Insurance

Today, at about 2:30 p.m., I tooled around the web looking at medical insurance quotes following a conversation about priorities. I wanted to see if I could find a plan I could afford and which gave me the best deductible, coverage, etc. for a price I could afford monthly (answer = no plan exists). Most sites wanted my contact information before they would give me a quote, and since it is important I went ahead and put in my cell phone number and email, thinking I would probably get a few calls over the next few days or weeks from companies that had seen my inquiry.

Over the next few hours, I was called - wait for it - fourteen times. The poor first guy, who called from a local number, seemed kind enough, but the truth is I had been surfing those sites while communicating on my house phone to a tow truck company because my father had a flat tire somewhere near Columbus. (My father, being the old man he is, WOULD NOT go inside and get the actual adress of the gas station. He insisted on describing his whereabouts because he doesn't understand the drivers want to type an address into their GPSs and go. My mother had to go in and get the address when my mother arrived in my brother's van.)

Well, I answered the first guy's call because it was a local number, and my cell phone doesn't give names or businesses if it's a strange number, so I answered it hoping my mother hadn't gotten a flat or something on her way to help my father. The guy says, "Hi, this is Steve from _______ _________ Insurance, how are you?" And the poor guy, because I was just floored that he had called within five minutes of me looking at the website, now has no head because I shrieked, "This is a really bad time!" He seemed really apologetic and I didn't get to explain (because I didn't have time) but I just repeated that it was a bad time and said bye. I feel really bad for Steve because I'm sure his company makes him call people.

But maybe now, though I feel a little twinge of guilt, I don't feel so bad for Steve. Because thirteen calls later (which I gave up answering after the first few) I'm fuming. Fuming. I know, I know, I shouldn't have given them my phone number but I didn't expect fourteen calls within five or six hours. I only visited two websites, but they were the kind that compare quotes between companies so they probably gave my information to every one of those companies. One company, during the time I was on the phone to my mom because of the flat, called, I didn't pick up, the phone stopped ringing, then ten seconds later that same company called again. I couldn't pick up and I was so, so, so pissed.

I keep wondering: How many times do these customer service people go through this, where they call someone immediately after receiving information that the person has visited the website and had said person tell them they were, like, the tenth call in an hour? Why wouldn't they give the person a few days or a week or so? When I was venting to my dad, he reminded me they were trying to secure my business before any other company was able to. Yes, I'm aware, but trust me, harrassing me is sooooo not the way to do it.