Don't Talk to Me Like That

Somewhere along the line I got older. Maybe even old. Well at least that is what Metropolitan Life Insurance Company thinks. I got my yearly statement and because I turned 60 my life insurance rate went up. My monthly premium was no longer covering the cost of my insurance. As a result it was eroding my accumulation fund. Welcome to the world of whole life policies. I reviewed my annual statement and located my local office's telephone number on the paperwork. Local office is somewhat of a misnomer since they have my Illinois address they provided me with a number there. Since I prefer to deal with local offices rather than giant corporate bullshit I tried the Illinois office. I got an answering machine with the usual "you've reached the office of...blah, blah, blah...." I heard enough and hung up. Didn't want to leave a message. I got my paperwork out again and found the customer service 800 number. I took a deep breath and dialed the number. Who answers? A computer generated voice. Here is your list of options. Press one for this. Press two for that? Here is option 3 and 4. None really fit what I wanted to do. I chose one option hoping for the best. Maybe a real person would answer. No such luck. The computer gave me the option to enter my policy number. After I did so it started to tell me what I already knew from the annual statement I was holding. The computer then asked if I was done or wanted to hear more options. I went with more options hoping one of them would be a real person. Once again MetLife thwarted my attempts and only gave me more machine options. I had used option one the last time so I tried option two. More crap I had in front of me. The machine again asked if I was done. "No!" Here are more options. I listened to another 5 options and didn't hear anything I wanted so in total frustration I said: "I want to talk to a real person." The computer replied: "Would you like to talk to a customer service representative?" I responded: "Yes!" A nice lady named Melinda came on the line then and in less than two minutes addressed my issues and emailed me the forms I needed to complete and send back to MetLife. I hate talking to computers. When I call a business I want to talk to a person. Even someone having a bad day who provides inadequate customer service is better than a computer generated voice. It is highly likely that I will NEVER call MetLife again. It wasn't Melinda's fault and I told her how pleased I was to get off the computer voice circuit. The two minute call with Melinda was actually about 8 minutes because of the computer bullshit. It would seem to me it would have been better and more efficient to have Melinda and her coworkers answer the telephone and address real people's concerns with real people.
MetLife- after today DON'T TALK TO ME LIKE THAT. I WANT A REAL PERSON.