Several insureds have been telling me that they are unable to reach anyone at their insurer’s location, particulary The Hartford.
Today, I had the experience of trying to locate an Hartford claims handler, who in the end, was located in the Philippines. After questionning the claims handler, because she was speaking with a very heavy Spanish accent, faster than a locomotive, I could hardly understand her, I discovered she was located off shore. Now we know the reason why many insureds are having difficulty locating anyone to speak to at their iinsurance companies.
While I have no objection to “offshore” answering services, I do object to phones answered by employees who barely speak English and are hard to understand. For the last year, we’ve known that nearly all insurers hired claims and customer service reps who work remotely from home, but they are difficult to get in touch with, and are often hard to understand. Today, I could hear other people and phones in the background, therefore, I’m assuming The Hartford hired a professional answering service operating off shore.
It occurs to me that “offshore” workers may not be supervised all tht well, and that there is no guarantee of complete and accurate documentation added to the file or Administrative Record. Where would an attorney send a subpoena if he/she wanted to? Seems to me the apples are getting too far removed from the tree.
Therefore, be aware that it is likely your insurer is so “remote” it may be extremely difficult to get in touch with anyone. More than that, when you do reach someone, it may be diffult to understand them. No wonder insurers are so far behind.
Seems to me the claims process may be getting way out of hand. (Pun intended.)
