The failure continues

About two weeks ago I posted about the way my company’s process putting me on COBRA was a bit of a failure.

Well the update to that was that they fixed the dates. My coverage termination was no longer 10/15, but 10/31 as promised.

Oh but here was the thing. They fixed the dates. Thu changed the dates. They didn’t correct the fact that they’d taken me off the coverage in error. So they fixed the error but the system thought I had no coverage so… it was set to continue “no coverage” until the new year.

What the actual—-

Three hours on hold and they realized their mistake, escalated it twice, and found someone who could put my coverage back in place.

Whew.

One problem? To fix the first issue they had to take the subsidized pricing off. And they can’t just put it back. That requires another case number.

Give them 2-3 days.

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So I log in and GREAT NEWS the coverage is still there and the pricing is correct! Yay. Subsidized pricing is, for me alone on the plan I’m on, about 1/10 of the unsubsidized pricing. It matters. (it varies by plan and group – subsidized vs unsubsidized for one of the other people is 1/2 the price. Still matters.

So this was all good news until I went to set up the billing.

The billing is for November and December.

At the wrong pricing. So they want me to pay more than 10x what I should owe. Um, no. I think not.

So now they need a few MORE days to fix that.

Shall we lay bets on whether they can fit it without breaking something else?

Well let me tell ya… two days later it is not fixed. Or not in a way I can verify.

Also the person I spoke to was like, oh I see your benefits ended on 10/15. Which was the first issue they messed up and supposedly corrected.

The response from the HR lady is kind of, well, pay the correct amount and it will get sorted.

Or they will cancel my benefits for nonpayment. I mean, these are not efficient processes in place. They seem extra prone to error.

But even if I do pay them in anticipation of later adjustments, the payment method (singular) through the site? Is direct debit front my bank account.

Let me count the payees I let take money directly from my account without my intervention.

One. From my bank to my bank, to pay my mortgage. Basically, they already have my banking info so no extra risk there.

End of list. I simply don’t do this. At all.

I’m certainly not going to give access to my banking information to a company that has effed up every single step of this process. No. Nuh-uh. Nope.

But they don’t take credit cards. Oh the points I could have earned! Oh the buyer protections I would have had!

So I got to write a paper check to these people like it was the 90s. I’ll eventually set them up as a biller and push money to them that way, while I wait for another month to find out if they fixed this fiasco.

Are we taking bets on it?