Sunday, April 12, 2009

Stupid People Sunday

My FAVORITE blog day!  It's Stupid People Sunday! I have only one that specifically happened to me this week, a couple that happened to some of my co-workers, and even an old classic that happened before my blogging days!



My friend/co-worker "A" works at a different insurance office in town.  We had several people report damages this week because of the storms.  "A" received a call with some questions from a customer about their report, so "A" called down to our claims office central to see when her customer could expect someone out to their property to survey the damages.  Because of the high volume of claims that our claims department receives, each individual report is assigned an identification of letters and numbers and then assigned to a team.  In order to speak to the team, you have to have that identification ready.  "A" made her phone call and told the lady "We haven't been given an identification number yet for this claim, but I do have their policy identification on hand." (Also another way of accessing).  This particular policy had an "E" and a "P" in it.  When "A" finished giving the policy to the claim representative, there was dead silence.  A few moments later, she asked "A":  "Did you just give me a phone number? "  Yes genius.  The population of the United States is SO large now that we are using letters in our phone numbers.  Congratulations on cracking the new code.



I also had a claim to handle this week.  A lady totaled her vehicle in a terrible accident.  We take possession of the vehicle in a total loss like this. When something likes this happens, our "genius" (see previous paragraph) sends us paperwork to have the customer sign and the check to pay for their vehicle.  In return, we collect the title to the vehicle, as well as any extra keys or remotes that belong to that vehicle-to sell off to salvage yards to repair and resell.  So this dear SWEET woman calls and asks if we had her paperwork ready.  I set the appointment for her to come in, and she asks what she needs to bring.  I tell her to bring her title, spare keys and remotes.  She responds, "Oh honey I don't have the spare keys or remotes anymore.  I threw them away."  Genius me responds with: "In the garbage?  You actually threw the keys away in the garbage?"  She explains, "Of course I did.  The car isn't mine anymore, so I didn't need the keys."  Oh dear.

Let's stay in the insurance theme and do the oldie, but classic.  Then I will switch gears to a Wendy's drive through.  I was reminded of this classic at work, and had to share it with you all.  I am going to try to do a classic each week so that you all can see into some of my life BEFORE my blog days.  They really are some of the best "stupid moments."



A few months ago, I had a lady that had a car accident.  The usual Bowling Green road construction was going on, and she wasn't paying attention and her car got to close to the edge of the road and partially dropped down into one of those "holes" they like to dig.  She called and told me she had an accident, but it wasn't her fault.  It was, indeed, the roads fault.  The ROAD caused her car to fall and damage itself.  It had nothing to do with her driving too close to the edge of the road, or not realizing that there was road construction around her, resulting in millions of "CAUTION: ROAD WORK" signs around her.  Oh no, it's the roads fault.  She insisted on trying to sue the city of Bowling Green because of this evil, deceptive piece of blacktop. 
Needless to say, she was unsuccessful.  So she had to call down to our "genius" claims department.  See first Stupid People paragraph if you need a refresher.  In order for her to call, I had to give her the phone number.  (This number is totally made up, just for emphasis.) The following is the rest of our telephone conversation.
Me: "Ma'am, you need to call 859-899-7548."
Customer: "Wait what? 859-what?"
Me:  "859-899--"
Customer: "But you already used the 8 in the number."
Me: "Yes, you can use the 8 more than once.  The first part is the area code."
Customer: "What be an area code?"  (Yes, she said "what be" AND asked what an area code was."
Ignoring her, I reply with the number again.
Customer:  Ok.  I think I got it.  Can you look at it though and tell me if it's right?"
Me:  "No ma'am.  I'm sorry, but we are on the phone and I cannot see what you are doing."
Customer: "Oh.  Well bye then."
Seriously, I have no smart alec comments to respond to this.  Leave it as is.


Let's finish by what happened to another one of my co-workers, "D", at the Wendy's drive-through this week.  He managed to order exactly $4 worth of food, and when he pulled around, he handed the man at the window a 5 dollar bill.  The man put it in his drawer, stared at it for a minute, and looked back at my co-worker and said "Weren't you supposed to get back a dollar?" 
D: "Uh, yeah man, I was supposed to get a dollar back."
Wendy's dude: "Well, sorry, my machine says you don't."
D: "Well tough, you still owe me a dollar."
Really?!  What?!

You. Can't. Fix. Stupid.


2 comments:

Shannon said...

LOL that 2nd to last one was HILARIOUS!!!!!!!

when I worked at the public library in the projects of BG, I saw some hilarious ppl. one time, a guy sat down at a computer, and he was trying to close out the internet. so i watch him as he takes his finger and pokes the computer screen. he's trying to use the dell computer as a TOUCH SCREEN. i was like umm, you have to use the mouse..

HA.

really. we are not that high tech. he said it's "been awhile" since he's used a computer. lol.

plus, your job sounds really difficult.. lots of jargon.. idk how you do it!

Unknown said...

OH man-Were you able to hold in your laughter? I would have had to walk away.

My job is actually a lot easier when you see it on screen-but it is a lot of stuff, and we are usually able to remember that most people don't know a lot about this stuff, but some stuff should be common sense. LIke NOT throwing keys away. Or that computers in a library won't be touch screen! :)