Ethical Issue Perhaps?

[Praeter]

Hello. Today my office manager and I got into a heated argument regarding quoting. The situation that happened to me was that a woman called into our office for a quote for her boyfriend. I asked if she was to be on the policy to which she replied no. I told her I could not take his personal information, but I could give a price estimate. She replied no thanks and hung up.

Am I mistaken that you cannot take someones info (bday, dl, soc) unless it's a spouse or someones child? It seems like a slippery slope and my office manager was pissed I didn't just take the persons information and run the quote anyways. I asked if she would be ok if someone called into mortgage places, insurance, etc saying they were her boyfriend with her personal information to get quotes....I didn't really get anywhere.

Thoughts?

 

[maksim]

To get a quote? are we talking auto insurance or Life health?

If life/health, all you need is DOB/Sex.

 

[Praeter]

auto. maybe it's because I am reading the ethics/rules chapter in my l&h book at the moment, but if someone states they are just a girlfriend and not married and will not be on the policy, I do not have that persons permission to use their personal information.

 

[WinoBlues]

auto. maybe it's because I am reading the ethics/rules chapter in my l&h book at the moment, but if someone states they are just a girlfriend and not married and will not be on the policy, I do not have that persons permission to use their personal information.

Even if they are married you do not have that person's permission. Just saying

 

[Praeter]

Even if they are married you do not have that person's permission. Just saying

That I have not heard of. My understanding was otherwise. I feel very stupid now as it seems I'm not following some very basic things here.

 

[Insurance-Guy]

Technically what you did was right... BUT...people always call for quotes for other people. Mom’s for kids, kids for moms, sister for brother, mom for baby’s daddy! Lol

What I "try" to do is ask if the person is there...and if they are…than I just ask if it is OK. Most of the time they are not and they are at work...and I may just do it and tell them that we will have to speak to them before we could issue the policy. I will be honest if they have all of the other person’s information than the person gave it to them to get the quote. Both of my agencies will do the quote for someone if they can provide the information.

 

[Praeter]

Great point about asking if the person is there, which in my case I did. While at a fairly large mortgage company, their compliance division would do "call ins" for quotes to see if we were doing the right thing otherwise you could be terminated. While I have not been told that specifically for my office, I still try to always do the right thing.

I'm a bit frustrated because this is actually the second altercation my boss and I have had regarding things falling into the ethics department. Last time I was reprimanded for shredding leads where the client specifically stated "take me off your list and never call back". The boss said I am wasting her money and I should keep calling. Call me crazy, but that's not doing the right thing :(

 

[WinoBlues]

That I have not heard of. My understanding was otherwise. I feel very stupid now as it seems I'm not following some very basic things here.

My point was someone can not give you someone else's permission. POA aside. I get peoples SSN, Driver's license numbers and DOB from other people all the time. That said, I would have quoted them also.

You throwing ethics into your boss's face is a ticket to the unemployment line. IMHO

 

[Praeter]

My point was someone can not give you someone else's permission. POA aside. I get peoples SSN, Driver's license numbers and DOB from other people all the time. That said, I would have quoted them also.

You throwing ethics into your boss's face is a ticket to the unemployment line. IMHO

I'm not disagreeing with your second sentence, but what's right and what's wrong here? This is not about me being right about something either.
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I'm actually going to throw something out here to get it off my chest. I've been in this business for almost a year now and what I've learned is to get people affordable rates or to even get them qualified, we do some pretty dirty things on our end. Hiding DUI's, making up dec pages, creating new dates of when policies started and stopped.

I have questioned this and what I get told is every company and every office do these things to get new business. We do not do anything that would harm a client, but these things are not sound practices.

Sometimes I feel like a crazy person that I want to "do the right thing" and my coworkers think I'm an ***.

 

[WinoBlues]

I'm not disagreeing with your second sentence, but what's right and what's wrong here? This is not about me being right about something either.

What your boss says. They own the agency.