Thirty-five years ago, a since-retired colleague wrote a life insurance policy on a friend of his. That friend died on Monday (3 days ago), and his widow called me on Tuesday to let me know. I expressed my condolences, and assured her that I'd arrange for the forms we'd need right away.
Once we hung up, I called the Policy Holder Service line at Great West Life (800-274-9628) and explained the situation. The young lady who had taken my call asked me to hold on while she checked something, and came back a few moments later. She assured me that the forms would be faxed to me within the next 24 hours.
And now it's Thursday morning, 48 hours later, and no form, so I call again. This time, I'm told that it will take a minimum of 5 to 7 days for those forms to be faxed to me. I indicated that this didn't sound right, but the lady was firm, and suggested I call the Claims Department (800-537-2033) and check with them.
And so I did. And I was informed that this seemingly simple process -- simply faxing a standard form -- will take a week or more to occur. That's a week while the widow waits for the opportunity to file the claim, let alone how long these morons will drag their feet before actually paying it.
And yes, I used the "m" word; this is most assuredly not typical of the life insurance industry, and Great West Life should be ashamed of its abhorrent claims service.
There's a reason we haven't written business with them in years.
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