Mama Kat Thursday: A Time We Were Tricked

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On the topic of trickery, my story sounds like the start of a joke, "Well, there was this insurance salesman see..."

When Hubby and I married, he already had a life insurance policy with this particular fraternal insurance company. He'd been required to get a life insurance policy for his kids sake by the court as part of his divorce deal and, conveniently, a salesman for this particular company was waiting right outside the door, ready to sign him up.

So after the wedding, we're stationed in Florida and living in base housing and a salesman from this fraternal insurance company started visiting us regularly. He was a happy, jovial fellow and--silver-tongued, though we didn't know that at the time. We actually believed him when he told us he was planning on opening an office and how perfect we'd be to help him do that--in Montreal, since the insurance company's home office was in Canada.
His name was Clyde and he talked like that every time he came by, which was, at least, once a month. After awhile we started calling what Clyde was offering, "a rubber chicken in a pot"; meaning it wasn't ever going to be real, which was disappointing. He made it sound so beautiful.
Then, after successfully getting us to upgrade our policy, he stopped coming by. By then we'd built our house off base. That's when a new agent replacing Clyde stopped by. He told us Clyde had retired and seemed fairly appalled that Clyde had talked us into a Universal Life Plan, which put lots of money in Clyde's pocket, but was going to cost us more and more every year. (This predated plans being tied into the stock market.) So, he switched our plan to something more reasonable, then left.

As it turned out, we never saw him again either, because shortly after, this life insurance company came under a class action lawsuit for numerous unethical practices. So, we got a pile paperwork in the mail to fill out, releasing us from our policy and returning our financial investment.
So, it worked out, but I always wonder now who to trust.
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When was the last time you were either tricked or misled?
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Thanks for Visiting!
(Since that company still active, it shall remain unnamed.)
Note: this happened over 20 years ago.)

Comments

Lori said…
That's terrible they both took advantage of you! Especially when they are in a position of trust. Glad you got your money back! I wrote about a time I was tricked too..nothing as complicated as insurance policies though, and thankfully no loss of money. Just my pride.
Mar 18, 2016, 9:07:00 AM
Dee D said…
I'm sure you know about USPA & IRA? I think they began working with enlisted 20 something years ago. If I'm wrong, apologize.
Mar 20, 2016, 7:36:00 PM
KatBouska said…
That is so shady! I'm glad you got away from that company!
Mar 21, 2016, 12:29:00 AM
DontSayHurry said…
Ohh my, glad it all worked out.
Mar 22, 2016, 11:58:00 PM

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