Story number one involves a doctor's office. Doctors are smart people who are really good at what they do, but my experience is that they're horrible buisinesspeople, and unfortunately, they're usually too arrogant to admit it. Doctors offices tend, by and large, to be some of the most inefficient, poorly run, surly customer service organizations I encounter.
Went to the doc to get blood drawn due to high cholesterol. (With any luck, the new diet and exercise routine will make a dent in that.) Got the blood drawn and realized that when they draw blood, that's usually when my scrip is running out.
Now, one would think the doctor would have brought that up. Said something like, "When we get the results back, where would you like us to call in the scrip?" Or, "here's your new scrip."
Obvious stuff, really.
I got out to the front office and made my next appointment, which is what reminded me about the prescription.
So, I asked, "My prescription runs out now, doesn't it?"
Nobody could answer. So, one of them said, "We have no way to know when your prescription runs out."
I was a bit astounded at that one. So, I said, "Well, you should know. The doc wrote the last scrip. You can look it up in my chart and tell me when it runs out."
So, the same helpful individual chimed in with, "Yeah, but as far as when your pills run out, we have no way to know. That depends on when you got the prescription filled at your pharmacy. You should check your pill bottle to see when it'll run out."
This is the point where, frankly, I wish I could put a dunce cap on people and shove them into the unemployment line. Seriously.
"I don't have my bottle with me. And if I get home and realize it's expired, I have to get you to issue a new scrip. If you're going to write a new scrip, why not do it, now, while I'm here in the office."
The woman most needing to be unemployed came back with, "Well, you can just call us and we'll call it in to the pharmacy."
Ah, thank you, oh goddess of dumbass. Your suggested remedy is for me to drive home, find my old bottle of pills, see if it expires, then call you, find the address and phone number of the pharmacy to give to you, have you call the scrip in, then either take it on faith that you did, or call again to make sure you were able to, lest I go to the pharmacy and find out that it wasn't called in just yet.
That's soooo much easier than you taking your retarded, no education-having, but you're entitled to be arrogant because you wear scrubs like a doctor little fingers and open my ****ing chart to see when my previous scrip expired and then having the doctor scribble out a new one.
Much better that I spend a LOT of time to make sure you don't have to spend any.
At this point, I got a little bit agitated and said, simply, "I'm not doing any of that. Open my chart and see when my previous prescription expires and if I need a new one, get it for me right now."
Of course, at that point, I was the bad guy in all this. Of course, once I did, they were able to miraculously open the chart, deduce that my old scrip was too old to still be current and got the doc to scribble out a new scrip. Took like 2 minutes.
Like I said, so much better for society if we could just put dunce caps on people and shove them into the unemployment line. Some people are just too worthless to deserve jobs.
Second story: we've got a water heater that has an intermittent problem. I called the guy who installed it and after 2 visits and $400 in charges (at which point, frankly, we were halfway to paying for a new water heater with what he cost), it still wasn't fixed. He was the subject of a previous blog post. Used to be a good plumber / HVAC guy, but frankly, I'll never call him again.
Called a plumber I trust who said he couldn't work on that model, but to punch the serial number into the web-site to see if it was still under warranty. It would also give the model number, date of manufacture, etc.
I did, it was. The web-site gave a list of authorized service providers to take care of the warranty claim.
I called one of them. Nobody was there, so I left a voice mail. I left a detailed description of the problem, including what was the obvious solution, as well as the serial number.
Guy called me back the next day.
After exchanging pleasantries, I asked if they could fix it. He said, "Yeah, but we have a $99 diagnostic charge."
I said that was fine. However, I said, "Can you have the part on-hand, though? It's an inexpensive part and it's probably the solution."
He said no, he couldn't have the part on hand.
Given that the part costs about a dollar, I wondered why. Heck, I'd have paid for the part, even though it was covered under warranty.
He said, "I have no idea what model your water heater is, or what part we'll need. It could be X, or Y, or Z. And I don't know if it's under warranty or what".
At that point, I got a little miffed. "I gave you the serial number."
The guy blew me off with, "Yeah, I didn't write it down."
Oooookay. I can see this is REALLY important to you, Clyde.
So, I pointed out the obvious (at which point, I was already deciding I was never going to use the guy.) "If you punch that serial number into the web-site, it gives you all the details on the unit including whether it's under warranty or not."
He came back with, "Yeah, but I still don't know what part it'll need and I'm not going to come out there with a handful of parts."
Ummm... buddy... even if my first guess is wrong, and the $1 part won't fix it, there are only 2 or 3 other parts that it could be.
That was enough for me. I said, simply, "Sounds like you think this is too much trouble. I appreciate your time."
I hate bad customer service. Frankly, if you ask me, the trouble with our current high unemployment isn't that it's high. If you ask me, unemployment should probably be higher. The problem is that people who need jobs and deserve them don't have them. All the while people who don't deserve jobs and who treat them like a chore and an entitlement still have them.
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