Things can never go left. Who decided right hand is the dominant? Why would we need to have things going the metric way? Who make the toilet roll to be fixed on the right side? Why Asian uses bidet? Why eat with right hand instead of left? What if I'm a lefthander, does it mean it's you don't mind I use the hand I wipe my butt to shake yours? There's a million thing in life must do right, or we're screwed. Today I wanna talk about item number 4827(no I made that up, probably it's 4828). The topic is about my job, insurance.
In insurance, when you wanted to get into the business, there's a million and one thing can go right, because everybody is thirsty for money. Here is the first part of the story, my client sent an email ask me to renew his insurance, and I took a look into the system, found out his insurance is inforce. So I decided to tell him that insurance is in inforce, I even attached a copy of that policy to show him, so he doesn't need to pay again. Here's the first thing I did wrong. Never turn down any opportunity when insurance business is offered.
Couple of months later, there's a hail storm destroying part of the clients property. He brought that policy to me and wanted to make a claim. But to found out, the policy was not meant to cover for that address. Later the client said there's supposed to be two policies, covering two different location. He did instruct me to renew. And now, all the responsibilities goes to my head. If they're going to be anyone responsible for the lapsed policy, my head is there. I did thought of, if there's anything I could do, may be I can offer a couple of thousands to help fix the place up since it was my mistake. But again, the total damage might cooked up to many tenths of thousands, which I couldn't afford. The client expressively said, if the claim didn't get done as he wish, this will result in a civil lawsuit and I am responsibly for my negligence that causes the client non-renewal of the insurance policy.
I am puzzled, felt helpless, and not knowing who else can helped. I even talked to some work colleagues which have better experience than me, and they told me I'm the one who made the mistake, I better fix it by myself. I know it's nothing wrong to ask for help, and I know it's not wrong if they do not wish to help. But, the case being channel to compliance officer, and what it was supposed to be a discussion now become an investigation, and I couldn't discuss the case with anyone else. Now that I'm thinking, I'm asking opinion to solve a problem, and it become a whistleblower session. Technically, I don't know what is right or wrong anymore. May be I should warn other people to sweep the trouble under the chair and cover it up, rather than trying to find solution.
I've been cracking my head trying to figure out what can I do to fix this huge problem that not only cost me my job, or possibly set me pay for the claim by working my whole life on that liability. I wish to thank a friend @futuremind for being with me, as he helped me explore many possibilities via a private chat. I know he's not an insurance guy by all means, but I still need to thank him for listening and providing feedback. I haven't been having any good sleep. Even when my eyes are closed, my mind goes spinning around the damaged property of my client and he took me to court and force me to pay for his mistake. We do have one argument, where the client did not pay for the policy. By right, if he doesn't pay, even there's a claim, the company shall not pay for the insurance claim. But again, the responsible came back to me. As an officer, I am supposed to make sure the insurance policy delivered, and collect payment. Not 6 months after lapsed to found out the policy hasn't been renewed in the first place.
And the final part of the story, is one thing happen at the right time, from the right person, on the right insurance, with the right policy. The client quietly sent in a supplement documentation regarding the claim. The address has been changed to the policy that is inforced. On a separate email, client sent in ask to reactivate the long lapsed policy. Now I know, the client mistaken the insurance claim, thinking the damage property was the one that insurance policy lapsed. Pardon my wall of text story. It's a semi beautiful ending and I have seriously shit my pants for not more than 48 hours straight. I have learnt a few crooked thing from this experience, not the right thing to do, but it's definitely NOT wrong if I practice it .
- It is clients money. Follow their instruction. Even if the coverage may be redundant, it's not my money. Mistake like this happen, nobody is going to back me up, and I can't say my intention was originally trying to help the client to not spend extra.
- Never give detail when doing discussion. You just won't know who is that one little fucker who trying to be smart, blow the whistle and had you arrested before you have a chance to find out what's going on.
- Humanity is not meant for normal nor poor human. Everything has a pricetag. This kind of mistake, the pricetag could lead me to jail, or lose my entire worklife paying back for what I originally intend to help the client. Think about it, didn't the client feel bad for not paying on a free policy coverage since I told him it was renewed?
- The person whom ultimately giving biggest support, probably the person you have never met in your life time.
Fate shovel shit in my face, now the shit is off but my face still stink.
Apologize on the whinny post, but I just feel like vent it out and document this as one of the most important event in my worklife, and I shall remind myself not to make such mistake again, ever!