Trying to get through to my Health Insurance company is nigh on impossible

Bretrick said:
"We are receiving a high volume of calls, your call is important to us, please be patient"
I get this message every time.
I waited 25 minutes before hanging up.
Total waste of time.
Employ more people.
Click to expand...
this is what we get when trying to ring for an appointment with our GP ( Doctor)... when we finally do get through we're lucky if we can even get a phone appointment within one month..much less a face to face appointment

Today I had to call the local council... I got a similar message.. ''please be aware all of our customer service personnel are working from home, so you will be held in a queue, your call is important to us ''.. yeah yeah, sure it is... ... I laid the phone down on the desk, while it played mind numbing Musak back at me for precisely 48 minutes before it was answered...
 
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hollydolly said:
this is what we get when trying to ring for an appointment with our GP ( Doctor)... when we finally do get through we're lucky if we can even get a phone appointment within one month..much less a face to face appointment

Today I had to call the local council... I got a similar message.. ''please be aware all of our customer service personnel are working from home, so you will be held in a queue, your call is imortant to us ''.. yeah yeah, sure it is... ... I laid the phone down on the desk, while it played mind numbing Musak back at me for precisely 48 minutes before it was answered...
Click to expand...
My Doctor's practice has had on line appointments for at least 2 years. No waiting on the phone anymore.
 

Bretrick said:
"We are receiving a high volume of calls, your call is important to us, please be patient"
I get this message every time.
I waited 25 minutes before hanging up.
Total waste of time.
Employ more people.
Click to expand...
1. Call their sales number, get the name of the sales associate and ask them to transfer you to customer service.

2. Text them

3. E-mail them

4. Snail mail them.

5. Call your physician and request he or she handle that particular problem for you.

I hope this helps
 
We all get the same "High Call Volume" BS whenever we call a business.
We can't expect them to say:
"We don't want to pay employees, so we don't have enough of them to answer phones; we're really cheap, ya know. Besides, your call means nothing to us, anyway."
 
Bretrick said:
My Doctor's practice has had on line appointments for at least 2 years. No waiting on the phone anymore.
Click to expand...
we have a system here where you can book your appointment online.. but only a maximum of 30 days in advance with my surgery .. but the appointment calendar doesn't go any further than that, and there is NEVER any appointments available during the next 30 days.. so it's impossible to book online.,it;s a farce tbh... so we have to call the surgery, then when we do get through, we're told there are no appointments available unless it's an emergency in which case they will get a doctor to call ''at some point during the day''.. this could potentially mean a wait of anything up to 9 hours, and usually it's a locum whom you've never spoken to before and knows nothing of your history.. .
We're told if we cannot wait for the doctor to call then go to A&E.. ( emergency room )..but that's a nightmare in itself because they're so short staffed, the normal waiting time to be processed there and seen by an already exhausted junior doctor ( never a consultant or senior doctor) is around 8 or 9 hours... ..and the hospital is miles away there is no local hospital, so if you have no transport, you're stuck unless you're so incapacitated that they'll send an ambulance..

Now it's very common for people to wait anything up to 6 hours after 999 has been requested for it to arrive , because again due to the shortage of paramedics.. and even when they get the patient to the hospital, there's often a very long quieue , so it;s again common for patients to be kept in the ambulance for anything up to 5 hours.. making the ambulance out of use to further emergencies, and further sufferance for the patient..

The staffing of hospitals, and lack of them and lack of surgeries and qualified general practitioners here where I live is a national disgrace .. and I could go into why but it's political so I will sit on my hands...
 
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hollydolly said:
we have a system here where you can book your appointment online.. but only a maximum of 30 days in advance with my surgery .. but the appointment calendar doesn't go any further than that, and there is NEVER any appointments available during the next 30 days.. so it's impossible to book online.,it;s a farce tbh... so we have to call the surgery, then when we do get through, we're told there are no appointments available unless it's an emergency in which case they will get a doctor to call ''at some point during the day''.. this could potentially mean a wait of anything up to 9 hours, and usually it's a locum whom you've never spoken to before and knows nothing of your history.. .
We're told if we cannot wait for the doctor to call then go to A&E.. ( emergency room )..but that's a nightmare in itself because they're so short staffed, the normal waiting time to be processed there and seen by an already exhausted junior doctor ( never a consultant or senior doctor) is around 8 or 9 hours... ..and the hospital is miles away there is no local hospital, so if you have no transport, you're stuck unless you're so incapacitated that they'll send an ambulance..

Now it's very common for people to wait anything up to 6 hours after 999 has been requested for it to arrive , because again due to the shortage of paramedics.. and even when they get the patient to the hopsital, there's often a very long quieue , so it;s again common for patients to be kept in the ambulance for anything up to 5 hours.. making the ambulance out of use to further emergencies, and further sufferance for the patient..

The staffing of hospitals, and lack of them and lack of surgeries and qualified general practitioners here where I live is a national disgrace .. and I culd go into why but it's political so I will sit on my hands...
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I sometimes watch the UK television show - Ambulance and that show that the UK NHS is in crisis and many people do not get ambulance attendance at all.
So many countries health system is lacking because there is little empathy from those with control of the purse strings.
 
Bretrick said:
I sometimes watch the UK television show - Ambulance and that show that the UK NHS is in crisis and many people do not get ambulance attendance at all.
So many countries health system is lacking because there is little empathy from those with control of the purse strings.
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That's precisely the reason.. and those who hold the purse strings all have fully paid up Private medical Insurance so don't have to rely on the NHS for treatment like the rest of us...
 
RadishRose said:
Sometimes our doctors recording states in part....."If this is a true emergency, go to your local emergency room".

I want to say, "no you idiot, it's a fake emergency".
Who tries to make an appointment for the doctors office for an emergency?
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HAHA. Well, when you buy those sunshades that cover your car's windshield, they have a warning attached:
"Do not drive with sunshade in place."
 
Ha! You think you got troubles. If you live in Canada, you wait 3 hours on the phone trying to talk to someone in Revenue Canada (the "lovely" tax people). After 3 hours, you get cut off and a voice tells you, "Please try tomorrow." I know what I'm talking about because it has happened to me. The system is get so regressive it amazes me! They call it customer service! Dogs and cats get better service than people. Guess I have to learn to bark or meow!
 
win231 said:
We all get the same "High Call Volume" BS whenever we call a business.
We can't expect them to say:
"We don't want to pay employees, so we don't have enough of them to answer phones; we're really cheap, ya know. Besides, your call means nothing to us, anyway."
Click to expand...
You have it down 100% of what it really is Win231. All the stuff about customers matter, etc. is pure bull. These business need to go broke. They will too when the government stops handing out "Free" money to them.
 
RadishRose said:
Sometimes our doctors recording states in part....."If this is a true emergency, go to your local emergency room".

I want to say, "no you idiot, it's a fake emergency".
Who tries to make an appointment for the doctors office for an emergency?
Click to expand...
My son works for IRS as an investigator, told me to never call the 800 number. There is not enough CS people to answer your call, so they hope by delaying answering you will decide it isn't that important & hangup out of frustration. Goes for any phone at SS also. They use the call queue as a filter.
 
shedevil7953 said:
It's because they are sub-contracting to people in their homes; no employees. Then you get someone with an accent that I can't understand because they talk too fast. It p*****s me off!
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I got tired of not being able to understand one of them, so I told her I couldn't understand her and asked her nicely to transfer me to someone else and she did. I used to just hang up and call again, but with hold times being so long these days, the transfer seemed like a better solution. It worked out great.
 
Jules said:
When I get the “your call is important to us”, I swear my BP skyrockets.

There are a couple of big companies here that tell you how long the anticipated wait will be and allow you to have a return call from them. That helps.
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Yes, I love those companies that give you a chance for a call back. Unfortunately, I only came across one. The rest just play some awful music over and over and over while you wait and wait and wait. Oh yes, we all have smartphones but are we smarter? Me thinks, Not!
 
Sometimes, I'll get a call from some company trying to sell something.
When I pick up the phone & say "Hello," a recording says "Please stay on the line; someone will be with you shortly." (what nerve!)
I have a way to make sure they delete my number. I'll stay on the line, then when someone answers, I'll say, "Hold on; let me get the owner of the house; she's really interested."
After a couple of minutes, I'll come back to the phone & ask, "Did she pick up yet?"
They'll say, "No."
I'll say, "Hold on; I'll get her; she's outside."
After doing this for 10 minutes, I'll come on & say, "Actually, neither one of is interested; I just wanted to waste your time, too."
 

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