Matt had a telephone appointment booked with a specialist for one day last week. Now, he has had a bad ankle since well before the New Year, and he had a specialist appt back in… March or April. He showed up for that appt, and the person at the front desk said, “Oh. We cancelled all his appts the other day because he’s really sick.” Now… that’s annoying, but what are you gonna do? It’s irksome to have fallen through the cracks in their communication, but… there you go. So his doctor got him a new appt with a different specialist. This was a telephone appt, so the day before, the office called and confirmed which phone number the doc should use, and Matt worked from home so to avoid any interruptions. The appt was scheduled for 2:30. 5 or 6 minutes after 2 Matt goes to the bathroom, so he doesn’t have to pee during the 2:30 appt.
At 2:08, while Matt’s away from his phone, the bloody doctor calls. 22 minutes early. Now, if what he said on the phone was, “Hey, it’s Dr. soandso, I was ready early so thought I’d give you a call, I will try again at our appt time in 20 minutes.” That would be fine. Did he do that? Would I be telling this story if he had?
No. Dude has the nerve to call 22 minutes early, and say, “You have missed your appointment, and will have to rebook.”
Matt was, I think it’s fair to say, incensed.
And of course there’s no callback information saved in the phone because specialists are all, like, secret and stuff, so his only option was to call the family doctor, who eventually got back and gave him a phone number and email, and of course the specialist office closed at 3.
He sent an email and ultimately he has been rebooked for an in-person appt. But not for another month. And at no time did anyone from the specialist office apologise or acknowledge that it was a shitty move on the part of the doctor.
*sigh* Matt, being the philosophical sort of fellow he is, is ok with this, since probably what would have happened in the telephone appt would be the booking of an in-person visit, and that’s what he’s getting.
But it’s freakin’ frustrating, and I’ve commented before on people taking responsibility for their mistakes, and the difference it makes to have someone acknowledge, and apologise.
How difficult is that?