Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The Bitch at The Front Desk

My son is having vision problems and we were referred by our pediatrician to an optometrist an hour away. He is close to my pediatrician who is also an hour away.
We had scheduled an appointment two weeks ago for yesterday at 320p. I was told by the person setting the appointment to arrive 20 minutes early to fill out paperwork. Well, they sent me the paperwork in the mail and I had it all completed prior to my arrival but just to be certain I still arrived at 2:55p.
25 minutes prior to my appointment.

When we entered the waiting area the place was packed, seemed like 20 or so people were waiting, but I did not fret, after all this is a multi-doctor facility. We were seeing the pediatric optometrist and there were no other kids there.

My son and I took a seat and waited patiently umm about an hour. Those of you who follow me on facebook probably seen my many status updates about the annoying bitch on her laptop and blue tooth having a conference call/meeting right there 1 foot from me in the waiting area. She was not even seeing the doctor and the lobby had an immense seating area with tables and chairs perfect for conducting business. But nope she decided to sit her annoying ass right there and yack on the phone and click on her keyboard. The call she was on was about 10% business 90% office gossip. Not even juicy gossip just random bitching so that just made her more annoying. Oh and the best part was about an hour in she said to her caller "you know its loud in here, you would think people would have some manners when they see someone on the phone!" OMG
It took lots of restraint on my end not to give her a piece of my mind.

Moving on....1 hour and 10 minutes later I realized it was now after 4pm, we are an hour away and I have to pick up princess from preschool by 530p. Just as I was about to give up they called us back.

As we went back I asked the nurse/assistant how long the visit would take? I explained my situation to her and she was most apologetic when she told me the exam would take more than an hour. So it appeared we couldn't be seen today. Really!!

She was very nice and walked me back out front to the front desk bitch so that I could reschedule.
Keep in mind my appt. time was 320, no one informed me the visit would be over an hour not to mention the hour plus we waited and the two hours commute time, half a day missed work, half a day missed school. So I should've  been and was pissed, but I tried not to show it as we went to reschedule. The nurse explained to the front desk lady that we had been hugely inconvenienced and to please fit us in at "my convenience" to return.

The front desk lady wanted to know "what the huge inconvenience was"
(she will now be refereed to as FDB..front desk bitch)
The nurse explained but the FDB did not seem impressed.
She threw out a few options for me to choose from all either mid-day which would equal an entire day outta school and work or late afternoon again.
I asked her kindly "is it usual for the wait to be over an hour"

"We never know if they are gonna be running late in the back" she replied

me- "I understand but does it happen often?"

FDB- "Again we never know"

I could sense her irritation at me and wanted to clear up that I wasn't complaining just wanted to make sure the next time I schedule I alloted for that type of wait if it was typical.

She replied "that maybe we shouldn't have chose a late afternoon appt."

me-"I didn't choose anything, that's what was given, and if I had known I'd be waiting an hour and a half I would not have accepted that time."

She checked her computer screen then her watch and said "well your app was at 320"

I said " yes but we were told to arrive 20 mins early"

She said "even at that rate hasn't been and hour and a half it has only been an hour and 19 minutes."

So I said "Bitch are you serious? I will come back there and beat your smart ass, don't give me that crap after I have wasted half a tank of gas and half my day with you rude ass incompetent bastards!@#@??@! I then reached over the counter and smacked that ho repeatedly as the waiting people cheered.

Ok, I made up that last paragraph but I thought the story needed a better ending then me exiting the place feeling fucked.

13 comments:

  1. "Bitch are you serious?"

    LOL! Oh I'm so gonna actually say this someday. People who work the desk at most doctor's offices are so damn rude. I know they have to deal with irritable sick people and get paid squat. But, that's not MY problem.

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  2. I wish you had said that honestly!

    I hate people!

    I am not always happy at work but like some crazy ass woman told our tech yesterday, "that gal in the office is so nice and she really explained things to me."

    The point being that I got off the phone with the above wench and screamed because she was so rude and stupid! that is a lethal combo in my book. But she didn't even know I was angry, upset or wanted to tell her to eat shit and die. She thought I was so nice.

    That is what FDB needs to learn!!

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  3. the only way to make that last paragraph any funnier (cause it was!) was to say you had the hand and head bob going with it!

    I love how dr's offices always tell you to arrive early but they are inevidabally late themselves..crazy!

    Thanks for stopping by my blog...love to have new comments! :)

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  4. PEG- You know I HATE PEOPLE too! LOL ANd if I hadn't had my eight year old son standing there it may have played out like that. I still wanna whop that B's ass from your nail salon post.

    Chandra-Your blog is quite cute. The pleasure was mine and I am used to having to wait but 1 1/2 hours is reminiscent of an emergency room wait, not a two week planned out scheduled eye doc appointment.

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  5. "you know its loud in here..."

    She had to have been joking around. Nobody could be that stupid, could they?

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  6. Mike- No she wasn't joking, she was clearly annoyed at "us"

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  7. Ugh! Time to find a new optometrist! My son has worn glasses since he was 18 months old and we have NEVER waited that long, but we see an opthalmologist because his vision problems are medical (related to his prematurity).

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  8. That is a fabulous story and post. You are our hero! You had every right to do as your fantasized.

    I have adopted the "Brenda Lee Johnson" method of dealing with difficult people. Paste a bright smile on my face, and say please and thank you too much. It reduces the snide, annoying, blatantly rude and minor Napoleonic to comply. That's all I want; total obedience in complying with my wishes!!!

    My friend Lenny gives the doctor 15 minutes past the appointment time and then leaves. Of course he is not traveling an hour both ways to the appointment. He says after a while the doctor sees him within that time. I don't know if I believe him, but that's what he says.

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  9. Charlene- Good for Lenny! But I don't think that method would work for me. We have an orthodontist, pediatrician, dentist, and now opthamologist and they are all reasonable except that one. I think it only hurts to deprive a company of your business when they are small scale. I spent THOUSANDS at Walmart yearly but if I got pissed and said I'll take my business elsewhere I think I would be the one hurt. I tried this with the light company recently when they tried to screw me but then I realized I had no other options. Anyhoo, thanks for making me the hero!

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  10. Ranks right up there with the time I showed up 20 minutes early for an appointment (made a week earlier!) with doctor So-and-So at the hospital at Andrews AFB...got checked in and steered to an exam room...and came out 45 minutes later to ask when the doctor was going to see me. The answer: Dr So-and-So is not in today! I thought about responding the way you fantasized...

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  11. fdb, acronym (initialism) of the day!

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  12. Bilbo- Don't we all have a horror story of huge inconvenience at the doctors office? Maybe Obama can add that into healthcare reform. lol

    The Eternal List- I thought it was quite clever.


    ETW- We found one, going today :)

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  13. You should complain to management, and if it was a chain complain to the regional person.

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