This was my mum's experience, not mine, but it made me angry just hearing about it.
My mum needed to see a heart specialist (I'm sure there is a proper term for that, but I don't know what it is), so she rang up and made an appointment. The doctor is very busy and it is hard to get an appointment to see him. The only available time was 8am on a Monday morning. Now my mum normally works all through Sunday night (8pm - 8am), and spends Monday catching up on much-needed sleep (she works very hard - nearly every hospital here is short staffed).
She told the receptionist this problem, and was given the suggestion of maybe coming in straight after work. My mum said that wouldn't be good for her, she she reluctantly decided to take the night off work in order to go to the appointment. My mum only works 2 nights a week, and since my dad isn't around, she feels the pressure to earn enough money. But she didn't have any other option, the only other available time was 2 months away, and she can't wait that long.
So she confirmed the time with the receptionist, and wrote it down in both her diary and on the calender. The morning came around for the appointment, and my mum made sure she woke up in time to get there amongst the usual peak-hour traffic (6am).
She finally got there and said she was there to see the doctor, her appointment was 8am (she arrived a little early.)
The receptionist looked at her computer and then said to my mum
"No it's not, your appointment is next week."
My mum was very surprised of course, and told the girl that she had called the week before and was told her appointment was for THAT morning, at 8am.
The girl apparently started to sound annoyed. She said "No, it's not. You've obviously written down the wrong date. It's NEXT week." and she went back to answering the phone.
By this stage my mum was of course a bit mad.
She had taken a night off work to be there.
When the receptionist was free again, my mum really let her have it. She said "I spoke to YOU on the phone about this, I even said this day was very inconvenient for me, as I had to work, and you even suggested coming in straight after work, so I most certainly didn't get the date wrong. I wrote it down in 2 different places, and confirmed it with you."
The girl ignored all of that, and simply told her to come back next week like she was supposed to. She didn't apologise or anything. I felt so bad for my mum, she was so angry about it. She had lost a night of wages for nothing, and now she has to do it all again the next week at the same time!
My mum needed to see a heart specialist (I'm sure there is a proper term for that, but I don't know what it is), so she rang up and made an appointment. The doctor is very busy and it is hard to get an appointment to see him. The only available time was 8am on a Monday morning. Now my mum normally works all through Sunday night (8pm - 8am), and spends Monday catching up on much-needed sleep (she works very hard - nearly every hospital here is short staffed).
She told the receptionist this problem, and was given the suggestion of maybe coming in straight after work. My mum said that wouldn't be good for her, she she reluctantly decided to take the night off work in order to go to the appointment. My mum only works 2 nights a week, and since my dad isn't around, she feels the pressure to earn enough money. But she didn't have any other option, the only other available time was 2 months away, and she can't wait that long.
So she confirmed the time with the receptionist, and wrote it down in both her diary and on the calender. The morning came around for the appointment, and my mum made sure she woke up in time to get there amongst the usual peak-hour traffic (6am).
She finally got there and said she was there to see the doctor, her appointment was 8am (she arrived a little early.)
The receptionist looked at her computer and then said to my mum
"No it's not, your appointment is next week."
My mum was very surprised of course, and told the girl that she had called the week before and was told her appointment was for THAT morning, at 8am.
The girl apparently started to sound annoyed. She said "No, it's not. You've obviously written down the wrong date. It's NEXT week." and she went back to answering the phone.
By this stage my mum was of course a bit mad.
She had taken a night off work to be there.
When the receptionist was free again, my mum really let her have it. She said "I spoke to YOU on the phone about this, I even said this day was very inconvenient for me, as I had to work, and you even suggested coming in straight after work, so I most certainly didn't get the date wrong. I wrote it down in 2 different places, and confirmed it with you."
The girl ignored all of that, and simply told her to come back next week like she was supposed to. She didn't apologise or anything. I felt so bad for my mum, she was so angry about it. She had lost a night of wages for nothing, and now she has to do it all again the next week at the same time!
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