Insurance companies: Leave me alone, please!
Updated: Mar 22
Like a responsible 25-year-old adult, I decided to finally look into life insurance. So, on this rare morning when I feel like I have my life together, I decide to check what the premium of a life insurance policy for me will be. I go to two of the most well-known life insurers, let’s call them CI and HC. Of course, they will not let me use their premium calculators unless I enter my contact details. At this point, I am not naïve. I know within minutes I will start getting calls. But sure, okay, I enter my number and email ID. Surely, I can handle a day of my phone, which is dead for the most part, ringing. It won’t make my ears bleed, I am convinced.
I get my premium quote, I move on with life. Within half an hour, I get a call from CI. I ignore it. Over the next several hours, I keep getting calls from CI from different numbers. When I pick up, there is nobody on the other end of the line.
HC, on the other hand, sends me a text message with my premium quote and calls me once that day. I am impressed. There is at least one insurer who will not harass me.
Two weeks later
CI will just NOT stop calling. This is no exaggeration but I have received over 100 calls from them. The daily average is 10 calls. So now, it’s a part of my daily routine.
CI is my alarm clock every morning. When my music stops playing as I cook spaghetti at night, I know it’s CI. When my catch-up call with my friend gets interrupted by the beeping of another incoming call, yes, it is CI. As I wait for this guy to call me, I know when my phone lights up, it’s going to be CI in all probability. And it is!
Once, someone responded when I picked up. I told them I have decided to go with HC (lies, I am still undecided on the type of policy) so to please stop calling me. They said, okay, just please stay on the call for two minutes and then I can add your number to the DND list. I was like, yes, please, thank you, you good man! And while I am certain they did their part, I never stopped getting the calls.
Feels like harassment
So, I get the persistence, okay. But it goes from annoying to amusing to I just want to throw my phone out very quickly. What is this if not harassment? Yes, CI, I put in my contact details on your website. I gave you my lead. I knew you would call me. But I did not give you the consent to make me go crazy with frustration and not leave me alone. Are you picking your cues from some old Bollywood movie’s disgusting male hero? You think you can wear people down into buying insurance from you? Do I have to pay you some thousand rupees a month to finally stop this?
But, no, I am gen Z. I will keep blocking all the fifty million numbers you have. And I will use that money to buy my iced coffee. Or invest in SIP. No, this is not a cue for you to start calling me about mutual funds. K, bye.
