Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2006 - 1:27 p.m.
I'm working for a temp agency while I wait for something better to come along (or until we are able to move out of Lexington...ask me which I prefer...). Right now I'm on assignment with an insurance company that writes homeowner's policies in Florida. I've been here since Oct. 26th taking calls related to Hurricane Wilma. It's really depressing sometimes. I mean, it's like I'm working for the devil. They consistently estimate considerably less than the damage actually costs to repair, so we end up taking twice as many calls because folks call in for a supplement to their claim (usually at the top of their lungs...). They also consider loss assessment claims from a homeowners association as a separate claim from a hurricane claim...which just enables them to charge a separate deductible, thereby preventing them from actually paying most of those claims. It's pretty crappy...but at least I get to be the person who is actually trying to help! I don't make payment decisions (or non-payment, which is generally the case). It just enables a particularly ugly look at how helpless people really can be. I mean, there have been so many people call in who truly believed the insurance company was going to send someone out to take the tree off their roof! They expected the insurance adjuster to show up right away and write them a check for every little thing...it's like they blocked out that whole "deductible" thing from their minds. And I don't know how many people called late because they were waiting to see what FEMA would do. FEMA. And guess what they did? Next to nothing! Of course they didn't do anything...and people really thought they were going to get outside help. I just never realized people are so helpless...I mean, it's your house! If there's a tree on the roof, then get it off of the damn roof! Don't wait for some other agency to show up and hold your hand...take care of your stuff. It's your stuff, not someone else's...no one else gives a damn about your roof! Let it go long enough, and the insurance company is going to call the resulting damage your own fault, as a matter of fact. And then you'll lose your policy and the mortgage company will take the house right out from under you...
And all of these things happen all the time...and it wears on a person hearing all about it day after day...
All the more reason to finish that degree, huh?!
