incompetents work in other businesses too

Remember when your (actual) mailbox held (actual) mail instead of bills, solicitations, discounts for stuff you don't want, and--what's this? A letter from your insurance company requesting information on a $20,000 claim that your nineteen-year old daughter submitted last fall--from college? OMG! When did she need $20K worth of medical care? Was she in an accident she didn't tell you about? Did something happen to her, something so horrible, she doesn't want you to know?

You speed dial her cell and (for once) she answers. "Hospital?" she says. "What are you talking about?" You're relieved...until you remember that thing called teenage denial. You're on hold with the insurance company for what seems like hours. Two people can't help because you can't tell them the name of the hospital. (But you hope there was no hospital!) Finally, someone with the authority to investigate your records gets on the line...and starts laughing! Turns out that the proof they requested from you last fall to show that your daughter is a full-time student (and thus eligible for coverage) was mistaken by drones in the back office for a claim. They submitted her college tuition bill to the claims office for payment! Even more astounding, the claims office didn't deny the charge, but spent time and postage sending out a letter (in triplicate) requesting a diagnosis code. For college tuition. No wonder insurance is so expensive, a third of the nation can't afford it.

In related news... the call I put in to Belkin tech support yesterday, the call that went through Levels 1, 2, 3...the call that was relegated to a "high level expert" who was to get back to me later, though I was warned that "due to high call volumes, wait for a callback could exceed 20 minutes." No kidding. Just got the callback. Thirty two hours later.