Jumping through HOOPPs

October 25, 2005 by paul
Filed under: Uncategorized

I just called the Hospitals Of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) to correct the details on my plan, which I was led to believe had been done ~2.5 years ago.

After about 10 minutes on hold (I wish I had hands-free on my phone!) my call was answered by a guy who clearly spoke almost no English, to the point that he couldn’t understand the difference between Yes and No!!

[I'll skip the part where I tell him their phone system says I need a UserID and he says he cannot create one for me - the "conversation" was too long and circular!]
Him: “How can I help you?”
Me: “I need to change my wife’s name on my beneficiary details”
H: “You want to know the balance on your pension?”
M: “No, you have my wife’s maiden name still, so we need to change it”
H: “OK, so what is her name?”
[I tell him her forename is correct but her surname is now the same as mine - I thought that would save having to spell it all out]
H: “OK”
[silence]
M: “Do you need anything else from me or can you make that change?”
H: “I need you to spell her name”
M: “Her surname is now the same as mine; the rest is right”
[It's not all that hard to spell her name for most people, but I knew he'd struggle with "I" or "Y", and so on]
H: “OK. What is her date of birth”
[I tell him]
H: “And how do you spell her surname”
[I spell it out, and say "it's the same as mine"]
H: “Oh, the same as yours!”
M: “Will you send me confirmation of the change?”
H: “Thank you, have a good day”
I hang up before I reach down the phone and kill him!