Bureaucratic behaviours

I have insurance policies back in sg because I started paying into them since my late teenage years. Obviously, due to the fact that I live in the UK now, there are 'perks' that I cannot enjoy due to sheer geographical reasons. One of them is a free comprehensive physical check up done at the hospital every couple of years or so. I did my check up in Feb 07 and it was brilliant. As it claims that it's transferable, I thought I'd give it to my sister-in-law to use it.

Which I did, all the way in the summer (Aug/Sept). She informed me that she needed me to extend the validity of the voucher and to do that, I needed to ring them in sg to extend it (why?). But I did it, anyway. Which was when all the rubbish started.

I rang them last night, GMT 12.30am. Explained the situation to person at the call centre. Figured it wasn't a big problem - all they need to do is extend the validity of the voucher and let me know when the new deadline is so that sil can go make a new appointment. The reply came, that I had to wait for a letter to be issued to me before she can make the appointment. I asked why we couldn't just ring in a few days time - the answer that came back didn't make sense. I hung up, after confirming that it was going to be done for me.

I couldn't sleep after that (it was quite a heated conversation) and whilst tossing and turning, it came to me that if I had to wait for the letter to arrive, it must therefore mean that it's already on the computer system way before that, which means that sil can theoretically ring in in a few days time to book her new appointment.

So, I rang the company again to see if I could make sense of it. Again another heated conversation ensued. The woman on the other side confirmed that in fact the extension had already been made at about 3pm local time (2 hours before I rang the 2nd time). When I heard that, I was really happy, and then said that must mean that sil can now make her new appointment. A "you must wait for your new letter" conversation started. I asked whether I needed to sign anything or fill in anything, and she replied in the negative. So I asked, why then do I have to wait for the letter? It's not like sil has to bring the letter to the hospital, does she? (apparently not). The woman could not give me a good reason why we needed to wait for the letter.

She then suggested that I needed to have informed the company that I was nominating someone else. I said that it was not in the form in the first place - all the form said was that I should hand it over to the nominee for them to make the relevant appointments. I pointed out that it was her company's form, which she should be familiar with. She then proceeded to 'blame' me for not informing the company about the change of person. I said that it didn't matter in the first place when sil made the initial booking anyway, so why should it matter now? She couldn't reply.

I got really het off by that point and told her she was wasting my money and time since this was not a free-phone call but an international one. I then asked her to clarify that there was no need for us to wait for the letter since it's already been done on the computer - and she confirmed it (even to the point of saying that when the hospital calls to confirm it, they can see it on the computer as of now). I then told her that that was all I needed to know. And hung up.

Morons!!!!!!!

P and blue pea