We're Not an Insurance Company

Jon Yurek

“thoughtbot, this is Jon.”…“Hi, do you guys do fixed annuities?”

We get it all the time. Less so, now, but we used to get calls asking about insurance a lot. Our number used to belong to an insurance company, I suppose, and apparently made the rounds so that it’s still findable via whatever means people use to find insurance companies (some people use things other than Google (shudder)).

The best ones are the ones we try to sell tech support services to, because it takes them completely off guard. What’s weirder, though, are the people who call and, after we say our name (everyone answers the phone like at the beginning, “thoughtbot, this is person speaking.”) they ask if we’re whatever insurance company they were expecting to reach. I can’t help but wonder if this is something I do when I call other people and not realize it—if it’s just intrinsic in humanity’s phone demeanor to ignore vital pieces of information.

Oh well. Maybe I’ll just sell someone an annuity next time.