05 May Reason I hate insurance #69…mindless, uncaring, bureaucracy

I must preface this rant by saying that I firmly believe that bureaucracy, inflicted on us by either corporations or government, is a scourge to modern civilization. Our society is being hindered by having to deal with entrenched, stupid, thoughtless, heartless, lazy, mind-numbing, uncaring, unfeeling, unthinking, lethargic, lowest common denominator, bureaucracy.

I give you 2 examples, both from today:

* I’m in the process of switching my business from my old Corporation (which I’m dissolving) to myself personally…nothing that changes anything for my clients, but simply a change to the way I get paid and who the taxes get charged to. I’m dealing with a carrier (I won’t name them, but it rhymes with ‘Bigna’), and called their Broker Services department. They said I need to talk to the Licensing Department, but they can’t transfer me, call this other 800 number. I wait 45 minutes listening to really bad hold music (which restarts every minute or so after a message telling me how important my call is), until finally a VERY bored sounding gal picks up, listens to my issue, and without saying anything more transfers me back to the same department that couldn’t help me before (and had told me they couldn’t transfer the call around the company). But, this time, after I press ‘0’ to talk to a human, the call disconnects.  Over 50 minutes, wasted. I call back…and wait 85 minutes(!) listening to the friggin’ muzak and messages telling me how important my call is. And then my call disconnects. Over 2.5 hours, and I’ve accomplished NOTHING!

* I’ve been working with another carrier (again, I won’t tell you who, but it rhymes with ‘Clue Wield’), trying to get something fixed for a client for 6 weeks. After asking them for an update twice a week for the last month, and receiving a grand total of 0 updates, I get an email from a robot email address that says simply, “Request denied”. I call, looking for a reason for the (very terse) denial of the request (which, of course, costs my client over $1000), and after transferring through 3 levels of management in 2 different departments, have found that no one there has any knowledge of, insight into, or even remotest awareness of, this case and why the request was denied. Seriously, it just happened, as if by magic.

I spent over 3.5 hours on these 2 things today (4, if you count typing up this rant!). And accomplished nothing. I could’ve had an employee handle it ($50 in payroll down the drain), but I’m in a DIY mode in my business right now…I do the dirty work.

I’m telling you folks, crap like this is going to be the end of us as a civilized society.