November
2006
Annoying annuities
I’m beginning to hate insurance companies.
You see, once upon a time, when this millenium just started and I was living in Timisoara, freshly in love with Robi, he moved to the town to be with me, leaving his incredibly well payed job as a games developer in Budapest. We were young, careless and love made trivialities like food or sleep not matter .. however after a while he had to look for a job. Ads for a webdesigner position at a company called Zoom were everywhere around the students’ dorms those days, so he decided that it would be a good start.
Off to Zoom we went, me going with him because he wasn’t too sure about his Romanian language knowledge. We found another candidate there, a nice guy called Ciprian, and chatted with him until the would-be employer arrived. After discovering he was from my town, the three of us became instant friends. The head of the company ended up hiring them both, and they both left after discovering he intended to scam them.
We kept the friendship over the years, then we moved to my hometown, got married, he got married and moved back too. Their first girl was born a year after Timi, and we visited them a few times. They didn’t find time to return the visit - having two kids a year apart from each other tends to rob people of most of their free time .
Imagine my surprise then when after a year or so of no contact, Robi tells me Cipri messaged him. “Yay! They probably missed us! I’d love to see them again!” went my naturally bubbly train of thoughts. “Don’t be so glad. He wanted to talk about making a life insurance for Timi”
Ouch. That sounded awfully familiar. The neighbour I got along with best, who married a year ago and moved out pulled the exact same thing with me in June. Phonecall out of the blue, desire to meet, a short asking about how things are going around the house since we last saw each other and then - wham! “Would you like to hear about this revolutionarily new investment plan?”
So Cipri messages me today to ask for a meeting. This time I knew what to expect though, so I turned down the offer. I hope I’ll remember him as the silly guy in the suit at our engagement, not as someone who recalled my name only when he didn’t meet his quota of contracts for the month.
I hate it when your friends pimp you for cash. Around here, it’s Amway. Bastards!
isn’t it way too much to hate insurance companies and the principle of insurance just because you had an aquaitance who thought he could use you as a potential client (in a not so desirable way)?
ireally think you should reconsider your opinion.
peace.
Crankster - and let’s not forget the Herbalife guys
remgriff: not one aquintance. Two friends. About 5-6 friends of friends. One answer to a webdesigner freelancer work request that was worded to sound as he had some webdesigning for the husband, made him travel a few hundred kilometers to the guy’s place (because the “details were confidential and could be discussed only personally”) and turned out to be a bloody Sara Merkur presentation. My dad’s insured office furniture, soaked by a flooding from the neighbour upstairs, not payed for in the beginning because of some small technicality, payed in full after two years of court battles.
These are my encounters so far with the insurance industry in Romania. Give me some counter arguments. Please. I’m waiting.
I got hustled into a “dinner party” once. My friends tried to convince all of us to join them in some pyramid scam.
Haven’t seen them since.
I find it a real shame when friendships get sacrificed on the altar of insurance.
I really dislike the way pyramid selling and the like has *ambushed* friendships and networks the way they have.
There’s nothing worse - I just don’t think that should ever enter a friendship unless you ask. For example say I’m going on an expedition I would never ask a friend for sponsorship unless they asked me about it first and brought it up. Even then I wouldn’t put any hard sell on them.
I got even better.
I had an ugly break up with my ex, and my actual boyfriend was kind of involved (nope, I didn’t even think about cheating on my ex, but for him it seemed that way…). To make the story short, from that time on, for my ex, my boyfriend and I were “the enemies”…
One day I accidentally bumped into my ex’s cousin (very much like an older brother to him, protective and everything) and I didn’t even expect him to say hello… but he did, asking me about my life (weird!!!) and a few days latter he called my boyfriend trying to sell him an insurance…and then he also called me…
And the guy surelly knows my ex and I don’t speak anymore and that he “hates” my boyfriend! How low cand u get???
Zu - chapeau bas. My ex friend has got nothing on that ex’s cousin.