Madam, your husband is dead.

[Azalea]

My first real post, so be gentle...

This happened when I worked at a mail-order pharmacy/drug benefit provider. A lady called in requesting her husband's prescription history for tax purposes.(prescriptions may be tax-deductible) She informed me that her husband had passed away very recently. Now, when a member passes away, their prescription history is usually deleted for privacy reasons. Keep that in mind, folks...

Me: That would be me
SW: Stupid widow

Me: Thank you for calling Drugs R Us, this is Azalea, how can I help you?

SW: My name is Mrs. Blah, my husband passed away, and I need a copy of his prescription records for tax purposes.

Me: I'm sorry, but your husband's records have been deleted. When a member passes away...

SW: interrupts angrily My husband is dead! How can he be a member! I need those records!

Me: Well, ma'am, I understand, and I do apologize, but I can't give you that information, his records have been deleted. We usually do that when a member dies.

SW: even more angrily Do you understand me??? MY HUSBAND IS DEAD! HOW CAN HE BE A MEMBER IF HE IS DEAD? (but he was a member when he was alive, lady!) NOW SEND ME THE INFORMATION!

Me: patience wearing thin I understand that your husband is deceased, and I am sorry for your loss, but we do not keep the prescription history of deceased members...

SW: What part of DEAD do you not understand??? HE can not be a member because he is dead!

Me: Yes...ma'aam...I understand that your husband is dead. It is BECAUSE the member is deceased...

SW: Give me your supervisor. NOW!

Me: thinking, thank GOD

I understand that this woman had just lost her husband, but she really was being nasty. And she answered her own question about WHY I couldn't give her the information. No records on the dead. Husband is dead. Therefore, no records. This is the condensed version, btw, we went around and around like this for almost fifteen minutes.

[NightAngel]

Seriously grieving people are sometimes extremely irrational. Good for you keeping your cool and being professional.

[Azalea]

True enough. Most of our members were very, VERY elderly, so I got a lot of calls from people reporting a member's death. Usually you just sit quietly and let them cry as they give you the information, give sort of a verbal hug to them. This one just made me dizzy going round and round with her. It made me glad when she asked for a sup because I DIDN'T think I could keep my cool much longer.

[Auto]

it seems this woman's hang-up was the word "member," and each time you used it, she went bonkers.

that's when you tell her that the system is purged of dead people's records. maybe that would have gotten through to her.

but the woman has a good point.

she's probably settling her husband's estate and has to file a final tax return with the IRS. so knowing what hubby spent on meds in his last year matters because it might have been a lot and that could have tax consequences. (medical expenses in your last three months of life as usually very very high.)

maybe before the system deletes a dead person's records, the insurance company needs to mail the estate/surviving spouse a copy of the last year's account activity.

because i could see getting calls like this every single day.

[greensinestro]

And that's just one phone call. Can you imagine what his other companies, like the credit card companies and utilities must have dealt with from this woman? When I worked in customer service for Bellsouth, I dealt with this often when they had to change the billing name from their deceased spouse to their name. We didn't bill them for the name change due to the circumstances, but then they were outraged that they had to send in a copy of the death certificate to make the change. Good for you for keeping your cool, but you're right. No telling how long it was before you lost it, as would anyone else.

[pbmods]

So was the sup ever able to get her to figure it out?

[Azalea]

No telling. The supervisors weren't REAL supervisors, just a special section of reps paid maybe a quarter more to take all the irate customers. I don't think the person who answered was even at our branch.

[Bliss]

NO ammount of money makes up for having a job exclusively consiting on answering just the pissed off customer's calls!!! At least in a normal call center you get 1 nice call in 10000000 that makes you stay sane

[Azalea]

NO ammount of money makes up for having a job exclusively consiting on answering just the pissed off customer's calls!!! At least in a normal call center you get 1 nice call in 10000000 that makes you stay sane

Yep...and they were ALWAYS recruiting reps to join the dark side. Wonder why no one stays there...

[AFpheonix]

Ooh, that sucks. That's wierd that you can't still access their history though. We can, even if we've marked them off as deceased. We just obviously can't put in anything new.
Maybe put in a suggestion to the tech team to keep access to the old records for a year or 2 before they get deleted.

[Azalea]

Ooh, that sucks. That's wierd that you can't still access their history though. We can, even if we've marked them off as deceased. We just obviously can't put in anything new.
Maybe put in a suggestion to the tech team to keep access to the old records for a year or 2 before they get deleted.

What was really strange is that deceased member records weren't ALWAYS deleted. In fact, we had plenty of deceased members who had been dead years who still showed up as alive and active. This is kind of sidetracking, but the worst job ever was in research, having to call people who had put in some sort of request. I actually had to call someone to verify that their husband was in fact, dead.

[Spiffy McMoron]

In fact, we had plenty of deceased members who had been dead years who still showed up as alive and active. This is kind of sidetracking, but the worst job ever was in research, having to call people who had put in some sort of request. I actually had to call someone to verify that their husband was in fact, dead.

Maybe that's why the records are deleted. (Although I'm sure that backups are kept somewhere) If a customer is deceased, then you know that (s)he is deceased, and you won't phone asking for that person, and mail won't be sent to the deceased. Much harder for someone to screw up on your end. (Not saying that you would screw up, but mistakes happen.)

[AFpheonix]

I actually had to call someone to verify that their husband was in fact, dead.

Oh my god, it's bad enough when you ask about someone to a family that you haven't seen in awhile and they flatly tell you that they passed on, and then you feel like a total heel for the rest of the night.

I think the worst one lately was a little girl who we'd been filling a lot of stuff for, including anti-rejection meds, who passed away recently at the age of 6. Anyone after that really doesn't get my sympathy if they whine about a bad day, because all I see is that poor dad's face.

[protege]

We're still getting mail for my grandfather.....who died in '89! Even though my grandmother had everything changed after his death, some companies just don't keep updated records...or they bought a list of names before he died, and just never updated things.

[allniter]

NO ammount of money makes up for having a job exclusively consiting on answering just the pissed off customer's calls!!! At least in a normal call center you get 1 nice call in 10000000 that makes you stay sane

I work at a customer complaint line (think 1-800-hows-my-driving but it's not that one) and I take irate calls all day. But surprisingly, they're not mad at me but at the situation. And often saying sorry or I will make sure the offending employees boos will look into this, calsm them down enough to have them wish me a pleasant day. It's not so bad. If anything, for every 300 calls, you might get 1 real uptight asshole but that's not too bad.