Friday, March 6, 2009

It's my blog, and I'll rant if I want to

Alright, enough of the raves, now I'm going to give in to a good old fashioned rip-roaring rant. Not a funny rant, not a cute rant about the quirks of my adorable greyhound. Nope, a cranky, cantankerous, curmudgeonly rant about the rude, self-important, unprofessional, people out there.

This rant is dedicated to the ladies working in the office at our dentist.

I love our dentist. He has extracted several teeth from my children (all who have returned home with a smile (albeit a wonky, half paralyzed on one side, smile). None of my 5 kids have a dentist-phobia- not one, and he constantly reminds me what a blessing all children are- which only has merit because he actually DOES have children of his own :-)
This is a dentist worth keeping, right?
HMMM
Last year, I received a phone call from my daughter's school; she was running a fever (and not feeling well) and I needed to come pick her up right away. I did so, and then called the pediatrician (they fit us in at 4:30 pm). Turns out it was Strep. The next day was her dentist appointment. I called that morning to tell them of the situation. I was summarily informed that I would have to pay a "fee" because it was less then 24 hours notice. (Never mind that I did not know that she was sick with strep 24 hours earlier).
This "burned my toast" - but I paid.
This past week I informed these same "ladies" that we had an appointment at 5:00pm Thursday- but my daughter's FIRST drama club rehearsal was Thursday and did not end until 5:00 PM. I asked if it would it be alright if we were a little late or should I reschedule? (Obviously, I did not know about this rehearsal 6 MONTHS AGO when we scheduled her appointment). this is how the conversation went- pretty much verbatim

Receptionist: How late?
Me: About 5- 10 minutes, - she is at (I tell her the school, which is in town, and which they are quite familiar with)- so as long as it takes to get to you.
Receptionist: Oh, 5-10 minutes shouldn't be a problem, it will be fine
Me: **Please put a note in her file that I let you know we would be late**
Receptionist: I'm writing it down now

Trust me- I have no reason to make this up.
But I bet you all know where this is going.
Not wanting to get on the bad side of the drama teacher at the FIRST rehearsal, I still let everyone know that we needed to leave RIGHT at 5:00PM (she actually let them go at 4:55 God bless her)
I did my "all" (not breaking any laws of course ;-)) to get there quickly. I got there in 10 minutes. I arrived all smiles , proud of myself (I was well within my 5-10 minutes). I was met with a scowl and :
receptionist: "I don't think we can take her back tonight, because you are are LATE"
Me: ROAR!!!!
(OK, that's not exactly what I said- more like I relayed the phone conversation (of MORE than 24 hours earlier).
And asked
"WAS there truly NO note written" ???? ROAR
Well I never did hear if there was a note written, but they DID take her back (and tried to make nicey-nicey)- I was not buying!
Then the same lady, (after mentioning how cute Will is ***ACK***! )
asked if I "would like to schedule her next 6 month check-up"
Uh- "No thank you"

5 comments:

Never Say Never Greyhounds said...

I'd complain to the dentist! So annoying!

Jen

Michelle said...

Geez!! What is wrong with people? Is there any decent customer service left on this planet?

Hope you have a happy Friday and an "uneventful" weekend!

Zan said...

I'm with Jen, I'd talk to the dentist about it. I'm sure he's aware of the policies, but he may not know that his staff is being so inflexible.

Grrrr!!

Angela said...

How frustrating! That's enough to tick anyone off! I'm almost alwalys 5 minutes late, it's a good thing not everyone is like that or I would never get waited on!

genji said...

I hope that next time someone is 'inflexible' with them, it hits them that maybe it's karmic retribution and that they should be more understanding to others.