Shiny Happy Computer People

Don’t all those people look so happy using their computers? Smiles, working together, so perfectly diverse.

They all seem to own Apple laptops.

Shiny.

Happy.

Well except for one guy in the middle.

Last week while trying to deal with a problem in my health insurance, I had to create an account on their site. The profile set up had a 5 screen survey, each displaying a photo of one of these Shiny Happy Computer People. Their poise and clip art stock photo perfection got under my skin”¦ they were just to shiny, too happy”¦ especially given the situation with my insurance company.

Okay, my August payment was late (I forgot) (even with my calendar reminder) “” I have been on time with paying for my own insurance for a year, and I slipped up. No excuses there. I got a letter on August 15 informing me I was late, and to make up for it, I had to send a check to not only cover August, but September. I did that right away.

Okay. But then when I went to renew my mail order prescription for my insulin, the web site for the company that manages it reported that my account was cancelled! I called my insurance company. They said there might be a problem with the medical suppliers web site, and if I created an account on the Anthem’s site and entered the prescription site there, that it should work. Not Okay. It didn’t. Called the medical supply company and they confirmed that Anthem had cancelled my account. Called Anthem back. Oh yes, they said”“ it was because I was late on my August payment.

So because I was late for a payment, Anthem canceled my ability to get my diabetic supplies. I have to wait for them to process my check, with about 9 days of insulin simply left. Their letter notifying me about my late payment contained no notification that they canceled my prescription service.

So I am not a shiny happy computer person. I’m the guy in the middle.

Not Shiny. Not Happy.