If there’s one person you want to make sure you’re telling the truth to, its an insurance agent!

The slightest inconsistency or discrepancy in your story and suddenly you’re under an investigation that makes the boys in blue look like mall security guards.

Well according to this user, many people play pretty fast and loose when trying to insure their business, then get angry when they’re refused coverage!

Check it out!

There are no take-backsies when speaking to an insurance agent

I’m an insurance agent with a company which provides liability insurance. The specific area I work in is individual coverage.

while the individual policies can cover self-employed individuals, they don’t cover people who have begun an LLC, DBA, or have incorporated in any way.

If you’ve started a business, then you need to buy a business policy. Individual policies don’t cover businesses because they’re meant for individuals, as the name implies.

And after years in the business, OP was no fool to people who tried to use an individual policy for their business…

When I speak to customers who mention having employees, or who give me email addresses like MyBusinessName@gmail.com, I ask them if they have a business.

If they say yes, I explain to them that the individual policy will not cover their business, and that they’re currently under-insured.

I tell them I’d like to transfer them to our business people so that they can hear a quote and get more information about the change.

And unsurprisingly, these scammers were none too happy!

Every single person, without fail, will yell at me. They’ll insist that they don’t need a business policy because they don’t have premises yet. Or that they only have one employee.

They’ll defend their right to be under-insured if they so choose, they’ll insist that I’m trying to cheat them.

Or they’ll assert that, since they’ve been a “long-time customer,” the individual policy has a duty to also cover their business, because we owe it to them for giving us their money.

Some people even flat out refuse to consider a business insurance policy!

About 30% of them refuse to be transferred at all, and proudly tell me that they plan to keep their existing coverage exactly as it is.

Some even say that in the case of a claim, they’ll sue me/fight me/kill me if that claim is not paid.

So I just fill out this handy little sheet I have here stating that the customer has a business, has declined business coverage, and the policy should be marked for conditional renewal.

Come their next billing cycle, the customer will get a politely-worded letter telling them to cover themselves or take their business elsewhere.

But these people refuse to go down without a fuss…

The customer will usually call back to yell some more, usually about how I dared to report that they were under-insured.

Because everyone knows insurance agents don’t make records of all the times you lie or make contradictory statements.

Or even when you admit to deliberately carrying the wrong coverage while speaking to us on a recorded phone line.

They’ll insist that we need to strike that from the records and proceed like they’d never admitted to owning a business.

You know, because we’re all so willing to commit fraud when we’re asked loudly and with lots of curse words.

And after all of that screaming and yelling, they have the nerve to ask if they still need to go to a different insurance provider!

They’ll ask if they need to take their business elsewhere, and it will be explained to them that yes, that’s why the renewal was conditional.

Remember, people: insurance is like a seat belt. It might be uncomfortable and inconvenient, but if you don’t adjust it properly, it won’t actually protect you.

It’s important that you keep wearing your seat belt, even if you haven’t needed it before, because fastening your seat belt after you’ve hit the tree won’t un-puncture your lung.

Gotta love that. Hey I know I just completely admitted to wrong doing, but you won’t tell anyone, right?

Reddit ran to the comments to tell their own stories of insurance-related incompetence.

This user wondered why OP’s company wouldn’t just let these people be under-insured and face the consequences.

Finally, this user said that people who aren’t proactive enough to insure themselves probably aren’t taking the proper precautions in the first place!

“You didn’t hear that, right?”

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.