RANT: Member service advocates — > “go away”

Monday, July 27, 2026

*** begin quote ***

Contact us
Help with your plan
Member service advocates are ready to answer your questions and provide helpful information.
Call 1-866-460-8856 to connect with a member service advocate.
TTY users, call 711
8 a.m. – 8 p.m.localtime: Monday – Friday

*** end quote ***

And what happens when <synonym for excrement> happens outside of those times?

On Friday, I spent THREE HOURS on a joint call with TWO people from UHS (Brenda was fantastic) and at least three different people at BOA.  

If it wasn’t serious, (i.e., no medical insurance on 7/31), then it would have been a funny CATCH-22.  At least twice, the BOA person said “not my department, call 1-800-EAT-SHIT” which when called routed right back to her. Argh!

Of course, there was no “supervisors” or “managers” available during this entire THREE hour call.  (Hard to believe!)

Another interesting facet: my zip code 34787 is not recognized.  I’m told that I am “not in the United States”.  (The Governor of Florida might disagree!)

(NOTE: Many address selections on website put 34787 in OAKLAND; not WINTER GARDEN.  Which I wouldn’t mind, if they would at least recognize that their lookup table might be wrong or incomplete.  Of course, there is NEVER a way to contact a REAL human to get it fixed.)

So here I am on a Saturday night, in absolute frustration, with nothing to do but share with any readers, if I have any, my complete and utter disgust of technology, AI, and “Use Cases”.

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” — attributed to Einstein

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INTERESTING: Sneaky Computer Security Tips

Sunday, April 8, 2012

(0) OBVIOUSLY use unique passwords in every instance. (Use LASTPASS, ROBOFORM, or KEYPASS to remember the UNIMPORTANT ones. Do you care if someone can “share” your PORN stash. (Like I’d EVER have porn. You can catch a case of the computer equivalent of a social disease — malware, virus, or data leak. I think the real kind MIGHT be easier to cure.)

(1) Never STORE financial passwords anywhere, but in your head. (And, in a sealed envelope, located in your bank safe deposit box, for your executor.) Never ever! (If you have more than 5 ± 2, you have too many accounts.) Sorry guys, I don’t even trust my most TRUSTED  vendors. (Fact of life. Don’t trust. You won’t be disappointed.)

(2) If you do STORE a profile somewhere, ALWAYS use your real birthday ± 1. (It’ll be our little joke. Play along with all the FACEBOOK birthday wishes. Your real life fans will enjoy the joke. You DO have real life friends; don’t you? So sad if you don’t. You can link to me. I have very few — hi oldest, older, and just plain old!)

(3) If you do STORE — obviously not USE — a credit card number, ALWAYS do a typo with the “secret number” and add ± 1 to the last digit. (Then when someone has a security breech, they have your garbage.)

(4) If you do STORE an address for your self, put a typo somewhere so you know who to blame. (Personally I like middle name. “Hi, I’m F. 37 REINKE.”)

(5) If you can and it’s not needed for credit, add ± 1 to your SSN. (“Oh, sorry, I made an oopsie.”)

(6) ALWAYS mess with the secondary authentication questions. But do it in a consistent manner! (“Where were you born?” “Bayonne158” That’s Our Girl’s and her favorite number.) Caveat: Three sites — CAREMARK CVS, PAYTRUST, BOA — make you remember it from time to time. (If I forget, there is always “call one 800 outsourced service desk”. Reset them to colors. Then go in and immediately change them.) I always record my answers in LASTPASS ± 1. A great tool.

YMMV MTFBWY AMTHOBAIYF

# – # – # – # – #  2012-Apr-07 @ 05:07

 

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