Let's see here, it's been 7 months since Jason was in a car accident. We now have a nice new car and are very happy with it and the new insurance company we are with. Anyway, 7 months! So, you can understand my confusion as to why I received a call today from our local State Farm agent's assistant asking if we could come into the office and sign a Power of Attorney. Keep in mind, this is the same assistant I had issues with all those months ago. Apparently, at the time that they delivered the check, they forgot to get that signed. 7 months ago. Woo boy, aren't they on top of things?
A Power of Attorney?
Last I checked, a power of attorney is a document you sign when you can not represent yourself legally any further. I'm pretty healthy, I can still sign things and represent myself just fine. In fact, I'd give myself an A+ at signing my signature and representing myself. I can sign the crap out of my signature and I'm pretty mentally stable. Most days.
I digress.
I digress.
I asked her to repeat herself. She said that it was in fact a power of attorney that we needed to sign. Confused, I asked why. I told her that I can see signing to receive the check but not a power of attorney. She cut me off in the middle of my question asking me if we'd kept the car. I said no. She said 'Well, that's what it's for.' That's the explanation she gave me. I'm not sure exactly what other words were exchanged but when I asked her if she could send me the paperwork in the mail, I very vividly remember her telling me that NO! she could not send the paperwork in the mail. We would HAVE to come to her office in order to sign the document. I've said this before but I do pretty much the same thing she does for a living. I know that when a client asks you to send something to them in the mail, you kindly oblige. That's just basic good customer service. She refused. I told her that we'd have to see how our schedules worked out because um, have you looked at the calendar any time lately? Christmas is next week. Like, less than 7 days away next week. We ended the conversation.
I thought and thought.
I explained the situation to Jason and began pondering how rude and short she was with me. My emotions started to fume once again at this assistant who was being of very little assistance. I called her back and she didn't answer the phone. Hello, caller ID? I think this lady does not like me one little bit.
I left a message asking her to scan and email the document to me so that I could read it over before signing it. That's just good common sense. This she did. Why she couldn't just slap a stamp on it and stick in the mail is beside me.
I called my current NEW agent. After conferring, we both decided this was a bit strange.
I called the State Farm agent's office again and got the same assistant. Yay! She did answer this time, I wonder if she saw I was calling from work and didn't recognize the number? I asked to speak to the actual agent and she told me that the agent had left for the day. The assistant was very courteous this time. I still needed answers though. I called State Farm's actual loss department to get a straight answer. They explained that it was in fact a power of attorney that by law, they needed in order to get the title to the vehicle that was listed as a total loss. At least, this sounded better than the answer I got previously from the assistant. I asked her if she would kindly mail it to me. She agreed. Was that so hard? No. It is not hard to stick something in the mail.
After looking over the form, it looks legit. We'll sign it..when we get it in the mail. Although, with the amount of time it took to get our claim check and all the runaround we had to do, I'm seriously considering letting it sit around for a few months before signing it. Let them squirm a bit.
I wonder if calling the State Farm agent and explaining once again, that her assistant provided less than satisfactory assistance is something I should do.
If this was your employee, wouldn't you want to know?
