…then why’d you buy two?

Reading through a few posts on this sub and I was reminded of one of the more baffling exchanges I’ve had with a customer.

I work in a call center for a car and home insurance company in the US; it’s a smaller company, and our online self-service portal is atrocious so most people call in to make adjustments to their policy. One day, a guy calls in to add a car he just purchased to his policy which previously only had one car on it. I get a ton of vehicle adds every day, and I get through processing it quickly with no problems.

Then we get to the premium change.

(Customer = C, me = E)

E: Ok, so adding your new vehicle brings your six-month premium to $xxx.xx, and since you pay in full you’ll have to pay the difference of $xx.xx

C: Why did it go up? That doesn’t make any sense!

I was a bit confused, but used to people not knowing how insurance works and happy to explain.

E: Well, since we’ll be insuring more than one vehicle now, there’s an extra charge for the additional liability. [insert spiel about factors that can affect rates and all that jazz].

He does not get it, and proceeds to go on for about 5 minutes about how it makes no sense and we’re just trying to price gouge him and insurance companies are all evil and blah blah blah. He’s stuck on the fact that both vehicles are on liability only and he’s the only driver on the policy so if only one car is being driven at a time, we should only be covering one at a time. Which, admittedly, I can follow his logic there but… that’s not how that works. At all.

At this point, I’m getting a little frustrated so I decide to try the analogy approach.

E: Ok, so for an example, if you were to go to a fast food restaurant and buy two cheeseburgers, they’d charge you for two cheeseburgers, right?

C: Not if I only eat one!!!

E: But sir, you still bought two.

C: One day you’ll realize that I’m right and that you’re working for a scam company. click.

I had to go into aux for a bit just to laugh about it, I was so flabbergasted. To this day, I still have to wonder if this man was just being obtuse, or if he really thinks that McDonalds would only charge him for one burger if he bought two and ate one. If it’s the latter, I fear for humanity.