Rain City Story

How To Piss Off Good Customers

If you're a business owner or work in a call center, please read this post.

Early, last week, I began receiving several calls a day from a 515-508-xxxx number. I recognized that NPA/NXX as being from Des Moines Iowa and since I don't know anyone there and don't owe any money to anyone, I ignored the calls. Later in the week, the calls started increasing in frequency and they finally left a message. It was Nationwide Insurance calling me to discuss the "Termination of my auto policy." WTF?!! I called back instantly and got her vm. Tried dialing '0' to get an operator but was told that insurance laws prevent anyone in the company from seeing account information so I would need to get back in touch with the rep who called me. I nicely protested that this call was in reference to the termination of my auto policy so since I generally try to avoid being a felon where possible, this was pretty important and surely I must be able to speak to someone. But no, nobody could look at my account and would not speak with me. Though I'd been with them since '99, never filed a claim and never had a lapse in coverage, I was still worried that some computer mix up had caused them to cancel my policy and that I was driving uninsured.

So on Friday, I spent half the day trying to call this girl but got voice mail every time. Then I got smart and just called the 800 number on my policy card and was told that there was no pending action on my account and that it was in fact, perfect. This rep said that surely, their other office was mistaken. So she left a message with Demoines as well.

This morning, I finally got a call back. After nearly five minutes of information verification, this girl proceeded to lay on the hard sell about upping my coverage amounts. Every time I inquired about the "termination of my auto policy," she just ignored me, gradually raising her voice. I explained that I already carried twice the state minimums for coverage so then she moved on, trying to sell me home owner's insurance. After nicely but emphatically explaining that I already had a policy and was satisfied, I was forced to interrupt her while she was trying to take evaluation information. At this point, my patience had run out and I asked her if this was just a sales call. She fessed up. It was all I could to not explode. Why had she left a message inferring that my auto policy had been terminated? She claimed that there was some miscommunication here but that sometimes they are *forced* to leave messages that will get policy holders to call back. I hung up.

And now I'm moving my policy to a different carrier. I can't believe companies are resorting to these type of tactics just to upsell a current customer. Nationwide just lost a perfect customer of over 7 years because of this.

I'll offer another example. About two months ago, I walked into a Bank of America branch to deposit a rather large check and didn't feel like losing it in the ATM (I've had cases where they've been damaged or shredded). It was fairly crowded and I was with Amy. When we finally got up to the teller, I was grilled for account information as though I were on trial despite telling her that I just wanted to deposit the check and nothing else. Finally she said (ok, nearly yelled) that I "had overdrafts on my account." WHAT? That's impossible since I had checked my balance online less than 30 minuted before and had well over $4k in there. I'm normally pretty laid back but this girl quickly realized her mistake with me. "Sir, please calm down. What I meant was is that you do not have overdraft protection on your account and if you drop below zero, you will be charged an overdraft fee." Instead of calming me down, that just pissed me off even more. Not only had she sent me into a momentary moment of panic but she had erroneously told everyone in the damn bank that I "had overdrafts." I won't be changing banks because of the huge hassle it would be but folks, if you own a business, don't alienate your existing customers.