When Insuring, Ensure Correct Name

There are two agents in the office; I can only take payments for the one I work for as, when I type in a name, only his customers will come up. The other agent is busier than ours, so their customers will sometimes try to pay with me instead of waiting.

A guy comes up and gives me his name. The last name comes up, but I am unsure of the first. I repeat it back to him and verify the address. He pays and I give him a receipt.

He comes back later.

Customer: “You stole my money! It’s not showing in the system!”

Me: “Can I see your receipt? I’ll try to find where the money went.”

Customer: “No! You’ll tear it up!”

Me: “There are several people in the office. Do you really think I’d tear it up in front of all of them?”

I took the receipt. The money was applied correctly… except it was to his son’s account. It took some time to figure it out. His son had insurance with our agency, and he had insurance with the other agent. They had similar first names and the same address, so my bad. I apologized and called to have the money moved over and I showed him what happened.

Not the end.

He called the police on me for stealing his money… and sat outside until they came… and they laughed at him.