# I think it's time for a new insurance agent **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 16, 2010, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702 "2010-03-16T21:55:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702/41 "2010-03-17T20:42:01Z")
> [@ivn1188](#): > > What’s not acceptable is writing a whiny OP about your insurance that makes you sound like an oversensitive dipshit… Ah, the wannabe pit moderator strikes again. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702/42 "2010-03-17T21:02:51Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > As someone who has been trained to “Try and find a way to pay the claim” I take exception to that broad brush comment. I guess it’s a bit of a thread hijack, but that line of thinking completely ignores legal recourse available to the consumer, and the severe consequences levied against insurers when they wantonly break contacts with their customers. Punitive damages alone make it a very bad business practice to say “NO!” without being damned sure a jury will side with you. There’s no shortage of ravenous plaintiff attorneys just aching to sue my clients and then hop the fence and woo them into a bad faith suit–that’s where the _real_ money is. Now, if you want to get into being dropped after a claim gets paid you might have a point. I’ll admit that my experiences fall more into the health insurance area than car insurance, but contrary to your assertion, I’ve found they have _very_ little trouble saying “NO!” And as for auto insurers, how about dropping an entire family after years with the same agent, not _after_ a claim, but because they had _never_ filed a claim and were therefore statistically “due”? Legal? Presumably, since it happened to my family when my brothers and I were teenagers. (Probably the maddest I’ve ever seen my dad.) Unethical? Absolutely, as far as I’m concerned. Standard practice? I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised. Suffice it to say I’m not a big fan of the industry. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702/43 "2010-03-17T21:14:14Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > It’s like being mad at a dog for humping your leg–that’s just what they do. Dogs hump legs because they are poorly trained. It’s the same with financial professionals. Since they don’t have no moral compass, they screw anyone they can because they can get away with it. In some ways I feel sorry for them. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702/44 "2010-03-18T12:11:09Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > But this agent is being pushy in a way that I would find unacceptable in an agent that I’m currently in a business relationship with. Cold calls from my current agent that say “Please call me immediately about your policy” make me think there’s an urgent problem of some sort with the policy that I already have - like the premiums are way behind, or the company has decided to cancel me because of some info they’ve received. I’d be pissed too if I called her back and found she just wanted to sell me some unrelated insurance. And if she’s getting info on refinancing, she should add the totally unrelated gap insurance as an option, and not just include it in the price - I’m guessing if the OP hadn’t questioned it, she would have gleefully included it without even bringing it up. I used to work in a women’s clothing store. Sometimes women would come in to buy a dress for a wedding or whatever, and they hadn’t worn a dress in YEARS. My job was to sell them a dress and accessories. Now, many women would find a dress that they’re happy with, and want to buy it and get on with their lives. It would have been totally wrong for me to grab a pair of pantyhose and charge the customer for the dress and hose, without asking the customer if she WANTED hose, and without telling her that I was charging her for the hose. This is approximately what happened here. The agent assumed that she had the right to make a buying decision for the customer, and didn’t see a need to inform the customer what she was charging him for. Incidentally, when a woman came in for a dressy dress, I was usually able to sell her a pair of hose, slip, bra, and control panties/girdle as well as the dress. I assumed that she’d need all these things, but I always suggested them, I didn’t just throw them into the shopping bag as a part of the package. ---
**Author:** ![melodyharmonius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/melodyharmonius/32/21310_2.png) [@melodyharmonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melodyharmonius)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702/45 "2010-03-18T12:59:26Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > I used to work in a women’s clothing store. Sometimes women would come in to buy a dress for a wedding or whatever, and they hadn’t worn a dress in YEARS. My job was to sell them a dress and accessories. Now, many women would find a dress that they’re happy with, and want to buy it and get on with their lives. It would have been totally wrong for me to grab a pair of pantyhose and charge the customer for the dress and hose, without asking the customer if she WANTED hose, and without telling her that I was charging her for the hose. This is approximately what happened here. The agent assumed that she had the right to make a buying decision for the customer, and didn’t see a need to inform the customer what she was charging him for. > > Incidentally, when a woman came in for a dressy dress, I was usually able to sell her a pair of hose, slip, bra, and control panties/girdle as well as the dress. I assumed that she’d need all these things, but I always suggested them, I didn’t just throw them into the shopping bag as a part of the package. That’s a great analogy - cool post! ---
**Author:** ![ivn1188](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e480ec/32.png) [@ivn1188](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivn1188)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702/46 "2010-03-18T13:05:36Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > Oh yeah, that’s right. > You’re the guy who doesn’t like people posting “rants about the world” in a forum who’s decription is “rants about the world”. > [Lamest pit thread ever](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=539342). > > You’re dismissed. > [@ghardester](#): > > Ah, the wannabe pit moderator strikes again. :rolleyes: Look, we got a two-for-one sale on dipshits today! Not just one, but _two_ fantastically lackwitted posters, neither of which can even come up with an original insult! Guess what: yes, I want to moderate people like you, who are blisteringly retarded, and who should not be allowed to spew yet more banality into the world. I would prefer that we institute a system where people like yourselves are not allowed to contribute until you’ve demonstrated that you have moved beyond “crossing me off your list”, “talk to the hand”, or “no u!” as a debate technique, and until you have demonstrated the ability to not share your petty and overly-self-entitled life dramas as if they are somehow worthy of earning our outrage. You see, your posts are about at the level of those cheesy romance novels one sees littering the grocery store’s book section, except that your posts don’t even have the societal benefits of leading to some moist panties. They are simply filler. Do you think anyone actually gives a shit about your insurance? Are you serious? If you want to come in and have a good cry over something you 1) apparently don’t understand 2) that is actually expected behavior 3) that only bugs people who have way too much time on their hands, feel free. Just like I will feel free to point out that you consume way too much oxygen, and that you do so exclusively through your mouth, and that you probably are actually pissed because dealing with your insurance agent reduced your tea-party protest time by as much as three minutes. And by even referring to your pile of crap OP as a “rant” you are demonstrating that you have no fucking idea. You sure showed her by posting to the internets and asking for a support group, you pussy. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702/47 "2010-03-18T13:56:49Z")
A sitz bath can help relieve the discomfort of hemorrhoid flare-ups, anal fissures, and infections of the bladder, prostate, or vagina. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702/48 "2010-03-18T14:17:01Z")
**ivn** , do you truly not see that your posts embody everything you have complained about? Personally, I don’t think so. I think you just like showing up and being an asshole. But I could be wrong. It’s happened once or twice.\* \*In the last 10 seconds ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702/49 "2010-03-18T14:46:53Z")
It’s quite clear that Rand is just posting to be contrary. If he isn’t lying about his job, he knows he has to be nice to the customer, or they will leave. It’s part of the free market. If I specifically ask you not to do something, and you do it anyway, you’ve demonstrated you are an asshole. And when I can choose to take my business elsewhere, that’s a horrible way to be. Either that, or Rand is like this lady, as it takes an asshole to know an asshole. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702/50 "2010-03-19T00:08:10Z")
> [@ivn1188](#): > > Look, we got a two-for-one sale on dipshits today! Not just one, but _two_ fantastically lackwitted posters, neither of which can even come up with an original insult! > > Guess what: yes, I want to moderate people like you, who are blisteringly retarded, and who should not be allowed to spew yet more banality into the world. I would prefer that we institute a system where people like yourselves are not allowed to contribute until you’ve demonstrated that you have moved beyond “crossing me off your list”, “talk to the hand”, or “no u!” as a debate technique, and until you have demonstrated the ability to not share your petty and overly-self-entitled life dramas as if they are somehow worthy of earning our outrage. > > You see, your posts are about at the level of those cheesy romance novels one sees littering the grocery store’s book section, except that your posts don’t even have the societal benefits of leading to some moist panties. They are simply filler. Do you think anyone actually gives a shit about your insurance? Are you serious? If you want to come in and have a good cry over something you 1) apparently don’t understand 2) that is actually expected behavior 3) that only bugs people who have way too much time on their hands, feel free. Just like I will feel free to point out that you consume way too much oxygen, and that you do so exclusively through your mouth, and that you probably are actually pissed because dealing with your insurance agent reduced your tea-party protest time by as much as three minutes. > > And by even referring to your pile of crap OP as a “rant” you are demonstrating that you have no fucking idea. You sure showed her by posting to the internets and asking for a support group, you pussy. An angry and amusing little man, with only the SDMB Pit to provide a forum to spew. You hang out here in the Pit because you wouldn’t get away with this shit anywhere else on the board. I find it all very entertaining to watch. In the case of your response to the OP, I just couldn’t resist calling you on it. Please continue, I’m sure I am not the only person who gets a chuckle out of you. ---
**Author:** ![blainer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a698b9/32.png) [@blainer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blainer)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702/51 "2010-03-19T14:54:33Z")
It was cool growing up with hippie parents and all, but marrying into a military-connected family has its advantages. USAA is as awesome as God’s cock. Also, getting married at the O Club for about 50% of what a comparable place would cost was pretty awesome. That’s right, tax-payers. You fuckers subsidized my wedding. ---
**Author:** ![fisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@fisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fisha)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702/52 "2010-03-29T00:20:30Z")
I came in here to say, USAA is a very good insurer. But the only way you can get it is to be military, or military family. Hampshire, I deal with agents and insurance companies _after_ a claim. I could certainly recommend companies and/or agents-I’m better than the phonebook. ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702/53 "2010-03-29T01:00:25Z")
> [@ivn1188](#): > > Dumb. Someone whose job is to sell you stuff tries to \ sell you stuff? Stop the presses! Yeah, my wife is an insurance agent and she often tells me stories about customers of hers who get angry when she calls them to try and sell another kind of insurance to them. I guess people don’t understand that her salary is based on a percentage of what she sells and she, therefore, is always trying to sell as much as she possibly can. If she sells nothing she gets nothing. These people have quotas, cut them a break. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702/54 "2010-03-29T02:01:24Z")
> [@kidneyfailure](#): > > Yeah, my wife is an insurance agent and she often tells me stories about customers of hers who get angry when she calls them to try and sell another kind of insurance to them. How does your wife differ from a telemarketer? I buy car insurance, and renter’s insurance, and I guarantee you that if an employee of the company I buy those from cold-called me trying to sell me other types of insurance, I’d change companies so fast it’d make your wife’s head swim. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702/55 "2010-03-29T05:11:19Z")
USAA won my business forever with the way they handled my one and only accident (so far) back in 1996. But yeah, you have to have connections to get on with them. They’d be happy to sell me other types of insurance and stuff…but they don’t bother me about it. Makes me likelier to look at them first for anything along those lines, because I know they want to make money but they also aren’t assholes about it. While I know your wife is only doing what she has to do in her job, **kidneyfailure** , a company with policies like that would drive me away _fast_. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702/56 "2010-03-29T05:40:41Z")
> [@kidneyfailure](#): > > Yeah, my wife is an insurance agent and she often tells me stories about customers of hers who get angry when she calls them to try and sell another kind of insurance to them. I guess people don’t understand that her salary is based on a percentage of what she sells and she, therefore, is always trying to sell as much as she possibly can. If she sells nothing she gets nothing. These people have quotas, cut them a break. Sure, I understand that insurance agents get commissions and have quotas. However, I consider my right to peace and quiet to be more important than her need to sell stuff. Any insurance agent who calls me, trying to sell more insurance, is going to quickly find him/herself with two fewer clients (my husband and I use the same agents, and we’ll both go to another agent if one calls us up to try to sell more insurance). Usually I’ll give an agent or company ONE warning. However, if I had been thinking of switching anyway, that is a sure way to get me to drop the offending agent/company and go to someone else. Your wife is probably shooting herself in the foot, there. ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702/57 "2010-03-29T10:13:30Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > How does your wife differ from a telemarketer? Telemarketers randomly cold-call complete strangers whose numbers they got from somewhere who have never expressed any interest in their service at all. Insurance agents (or at least the one I’m married to) only call the customers they’ve signed contracts with who have specifically agreed to buy insurance. The customer has expressed his or her willingness to buy insurance from that agent and, thus, the agent will call them to inform them of any updates. I don’t see what the problem is. Don’t buy insurance if you don’t want to hear from insurance agents. To be honest, I empathize with telemarketers, too. I never shout at them or lose my patience with them. I know they’re just trying to make ends meet. How big of a jerk would I be if I lost my temper with some 20-year-old kid with a headset on who was just doing what his boss told him to do? > [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Sure, I understand that insurance agents get commissions and have quotas. However, I consider my right to peace and quiet to be more important than her need to sell stuff. Sure, sure. Totally understandable. But remember: everyone has their own self-interest in mind. You buy insurance so you’ll be covered if you get sick and you don’t want anyone bothering you, they’re selling you insurance so they can get their cut and calling you so they can get more. It’s every man for himself and I don’t blame anyone for getting annoyed with insurance agents, but you can’t blame them for looking out for themselves, either. Insurance agents get yelled at by their bosses if they don’t call customers, but the customers yell at the agents if they get called. It’s a rough situation. FWIW, my wife is 15 weeks pregnant and we recently went to have a check-up at her hospital. After the ultrasound and the tests were all done and we found that everything was fine, **mrs.kidneyfailure** went into insurance agent mode and started handing her business card out to all the people with newborn babies. I said to her, “Don’t you realize that these people want to enjoy their time with their kids and don’t want to be bothered by annoying people selling insurance?” She shrugged and said, “My baby has to eat, too.” What should I have said? Should I have told her to get a less annoying job? Please :rolleyes: > [@whiterabbit](#): > > While I know your wife is only doing what she has to do in her job, **kidneyfailure** , a company with policies like that would drive me away _fast_. She works in a Chinese insurance company. I don’t think you have to worry about her 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702/58 "2010-03-29T16:42:16Z")
> [@kidneyfailure](#): > > FWIW, my wife is 15 weeks pregnant and we recently went to have a check-up at her hospital. After the ultrasound and the tests were all done and we found that everything was fine, **mrs.kidneyfailure** went into insurance agent mode and started handing her business card out to all the people with newborn babies. I said to her, “Don’t you realize that these people want to enjoy their time with their kids and don’t want to be bothered by annoying people selling insurance?” She shrugged and said, “My baby has to eat, too.” What should I have said? Should I have told her to get a less annoying job? Wow. That’s obnoxious, invasive, and inappropriate. If this kind of behavior is truly mandatory at her company, then yes, she should get a less annoying job. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702/59 "2010-03-29T16:49:05Z")
If some random insurance agent had come into my hospital room and tried to give me a business card, I would have notified the nurses on duty that there was a salesperson harassing patients on their floor, and I suspect your wife would have been removed pretty quickly, **kidneyfailure**. Although I find your story somewhat questionable if it supposedly happened in the United States, as most hospitals here are pretty strict about who is allowed onto the maternity ward. Women who are there just to have an ultrasound aren’t anywhere near the floor where the new mothers are recovering with their newborns. This has been true of the five different hospitals that I’ve had experience with (both for myself and relatives who have delivered babies) in three different states. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702/60 "2010-03-29T17:15:46Z")
> [@kidneyfailure](#): > > Yeah, my wife is an insurance agent and she often tells me stories about customers of hers who get angry when she calls them to try and sell another kind of insurance to them. I guess people don’t understand that her salary is based on a percentage of what she sells and she, therefore, is always trying to sell as much as she possibly can. If she sells nothing she gets nothing. These people have quotas, cut them a break. It’s not that I don’t understand - it’s that I don’t care. I’ve already decided what kind of insurance I want to carry and I’ve sought out and purchased those policies. I don’t want to take time out of my day to talk to somebody about “exciting new insurance opportunities” that I’m not interested in. Your wife’s company uses a business model that drives some customers away, including me. It’s the company’s choice to use that business model, and it’s my choice to find another provider. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-think-its-time-for-a-new-insurance-agent/532702.md?page=4)