December 16, 2024 at 5:49 pm

Franchise Owner Bullied The Call Handlers At The Insurance Company, So One Of Them Sent The Recording Of The Call To Multiple People And Got The Franchise Owner Demoted

by Jayne Elliott

Bullies aren’t just on playgrounds and in schoolyards.

Some people are bullies well into their adult years when they should really, really know better.

At this point in life, their actions don’t just get them suspended from school. Sometimes they lose their job and their family.

In today’s story, one call handler at an insurance company takes down a bully, and she would be willing to do it again.

Let’s see how the story unfolds…

NEVER bully your insurance company, or you lose your franchise

This story comes from a friend of mine, Sarah, and has been building for almost 5 years until it all came crashing down over the last week.

A few things to note before I get into it:

• Sarah works at an insurance company, dealing with a massive nationwide delivery company (her company insures all the delivery trucks)

• Over the years, Sarah had seen her fair share of anger from callers. Mostly justified, or people letting off steam at the anonymous voice on the other end of the phone. She’s learned not to take it personal

• She a absolutely despises the owner of one particular franchised depot – Richard

Richard is kind of like an owner.

Onto the story.

We start in 2016. Richard is the franchisee of a vehicle depot for Delivery Company.

Meaning he’s sort of an owner, but the company CEO could take away his ownership if they feel like it.

I’m not sure exactly how this works, but as far as I understand it’s a fairly standard franchise contract, so anyone who knows about these things should have a rough idea of what Richard has to do.

Richard is kind of a bully.

Richard calls in for the first time, to talk to Sarah about a claim one of his drivers is making.

Something simple – reversed into a wall, minimal damage, but claiming to get the vehicle repaired.

Richard starts ranting and screaming about how dare he/his driver be expected to pay an excess (standard).

Sarah has dealt with people like this all her career, so she just deals with it as she always does.

And so it continues for 2 years, with Richard bullying and abusing any call handler when he calls about a claim.

It’s annoying, and plenty of people have been brought to tears by it, but they can’t stop serving him because he is responsible for dealing with his franchise’s claims.

This time the bullying got physical.

It’s now 2018, and Richard decides to get himself arrested. To give you an idea of just how stupid this man is:

One of his drivers had been in a really bad accident.

Nobody was seriously hurt, but the van was badly damaged.

So while it was being repaired, Sarah organised for a hire van.

Richard goes to the hire company to collect the van, and he’s asked to make a £1 payment by debit/credit card to secure the vehicle.

I’m pretty sure it’s so the hire company can just charge it for any damage caused while on hire, and is an industry standard in my country.

Richard doesn’t like this.

He argues with the hire company.

He threatens to dump the hire vehicle once he’s finished with it.

Finally, he punches the poor bloke working front desk.

As previously stated: Richard gets arrested.

Sarah decides to get revenge on Richard.

Fast forward to a few months ago.

Everyone is working from home (yay, lockdown) and most people understand this.

Everyone except Richard.

He must be having a particularly bad day, because his tantrum about how useless Sarah and her company is descends into personal insults.

Sarah, having an equally bad day, decides that now is the moment she will get revenge on this guy for everything he has put every claim handler through.

Sarah sent a recording of the call to multiple people…

So she requests a copy of the recording of the call (all calls recorded for safety, complaints and calling people out on their tantrums).

She then sends this recording to three people.

Her manager, saying she refuses to speak to Richard due to his abusive behaviour.

The rest of the team agree, and suddenly there is not a single claims handler willing to speak to this man.

Manager says he will sort something.

Richard’s boss, simply stating that his behaviour is unacceptable, and the next time he tries to speak to someone at Insurance Company that way, they will end the call.

Every listed CEO or board member of Richard’s company. She wanted all of them to know just how vile this man was.

Richard got demoted.

Then, today, she gets the call she’s been waiting for.

A representative of Delivery Company has called, wanting to apologise for everything Richard put her and her team through.

He also gives the best news – Richard has been downgraded from Franchise Owner to a lowly delivery driver.

His lovely pay package, benefits, annual bonus, and company-funded car (a brand new Merc, for anyone interested) have all been taken away.

It’s not looking good for Richard.

He now earns a little over minimum wage, 60 hour weeks to pay his bills, with his reputation in tatters.

If he doesn’t meet the standard for delivery drivers within the next 3 months, he’ll be fired.

(Sarah also learned from someone she knows in the company that his wife is divorcing him, because he told her she needs to get a job or they’ll lose the house thanks to his sudden drop in income)

Sarah hasn’t yet met the new franchisee, but if I know her, she’ll make it clear that she’s the one who ruined Richard’s life, and she isn’t afraid to do it again if the new guy doesn’t treat her and her colleagues with respect.

Lesson: don’t be a bully to call centre employees.

It really pays to be nice. Richard got what he deserved.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…

Insurance companies usually aren’t the heroes!