A Most Unreceptive Receptionist, Part 11
My husband got home two weeks ago from spending two months in the hospital. We gave the hospital and doctor’s office our home phone number instead of his cell phone. He has a dozen follow-up appointments scheduled with many different departments, not to mention four different departments of in-home nurses calling and coming all throughout the week. Our phone is ringing off the hook. To let him rest as much as possible, I handle all the calls and scheduling of appointments.
He receives this call on his cell phone, which is listed as the non-primary number.
Husband: “Hello?”
The lady speaks without any introduction or greeting or anything.
Lady: “You want to cancel your appointment?”
Husband: “What?”
Lady: “You want to cancel your appointment?”
Husband: “Who is calling? Which appointment?”
Lady: “This is [Doctor]’s office.”
He gets me on the phone and she repeats which office she’s calling from. Unfortunately, my husband has eight new doctors that want follow-ups, and in the chaos, I didn’t grab my notes. It takes five minutes of me asking what department this doctor is in and me guessing upcoming appointments I have memorized for her to answer.
Lady: “I am with [department]. So, you want to cancel tomorrow’s appointment?”
Me: “No! We need this appointment! Why would we want to cancel?”
Lady: “We received a voicemail from you.”
It finally clicks. Two weeks ago, when my husband was first released, I called this office to MOVE the appointment. I left a detailed message repeating that, if possible, we wanted to move it one day, when we’ll be coming back to that same building for another appointment. I left my name and my number.
Me: “No. I left a message two weeks ago. After not getting a call back, I called again. This is already resolved.”
Lady: “You want to cancel?”
Me: “No! We wanted to move it to Wednesday because we’ll already be in [building] that day, but the doctor isn’t there Wednesday.”
Lady: “We could move it to Thursday.”
Me: “That doesn’t help because we’ll be there on Wednesday. We’ll keep this appointment.”
Lady: “What about next week?”
Around and around and around we went for five more minutes until I could convince her that this was already resolved. And for those wondering, my husband is doing great!
Related:
A Most Unreceptive Receptionist, Part 10
A Most Unreceptive Receptionist, Part 9
A Most Unreceptive Receptionist, Part 8
A Most Unreceptive Receptionist, Part 7
A Most Unreceptive Receptionist, Part 6
Question of the Week
Have you ever served a bad customer who got what they deserved?
