t near-approach-to-personal-space-for-purposes-of-support

In place of a hug

Aetna pharmacy calls me. I call back. They then put me on hold while they look up the reference number. (Uh, you guys called me, so maybe it would be good if someone knew the details before I called back?) Then she tries to convince me that it's my husband's issue, and not mine. Uh, no, I'm pretty sure I know what medication we each take.

Then she says good news, they'll send me something so I can return the medicine I got (90 pills instead of 135). I said, are they going to send a replacement? She sighs and says, "Oh, there's a lot to read here." Yes, I apologize for making you understand what the actual issue is.

She says, "I don't see any indication that you have any open orders."

"So my only options are to keep the wrong dosage of pills, or to return all of it and have no medicine?"

"Yeah," she says, sounding a little surprised, but not displeased. "I guess those are your only options!"

Damn, Dana. This is beyond egregious bullshit.

We have the name of a supervisor who was pretty helpful last night, so I will call her later, when I'm not actually at work and have time to spend on this bullshit.

Thank god I had some refills left at a local pharmacy.

"I guess those are your only options!"

And then you reached through the phone and punched her in the face?

(Uh, you guys called me, so maybe it would be good if someone knew the details before I called back?)

Unless you were given a specific agent to call back to, the person probably had never seen your case before you gave them the reference number. Or they may have half a dozen cases to deal with.

edit: sorry, knee jerk defense of the poor sods working in call centers. We know the people calling in don't want to talk to us, but we can only work with the information we have.

I'm sorry so many of us are having no-good, terrible days.

Theo, I'm so sorry about Muppet, and I'm glad you were there for her.

Steph, oh man. My heartfelt sympathies. That's my constant fear with Lucky. These are the kinds of surprises we should never have to deal with. Much love to you and Tim.

Our Buffista pets are lucky to have such awesome humans.

The systems are still annoying, though. When I called my health plan, I had to put my member number and birthdate into the automatic system, and then tell the person who answered all the same information -- I did not get the impression that I was confirming my identity, but that they were looking me up for the first time.

I always try very hard to be polite to people in call centers, because I know they don't make the policies that make my life hell. But when something like this happens, and I'm so angry that I'm shaking when I get off the phone, I feel okay about sharing my personal thoughts on the board.

Oh, yeah, of course! That's so fucked up.

It makes me madder that it's systemically fucked up. On person making a mistake I can forgive; stacking the deck so there is no way for one person to fix the mess is just egregious.