain it again, and then get you off and running. All right?”
Caller: “Okay, yes. Thank you.”
Me: “All right. I’m just going to put you on a brief hold while I call down, explain, then connect you over.”
Caller: “Okay.”
Me: “Okay.”
I place him on hold, I dial the claims line, getting ready to give them the notepad of info I’ve taken, and the second claims picks up, HE HANGS UP!
I wasted half an hour on this guy.
I apologized to the claims rep, threw my note away, and let that idiot start again from scratch. No wonder no one could help him. He won’t let it happen!
Related:
Insecure And Antisocial
