How I became known as Mr Deed Poll to HBF

I changed my name by Deed Poll in late January (my first name is now the name everyone’s actually been calling me the past ten years), and have been going through the various companies and getting them to update it.

This has been the weirdest result yet …

My usual approach is:

1) If I’m near a company office, pop in and show them the physical change of name certificate
2) See if there’s a way to just edit it online (most companies don’t allow this).
3) See if there’s a contact I can email a copy of the change of name certificate to.
4) See if there’s a web form or email address where I can lodge a request.
5) Call the company when other methods fail.

With HBF (an Australian Health Insurance company), there’s an office near my workplace, so I just popped in and showed them the certificate, and they updated everything on the spot.

However, HBF also have an Opinion Panel Forum, which seems to not use their membership data, and was still showing my old name. So I lodged a ticket with them, using their website, to ask how I update my name:

 

 

Text:

“Greetings,
My email address for login to the HBF Opinion Panel is XXXXXX@XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
I’ve changed my name by Deed Poll, and registered it with HBF for my health care membership.
How do I update this on the Opinion Panel website?
prk”

Simple enough, right?

This is the reply I got:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Text:

“Thank you for contacting support.

Your name has been updated to Deed Poll for the panel.

Sincerely,

The HBF Opinion Panel Team”

 

Hmm.

Do you think they really … ?

No, they couldn’t have …

Really?

Oh my. Really:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Text:

“Welcome Deed Poll
Help shape the future of HBF by giving us your thoughts and comments on issues that pop up over time.  You’ll get the chance to participate in surveys and online discussion forums and help to make HBF the best it can be.”

 

My name is now “Deed Poll” on their website.

Awesome.

I probably should have asked for “God Emperor of Dune”.

prk.