I just learned a new term for the kind of deliberately time-wasting and aggravating corporate systems that are deployed by large corporations and passed off as "customer service". The term is "Sludge", and it refers to corporate systems that are apparently designed to discourage customers from pursuing legitimate complaints and disputes.
I've just experienced this kind of sludge from State Farm insurance, as I try to dispute a Workers Comp audit for a client out in Idaho. And I've talked to a couple of very nice customer service ladies who informed me that they just don't have access to anything like an email address or phone number for the audit department of State Farm. Even my own personal State Farm agent is having trouble finding this.
Now, naturally, this kind of tactic won't work with me. It just increases my determination and persistence. Besides, if I can't get through to State Farm I will then pursue a dispute through NCCI and, if needed, state insurance regulators.
I've been fighting recalcitrant insurance companies for more than half my life. This comes as naturally to me as breathing. As I think the USMC likes to say, the difficult we do immediately. The impossible takes just a little longer.
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