Posted by Way too long (away from this blog) and I have to remember the key learning. You gotta want to.
It has been reverse customer satisfaction lately–throwing things away because of commerce so wildly offensive I would rather do nothing. I’ll find a faceless internet solution and at least that way I won’t expect anything. Rather, I will know exactly what to expect.
There are a lot of angry people out there and I’m not one of them==I will simply do the right thing and what needs to be done. It is easy if you are prepared.
RE Andrew Mudge… Huge insurance companies are the worst. Wait, there is no reason to go that far, like that bulldog attorney on TV who uses that as his slogan. Maybe they are just changing. Safeco Direct–now I finally know the name and how to contact them–is pretty good. Their website is friendly enough. I would rather deal with the website and 800 number than Andrew Mudge.
Still, there is suspense. Phone/caller ID and email are covered. One pile of junk mail remains. “I tried to contact you multiple times” he said, and I think it is a lie.
If you’re going to do this, or that, you gotta want to.
It is a temporary thing and I will get over it or the focus will change. Some day some way people are going to use the expression “You’re not going to go all Larry David, are you?”
And I’ll get the hyper-geography part out of the way quickly–the University of Maryland part fits right in with the whole Larry David story. I do believe there are others and it may be a correct statement to say that every Mad magazine editor and SNL wannabe went to school there during that time (New Haven, CT notwithstanding). It was a place so void of charm or character that you had to make something up.
Or you had to just rail mercilessly on those all around you. There’s nothing wrong with it and it isn’t even criticism. Remember, they are just inane observations.
Boss: “So you better do something about this or you’re out on your can.”
Andrew: “I sent him an email. He hasn’t responded.”
Boss: Shakes head.
When I read just about anything (no, just a lot of things) on the web from a news piece to a blog post to comments afterward people are quick to make judgements. Sometimes there is truth in them. Maybe it is just an opinion or the way someone feels.
Liberty Mutual, Safeco, Colorado Casualty, whatever they want to call themselves, it wouldn’t be a bad racket being one of their reps or insurance agents. I think there is something like a 12-15% commission. Chances are you can get away with doing absolutely nothing (see Mudge, Andrew) or you might have to spend a few hours a year. Home and auto insurance is likely to be around $200 a pop every year.
If I were a Safeco agent I would get a list, make phone calls and send emails. I would mail people a switch agent form and a business reply envelope and I bet I would get a lot of them back. I would make it easy–is someone on an iPhone really going to print, scan, and send a form?
You could build a nice little business. And it would be an asset that you could sell.
But you have to recognize a number of things. First, obviously, it is not going to be easy and it is not going to be instant.
Second, and this is why I don’t see it happening with Andrew Mudge. You may have to listen to people’s stories. You probably will have to call back more than once. Not only do you have to take personal responsibility for things, and maybe be a bit of a self-starter, but you have to have a bit of a personality for it. Obviously, you have to know that bad word of mouth will kill you, however, it isn’t that negative reinforcement that motivates you.
You have to want to.
The insurance business? I’ve never worked in it but my guess is everyone knows where the money comes from and it is pretty darn cut-throat. Maybe it is a bit like the record producing business with the evil boss taking almost all the money. Perhaps you have to live with that too.
(The web… What was I looking at, Lori Smith, Alliance Insurance, and the comment just popped-up, “I just call Lori Smith at Alliance Insurance”).
A couple days after, I don’t know, my policies have expired… I have never experienced this before: This guy is trying to work me. He never tried to contact me and dropped the ball completely; it is in the past and cannot be undone. So I already decided to jump ship. He is trying to blame me and it is too late.
“Hi Mr. Pfeiffer Andrew Rogers (SIC, Andrew Mudge) Alliance Insurance Agency I have made repeated attempts to contact you I apologize if this is not up to your standard but in order for you me to be able to make a payment I do have to be able to talk to you and unfortunately have answered I called you yesterday called you today and if you do. It seems that you have seen have a problem with that. So give me a call back. I do have a high cost high call volume so if I’m not available. I will be giving you a call back within 24 hours. That’s all that I can promise. Thank you have a great day.”
He was caught by technology, specifically voice mail transcription, caller ID, and local email hosting. He was caught after the fact lying. Wow.
Anyone could tell immediately. Hung-up on is not “up to your standard.” “I do have a high call volume.” I still cannot believe it.
And this is the guy with 303/279-9700 in his caller ID and 720/-something as his unanswered phone number. I have never seen anyone with an “office” and “work” number either.
Deja vu.
Gysin Insurance is still there (5/19/16). “Quaint Evergreen” is an oxymoron. There can be an incredibly-sleazy side to the insurance industry. Yep, I do think you have to want to sit around and do it. Long story short, Savannah Smith sounded awfully sick of covering for Andrew Mudge.
Once again, there appears to be backbiting, politics, and nepotism or cronyism. At Gysin it was the returned-from-the-dead owner’s wife who caused everyone else to leave and Larry Gysin’s after-retirement desire to milk it for all it is worth. Who knows what is going on at Alliance insurance and I’m not sticking around to find out. Maybe Mr. Mudge married the boss’s daughter. There has to be a reason why he could be that bad at what he does, yet still be around.
INSERT NASTY JOKE of office workers sitting around insulting each other here. It has been done before. I always like Herman’s Head. Probably most people have heard of the Mary Tyler Moore Show. Perhaps another time (RE the joke).
For now, good riddance.
Final Note: There was this recurring phrase from Lori Smith and Andrew Mudge: I reached out to you. You seem to have a problem, it is not my responsibility, I won’t solve or correct it, but I reached out to you. Several emails and phone messages included that. I thought I may have made an error in the tense. I am reaching out to you, to correct it (even though it is too late). But no, there was no mistake. The actual lie, repeated more than once, was “I have made repeated attempts to contact you.”