Prudential Life Insurance review: Life insurance claim 1

My grandfather passed away recently and I was one of three beneficiaries. When I called to confirm my information, I was told that the benefits would be expedited for payment to me through a lump sum check.

After going through all of their information gathering, I hung up, satisfied that the payment would be made.

Two days later, I get a call from Prudential telling me that it can't be expedited and I have to jump through all sorts of hoops and fill out a huge claims form, mail it in with a death certificate, and then wait 5-7 business days.

I asked why it can't be expedited and got no answer so I called back and got someone else. They asked for a policy number which I didn't have handy and asked for them to just look it up by my grandfather's name. They didn't have that ability - they are the only company on the planet who can't look up by name.

This morning, I called again with the policy number and got transferred. That person told me that it can't be expedited, which I already knew. I asked why, and she read from a script telling me that it can't be expedited and would be processed in 5-7 days, etc. I explained again that I knew that, and wanted to know why it couldn't be expedited. She said she can't tell me because of proprietary reasons.

In other words, jump through these hoops because we said so and we don't have to give any reasons why we do what we do.

I would never do business with this company. Considering that I'm in a career that deals with life insurance companies often, I'll be telling my clients to avoid them in the future.