Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Stupid Vendor Tricks

I've always believed that the best way to do business is to look for ways to do business; that is, throw up as few roadblocks as possible (with zero being optimum). Glitches do happen, of course, but a good attitude and a smile go a long way towards smoothing things out.

And then there are the incompetents at ExamOne.

I just wrote a combination case for one of my clients: life insurance with Company A, and disability coverage with Company B (long story, not really relevant here). I double-checked with each to confirm that we could do one exam (so poor Betty only gets stuck once); no worries, they were both fine with that as long as I noted it on the applications.

I've used ExamOne pretty much exclusively for many years, solely from inertia. Never had any real problems (until now). On the other hand, I've never really challenged them before.

So, this morning, I called to place the order. I explained to the gentleman what I needed done, and he asked to put me on hold to see if that the carriers would agree to "share" the information (since we were looking to get by with one needle-stick). Since I'd already pre-cleared this, I knew the answer, but I did understand that he couldn't just take my word for it. So he asked me for the carrier names and then put me on hold while he checked it out.

After a few minutes, he came back to confirm that he had the right name for the DI carrier (hint: it's not exactly obscure). After confirming it with him, he again put me on hold to see if he could ascertain whether or not they would be able to accomplish this very simple task.

After a while, he came back and told me that "I can't find a definitive answer, so I'll just go with no."

Really?

Making up our own rules as we go along, are we?

This is absolutely unacceptable.

I thanked him for his time and hung up, seething.

Recently, I'd received an email from our new ExamOne rep (who even knew we had an ExamOne rep?), so I reached out to her to tell her about this experience, and that they had just lost a customer (there were also other issues with the original call that aren't relevant here). She promised to "look into it," and I promised to find another vendor.

Which I almost immediately did: I called both the life and disability carriers for suggestions, and they both recommended APPS - Para Medical Services. Well, I called, spoke with a rep right away, and had everything locked down in under 5 minutes. They understood exactly what I needed and knew which insurance carrier was which, no problem.

So, out with the old and incompetent vendor, in with the helpful new one.

Happy ending.
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