“So, Whose Fault Is This?”

I recently discovered my home insurance policy was completely screwed up. It took quite a few phone calls to get to the bottom of that.

I thought my game of detective demonstrates why we need to put blame aside to fix complex issues, especially when there are multiple companies or departments involved.

The Context

When I was planning to buy my townhouse, my broker got me in touch with a walls-in home insurance company, who we’ll call Freedom Insurance Group.

Freedom Insurance Group sent me a quote for only $700 a year, so I happily signed the paperwork to lock in that rate.

But then they sent me a slightly modified quote, which maintained that price, but made some slight, minor corrections that I hardly noticed. Before I even had the chance to sign the paperwork, they sent me another quote. And then another one.

The fourth quote was disappointingly estimated at about $1300 a year, nearly double the initial price. I informed Freedom Insurance that I did not agree to that rate, so they will not be receiving payment.

My broker found another insurer, who I’ll give the pseudonym Parasol Insurance Group. They offered a rate of about $800 a year.

I signed the paperwork and soon bought the home, believing to be insured with Parasol Insurance.

The Red Flags

A few months later, I received something peculiar in the mail: an explanation of benefits from Freedom Insurance Group. I thought it could be some kind of automation mistake, but I figured that I should check.

Alarmingly, the policy number exactly matched the one listed on my mortgage app.

I explicitly told Freedom Insurance Group that they will not receive payment, so I had no idea if this policy was actually active or not. Was I even insured at all?

I contacted my agent at Parasol Insurance Group, and she clarified that my policy was active. According to their records, they received payment from my mortgage company without any issues.

I called the insurance department at my mortgage company. The phone operator said that Freedom Insurance Group sent them the $1300 bill multiple times, so my mortgage company paid it from my escrow.

She also said they have no record of sending a payment to Parasol Insurance Group. She later verified that my title company paid the $800 to Parasol Insurance Group (as part of my closings costs).

Well, I was insured. Double-insured, in fact.

So, Whose Fault?

I contacted my broker and caught him up on the situation. His first question was:

“So, whose fault is this?”

The phone operator at my mortgage company blamed my former agent at Freedom Insurance Group. She said they “really dropped the ball on this” for sending bills after I instructed them to cancel the policy.

My broker and my agent at Parasol Insurance Group blamed the title company for the blunder. They must have failed to update my mortgage company about the updated insurance policy.

If you ask me, I see system failures from everyone involved:

• Freedom Insurance Group’s computer system apparently reactivated my policy. My former agent did cancel it, but it was somehow turned back on and sent automated bills to my mortgage company.
• My title company provided the incorrect policy information to my mortgage company, or my mortgage company did not verify the correct insurer before paying the bill. Perhaps both.
• Parasol Insurance Group incorrectly informed me that my mortgage company paid the bill, but it was actually my title company that did so.

The answer is never as simple as “who to blame.” Lots of mistakes were made by different parties.

If all of these companies point fingers at each other, they all miss opportunities for improvement. Everyone can implement safeguards to catch mistakes, even if not their own, because the common goal is to provide the customer with an excellent product or service.

Get Beyond “Whose Fault”

Had I stepped into this problem with a blame-oriented attitude, I’d still be on the phone arguing with someone who was well-intended and was ultimately a small piece of the puzzle.

So, the next time you’re wondering who messed up, rephrase the question to: “What can we do to prevent this from happening again?”

If you’ve noticed the blame game at your workplace, you should invest in TapRooT® Training. We provide incident investigations all the guidance, tools, and techniques to fix systems instead of allocating fault.