The True Story Of Our 1-800-Medcare Phone Number.

Recently Dr. Beer called from Care Pet in Columbus. He's a great guy and we invariably end up chatting for a few minutes. Somehow the subject of our old phone number came up and I told him the story of how we 'lost' it.

At least 15 years ago, 1-800-Medcare was our phone number. It was a great number. We put it on mugs, magnet, hats, business cards and all our mailers. 800-Medcare was a great number to have. Until one day when the US government unveiled their 800-Medicare phone number. Then chaos reigned supreme! We began to receive tons of calls for Medicare. Actually it began as a trickle and then slowly built up to a raging flood. We really tried to help the people who dialed our number by mistake. Many were elderly, trying to sort through a complicated government bureaucracy and so we were very patient in explaining, sometimes several times that this is Medcare Products and not Medicare and then we would wait for them to get a pen and paper to write down the correct number. This went on all day for months. 

We consulted an attorney who advised us to surrender our number because we would never win a case etc. etc. etc. But then a Miracle happened. Yes, a total miracle. A fellow from Medicare actually called us. The conversation went something like this " Hi, I'm in charge of the 800-Medicare number and it looks like the roll out of that number has caused your company a lot of trouble." After getting up from the floor and catching my breath, I confirmed his statement. He then offered to pay us for the number and to leave a recording on the number for 2 years directing callers looking for Medcare Products the veterinary supply company to press 1 and those looking for the Medicare insurance line to press 2. He offered us enough money to make up for all the mugs, magnets and flyers that were in circulation. The man was an Angel dispatched from Heaven - perhaps as a reward for the hundreds and hundreds of people that we helped with correctly reaching Medicare. 

He told us it would take several weeks for the switch over, and we continued playing operator for Medicare. 

Now during this episode we mentally broke wrong number callers into categories. Many were genuinely nice and we did everything to help them connect with Medicare. Then there were the nasty callers. The ones who hung up, and then called back 5 times until they finally understood that we were for real. There were also the attackers. They were nasty times 10 - but they had met their match. The following summarizes a nasty caller conversation.

Ring, ring
" Thanks for calling Medcare Products, how can I help you."
" I'm calling about a Medicare claim."
" OK, this is Medcare Products, a veterinary supply company. Our numbers are similar, let me give you their number."
" What are you talking about. I dialed the right number. What's with you? You don't want to help me? Give me a supervisor yada yada yada."
" Ok - you're right. This is Medicare - but this is the Veterinary division."
"Really?"
" Yup. The government is experimenting with extending Medicare for household pets. Speak to your Vet about it."
"Wow, that's great. "  Notice the change in his attitude.

And so it went. Polite people got all the help we could provide. Nasty people were advised to ask their Vet about Medicare coverage for pets. I'm sorry if any of you got an inquiry about Medicare for pets. 

I try to keep my blog posts shortish - so I'm going to sign off for now. Maybe next time I'm tell you about our Glow In The Dark Shaving Cream. Until then -
All the Best,
Simon