My late first husband, who died ten
years ago, still receives mail at my house—though we were divorced for fifteen
years before he died. If he were alive, he would be approaching Medicare age. Suddenly,
missives from various insurance providers (almost none with identification of
the firm involved) are hitting my mailbox every day. I called the number listed
on one of the early ones to tell them that Michael was dead. I sent back the
cards, which others provided without a phone number, printing in large block
letters across them, DECEASED.
Almost immediately, I began to
receive hectoring telephone calls from the first company, who now had my phone
number and name from my call to advise them of Michael’s death. The more I
refused the Medicare insurance they had to sell, the more verbally aggressive
and downright mean they got. I began refusing to pick up the phone at sight of
their phone number in caller ID, so they switched numbers and caught me another
couple of times before I learned those new numbers. Currently, they call four
or five times within five minutes, varying the number each time. They start at
8:00 a.m. and continue throughout the day, every few hours. When I’ve told them
that they must stop, they say I contacted them so they have the right to call
me, even though I’m on the no-call list. And unfortunately, that seems to be
the truth, even though I contacted them only to tell them their target was not
here.
Meanwhile, someone from one of the other
companies showed up on my doorstep, insisting I let him in so he could give me
the hard-sell on his company’s insurance plan. When I repeatedly said no, he
verbally abused me for agreeing to be visited and changing my mind, shouting
and leaning into my face at the door until my dog was straining at the collar I
held, trying to get at this stranger threatening his mom. I slammed the door in
his face, puzzled at his feeling of entitlement until I realized that he must
be from one of the companies I’d sent a card with DECEASED written on it.
Someone at their corporate headquarters must have interpreted that as
permission to send their salesman around.
I’ve been in touch with our attorney
general’s office about these events, and I’ve learned that this is common.
Medicare is confusing, and these companies have made a habit for years of using
high-pressure sales tactics with the elderly, since they’ve found older
people’s unquestioning regard for authority figures makes them easy targets to
bully.
Now, the baby boomers are hitting
retirement and Medicare age. My late first husband was in the vanguard of this
group. If he were alive, he would never have put up with this sales-bullying,
and I think these companies are going to find that their stereotype of little
old elderly people who are easy to pressure into sales will backfire in their
faces as they try it out on the boomers. We have had precious little regard for
authority figures throughout our lives.
I have encountered more and more of
this aggressive, high-pressure behavior in salespeople of all kinds lately. I
wonder if that’s because I’m moving toward that age when we’re supposed to turn
into people easy to bully into sales that are not in our best interests, or is
it because times are tough financially and people are desperate to make sales.
Which do you think it is? I try to keep in mind that even the most hectoring
salesman is just trying to put food on his (women can be bad, but the worst
offenders are all men, I’ve found) table. Still, it really makes me mad. Have
you noticed this kind of sales warfare being waged against you lately?
