Dear Physicians Mutual,
My father, who had life insurance with you, died in 2005. We received the insurance payment from you after we provided proof that my father was, indeed, dead. Kaputt. No more. Pushing up daisies. He had kicked the bucket. So on and so forth. Deceased. (In fact, he was in a similar condition to the parrot in this video.)
Today, I received a letter from you. It was addressed to my father (see above regarding his current, and everlasting, condition). In this letter, you offered a welcoming back to my father. You offered a new insurance plan for him, with discounts, bells and whistles, and fanfare.
Again. Note what I said above. He’s dead. You paid out the insurance for him. How do you propose you put life insurance on someone who’s deceased? While I’d be all for him coming back for a while, I’m fairly confident (100%, in fact) that he won’t be returning.
I think this is a case of one of your departments not knowing what the other is doing. While I’m certainly not angry or upset over the letter (in fact, I found it to be pretty funny), you might want to look into the left arm / right arm coordination. Something is clearly messed up, unless you all know something about dead people that I don’t.

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April 18, 2008 at 4:16 pm
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July 10, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Zeitlos
Ouch.
I guess that fairly often happens in bigger companies. My boss lately told me that her aunt, who had passed away a few weeks ago, received a letter from the phone company: “Dear Mrs XY, We’ve annotated in our files that you are no longer interested in being our customer…” She gave that letter to the local newspaper
By the way, I guess in Germany (Where freedom of opinion seems to be nonexistent) you could get a legal notice for a post like this . How is the situation in the USA?
July 10, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Josh
Hah! Yes, I would imagine that the aunt wouldn’t be interested in being a customer anymore. Not much use for a telephone when you’re underground.
I’m not sure about the legal stuff here in the States. I’m thinking that sometime in the recent past, I saw something about a family suing a company because they had sent a letter to a deceased family member. I don’t recall the details though.
However, it wouldn’t surprise me. I know that here in the States, fat people have sued McDonalds for “making them fat” - and won.
July 10, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Joshua J. Slone
Maybe it was a just-in-case letter… y’know, as an insurance policy of sorts. In the unlikely event that he does show up again, they’ll be the company with their foot in the door already.
July 10, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Josh
Hahaha.
I think my explanation is more likely, but yours is far more entertaining.
July 16, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Deb W./Physicians Mutual
We sincerely apologize for the recent mailing you received from our company. Would you please contact me with your father’s name and address so we can be sure to update our mailing lists? Again, we are sorry for any confusion or inconvenience.
July 16, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Josh
Hi Deb,
Like I wrote, not a problem at all. I thought it was funny.
I’ll drop you an email with his information. Thanks!