I am a collector for a hospital. Though my focus is on insurances, sometimes I have to call the patient. I've had plenty of large claims where the patient died (we are predominantly a trauma facility, so we get all of the gunshots, stabbings, auto accidents, etc.). A lot of times, the insurance will send a letter to the patient requesting information, often about a week or two after sending the claim in (which is within 2 weeks of death). Thus, within a month of the person dying, they are harassing the patient's family for information. And as soon as I find out they are awaiting information, I start calling the patient's family, too. Thus, they have 2 separate organizations bugging them for information, and they are barely getting used to the idea that their loved one is gone. So yes, death is quite inconvenient...

Oh, and if we get no answer (either the patient has no family or there is no response), then we do turn them over to collections. :D You can collect from the estate, especially if you have a lien. The conversation with Citibank is an exaggeration, but not much of one. I talk to underpaid phone representatives all the time at work, and they are usually pretty bureaucratic (i.e. they give the same preset responses). That is what that is making fun of.

[ 06-29-2004, 07:36 AM: Message edited by: Nerull ]

LOL.... bankers, all they want is money [img]tongue.gif[/img] (no offense to any one who works in a bank).