So I've had to make a few phone calls lately...

[Lady Legira]

Because of my husband passing away. I've been dealing with his affairs and things have mostly gone fine but I hit the scripts at call centres.

Call Centre one - Supermarket Card (something related to Honey)

I asked at the desk at the supermarket and the guy sorted me out with a phone call to their call centre, Good dude!

Call Centre Girl - Opening spiel
Me- Hi, my husband has died and I want to transfer his points to my sisters card as I don't have one of my own.
CCG - His name please?
Me - husbands name
CCG - Could I speak with husband please?
Me -NO HE'S DEAD! *guy behind CS desk backs away*
CCG - Oh, terriblely sorry madam, and does the rest of the call right


Call Centre two - Loan from a alphabet soup bank

I get a letter today saying about a loan I hadn't been aware of and therefore didn't inform the bank who loan was with went I closed the account so I rang them.

Me - Account details for husband, it was for Mr husband, I'm calling because he's passed away.
CCG - Could I speak with husband please?
Me - HE'S DEAD!
CCG - backpedals like mad and puts me through to right dept.

Plus my mother got that when she rang the insurance people for his car! Each time we stated that Husband is dead at the start of the call.



I know they get a lot of phonecalls each day but you think that the phase Someone has died at the start of a call would be picked up on!

[Midorikawa]

I know they get a lot of phonecalls each day but you think that the phase Someone has died at the start of a call would be picked up on!

I've spaced like that before. It happens when you handle 115+ calls a day. Try to be patient. When handling that many calls, aside from the (probably now cliche) answering my home phone with "thank you for calling", your brain goes into a routine "ask for name...ask for verification information...if not speaking to account owner, ask to speak to account owner". It happens. :-)

[bainsidhe]

My condolences. I can't imagine how difficult dealing with paperwork/banks/accts/etc must be during such a difficult and stressful time. It's a real brain burp, but I'm glad to know the people backpedaled and realized their error. This at least shows they are human and make errors, even heart-wrenching ones. Having done a brief stint in telemarketing, I can honestly say you never know how to respond to a call like that and routine takes over. Good luck with everything.

[Mnemjian]

I'm sorry for your loss., I agree that it must be really hard for you to have to repeat that information to people all the time. But if it's any condolence, these people aren't likely doing it on purpose, so that's good. Thank goodness they didn't still demand to speak to him or anything

[Ree]

I went through all that in 2008. There was a lot of red tape and a few hassles, but I was fortunate that nobody asked to speak with my deceased husband.
I can imagine how upsetting that was.

[SuperNat]

When my uncle passed in a motorcycle accident which my dad was also in (dad survived), dad got a payout from the Traffic Authority. So they would've known that my uncle was no longer alive. Even so, my mum made sure she called/wrote to them to let them know. About a year later, some mail arrives for my uncle, from the Traffic Authority - it's a Motorcycle License renewal form

[fma_fanatic]

I went through that too when my dad passed away. A lot of small stuff like magazine subscriptions had to be cancelled since she had no interest in them. The larger stuff was handled by the executor who was great at dealing with this.

The worst was the AOL account though. I think it was just as bad as the one guy who tried to cancel his AOL account and it ended up being highly publicized. I almost wanted to ask them if they wanted me to somehow make his ashes talk. I finally gave up and just switched him over to the free account after I accessed it a few times via my high speed service. After it was switched, I just cancelled it.

[Lady Legira]

The worst was the AOL account though. I think it was just as bad as the one guy who tried to cancel his AOL account and it ended up being highly publicized. I almost wanted to ask them if they wanted me to somehow make his ashes talk. I finally gave up and just switched him over to the free account after I accessed it a few times via my high speed service. After it was switched, I just cancelled it.

AOL was the one company who were fantastic. Got the MAC number so I could switch to a cheaper company (UK one called O2) and the guy on the phone couldn't do enough to help and listened at the start of the call when I said that my husband had passed away.

[MaseMan]

Sorry for your loss.

I used to work at a retailer, and I wasn't there for this, but I guess one day one of my co-workers was talking to a small group of people who had just come into the store. He asked how they were doing and they said, "Well, we just came from a funeral," and he said "Oh really, that's great!"

Sometimes when you're dealing with so many people in a day, you become oblivious to certain things, I guess.

[Rapscallion]

How are you doing in yourself?

Rapscallion

[Lady Legira]

Trying to figure things out but doing ok. Having moments that suck but that's expected and my family are being good with me. Sorting through husbands stuff slowly and selling what I can't use. (Car, Synths, etc).

My knee injury is improving slowly just had a physio appointment today and I have a improved range of movement there.