My last call yesterday was probably one of the most original ones I’ve gotten yet, ranking it for now in the top sopt of the Pathetic category.
It was from a pharmacist at a retail store, who said I needed to talk to his customer because he was getting a rejection having to do with mail-order only coverage.
Then, he put me on hold, and put the member on the phone.
Apparently he didn’t tell the member who he was calling and having them talk to, because when I started asking for the usual information, the member said she had no idea who I was or what I was talking about, so I had to find a professional way to explain that pharmacist’s lack of competence, laziness, and rudeness.
For the record, if a member has mail order only coverage, then they can’t take that card to their local Walgreens and get a prescription filled.
Furthermore, there’s nothing we pukes on the phones can do about it.
You have to talk to your insurance company about that.
But we have to feed you a line of crap because that’s considered good customer service, and our jobs depend on it.
If we didn’t have to eat and pay bills like the rest of the country, we could give the company and the client a collective shove-off and stage a walk-out.
We’ve all talked about doing that several times, but we all know we won’t.
And it’s even worse when members start engaging in the same games that everyone else is.
Those are the ones who really irk me, and you wouldn’t believe how many calls like that we actually get.
In a lot of cases, the callers are just as unethical as the pharmacists, the company, and the client, along with the insurance companies and the doctors.
Remember that I’m speaking in general terms, and there are exceptions to the rule.
But I would advise that just because you’re having a bad day, or you’re angry at your insurance company doesn’t mean you should take it out on us.
Yours isn’t the first major problem we have to deal with on any given day, it’s most likely the one hundredth or two hundredth, and everybody’s problem is the most important.
After a while, we become embittered, and then it gets to the point where we just sort of treat everybody like you’re items on an assembly line, which means we’re going to do whatever it takes to get you off the phone so we can move on to the next person.
And some of us will even resort to just flat lying to you to get rid of you.
I don’t condone this at all.
But it definitely happens, and in a lot of cases, there’s a reason.