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2018 has come and gone for AAMA staff, and it’s always interesting to reflect on the year that was. Per a suggestion from practical joker Rich Rinka, Technical Manager, Standards and Industry Affairs, I decided to poll AAMA staff to get the scoop on some of the strangest questions they have gotten from our customer service calls this year. Personally, I will occasionally get a tweet from someone contacting the AAMA Twitter account, mistaking us for the American Association of Medical Assistants. However, my coworkers have me beat this year. Below are some tales from the world of AAMA customer service.

Rich Rinka, Technical Manager, Standards and Industry Affairs

This is not a call that happened only in the past year but repeats itself every year. AAMA will receive calls from people that are in the predicted path of a hurricane a day to two before the storm is to make landfall. They will have heard about improvements in windows and will want to know if their windows will meet the existing code requirements. They’ll ask, “My house was built in 1985 and has the original windows, are they hurricane impact resistant?” It seems like each time this question is asked the windows were manufactured prior to the development of most hurricane codes. The brief explanation of the unlikelihood of having impact-resistant windows is commonly accompanied by a polite recommendation to secure their property and get to a safer area.

Emily Joswiak, Meetings Assistant

When I was answering customer service emails, a few people would send novels telling me all about themselves, and I would have to read their life stories to find the one sentence that explained what they were looking for.

Lorraine Zimak, Association Services Assistant

We received a letter from a guy saying he had no computer or phone access but wanted assistance in trying to remove a window. When we researched the return address on the letter, we discovered he was writing from prison. Needless to say, we did not provide the requested information as our legal counsel surely would have frowned upon aiding and abetting a prison escape.

That’s a wrap on the strangest calls we’ve gotten from customer service this year. We look forward to sharing whatever comes our way in 2019.