Me: “I appreciate your business, but I’d rather you didn’t text me at midnight with your website revisions.”
Client: “My last designer didn’t care when I texted him.”
Me: “Wasn’t your last designer your husband?”
Client: “Yeah, so?”
I wanted to start therapy to try to talk through some things that I’ve been dealing with. I found someone who took my insurance and had an opening in the next week.
On the morning of my appointment, someone from the office called.
Office: “We need to reschedule your appointment for today. [Doctor] is overbooked and can’t take any new patients this week. We have [date two weeks from now].”
Me: “Oh. Yeah, okay, I understand.”
Office: “Great! See you then!”
Two weeks went by without a word. Then, on the morning of my appointment, they called again.
Office: “We need to reschedule your appointment for today. [Doctor] is overbooked and can’t take any new patients this week. We have [date three weeks from now].”
Me: “Oh. Well, is anyone else available sooner? I—”
Office: “No, only [Doctor] is taking new patients. Do you want that appointment?”
Me: “Yeah, I’ll take it.”
Office: “Okay, sounds good. See you then!”
If you’re guessing what happened on the morning of my third first-appointment, you’re right. They called again.
Office: “We need to reschedule your appointment for today. [Doctor] is overbooked and can’t take any new patients this week. We have [date one month from now].”
Me: “You know, I’m just going to cancel.”
Office: “We really don’t advise that. We—”
Me: “You have cancelled my intake appointment three times because [Doctor] is overbooked. It’s clear that you’re overwhelmed and I’m just not going to be seen anytime soon. Thank you for your time, but I will not be rescheduling.”
Office: “Okay, good luck getting care somewhere else when you act like that.”
Me: “Excuse me? Who—”
She hung up without answering. I received an email saying I was dismissed from the practice for my behavior and lack of cooperation with the office staff. I feel like I’m better off looking elsewhere.
Client: “Can you have it done by this Monday?”
Me: “But today’s Monday.”
Client: “Yeah, I need it in a few hours.”
Me: “There are literally two hours left in the day.”
Client: “Well, I won’t need it for Tuesday, so you’d better hurry if you want to get paid.”
I have recently had my second child and am at her “first days of life” appointment. I have also brought along my three-year-old daughter. After the appointment, we go to the front desk to check out.
Me: “Can we also schedule [Three-Year-Old]’s four-year checkup for April?”
Receptionist: “Sure, how many months is she?”
Me: “How many months is [Three-Year-Old]?”
Receptionist: “Yes.”
Me: “She turns four in a few months.”
Receptionist: *Irritated* “But how many months is she?”
I try to calculate.
Me: “That’s not really something I kept track of off the top of my head after she turned two, but she’s forty-five months.”
I’m a driver for a luxury SUV rideshare service. We’re stationed in various places around San Francisco to be ready in case anyone needs a ride, and since parking is a bit of a premium, a lot of those spots are grocery store lots. Also since this is downtown, this particular store has an underground parking lot, and they close and lock it around 9:00 pm, an hour before my shift ends.
I only learned of this one night as I was getting ready to drive back to the depot and found myself locked in. Luckily, the staff was inside cleaning, and I learned I might have to wait a bit to be let out. No biggie for me; I am paid hourly.
Another gentleman was not so lucky. He was trying to go home but had also been locked inside! We got to talking as we waited for the general manager to finish up and come let us out of Supermarket Jail. This gentleman was starting to get upset, and he was convinced that the store closed at 10:00 pm, not 9:00 pm. He pulled out his phone and showed me the page, and indeed, there was a little indication saying that the store closed at 10:00 pm. Since this contradicted the signs on the actual store, which clearly showed 9:00 pm, I suggested he call their customer service to see about clearing up the matter.
He elected to use speakerphone and dialed the customer service number from the website. Had he not used speakerphone, I probably would have missed a crucial key to this whole fiasco…
Customer Service Rep: “Thank you for calling [Supermarket #2]. How may I help you?”
Gentleman: “Yeah, I’m outside of your—”
Me: “Wait. Did she say [Supermarket #2]? This is a [Supermarket #1].”
The look the gentleman gave me was golden, and he hung up on the poor customer service rep. I can only hope she heard my comment as well and understood why he disappeared so suddenly. The gentleman calmed down considerably after it finally clued in that he had pulled up a different store’s website, and I probably defused a bad evening for at least one [Supermarket #1] manager for the night!
We got out of the lot about five minutes later and happily went our separate ways.
