I am NOT as Mean as This Sounds...

..but Jeez, sometimes my job drives me insane.  And it isn't the job itself but the people I have to deal with.  You can give me 100 people from my client list, and I would say that 96% of them are really great people to work with.  They call only if they need something or have questions or maybe need a claim turned in, they pay their bills on time, and when they do call, they are pleasant to work with.  It is the OTHER 4% that freaking drive me up the wall.  Right now, I am working with this woman who has not,  for various reasons,  had insurance on her home since August ( when I went to write a new policy for her and found out that she had lied about some claims.  Like we aren't going to find that out.).  In the ensuing months, I have worked and worked with her, going over various options, etc...until finally last month she came in and actually insured the home.  We agreed on the premium, we went over the things that the policy covered, I explained to her why it had to be this way as opposed to a different way, and I really thought we had finally taken care of it.  Sent the application and money off, happy to have finally gotten it off my desk.  The woman is nice-she is, however, slightly demented (in the medical sense of the word, not demented like a psycho), and gets easily confused.  Several times I asked if she would like to bring her son in with her to help explain things, but she has refused. 

Yesterday, though, she called and was in a total snit about the fact that she hasn't received her policy, how she called the company and they have never heard of her, how she didn't know she had to pay $50 every time she made a phone call to me, etc...and then she called me a liar which, okay, I hate, more than anything.  Because unless you are my grandma and you bought me a present that I really hate but I don't want to hurt your feelings, I don't lie.  Too much is riding on it, job wise, plus I have this terribly guilty conscience (like so bad that I feel guilty over things that I know damn well I didn't do!), so it just doesn't work well for me.  I don't know where she got most of her information.  Well, for one thing, she called the wrong company, which would explain why they never heard of her.  But the rest of it?  HA! I WISH I got $50 every time she called me, because I would not have ANY trouble making my car payment were that the case.  Anyway, I tried to reason with her, tried to explain to her, again, what we had talked about and that she DOES have coverage on the home and all of the things we have already gone through at least a dozen times before, all to no avail.  I talked to the company again this morning on her behalf, and called to tell her about the conversation, and she hung up on me.  Before she did, though, she threatened to call her son and have HIM come down and talk to me.  And in my head, I am thinking, Praise God, please DO, I need to have someone normal to talk to!

I understand that she has problems, but that doesn't mean I have to like her, or tolerate abuse.  What I wonder, though, is why her son isn't taking a bigger part in her life.  Maybe because he is so close to the situation that he can't see that she is deteriorating?  Even in the last month or so, I have noticed her confusion getting worse, to the point where I no longer make a phone call to her without documenting everything that is said.  I try to correspond by mail as much as possible because then we also have a paper trail.  But maybe he can't see that because when you are close to someone, it is easy to put things down to age and health and such.  The pisser about it is that legally, I cannot call him and tell him that hey, we are having some potential issues with your mom, wanna come help us out?  Because unless she has specifically given us permission-in writing-to release information to him, he has no legal right to know any of her business.  Ah, it sucks.  Sucks that I feel so sad for her but also am, at the moment, very angry.  It sucks that I can't really do anything more to help her beccause of the legalities of the situation.  It just sucks all the way around.  But venting helps, thanks heavens for Gather, and maybe it will work itself out.