Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Smacks Of Old Fart Wednesday



You know what makes me mad?  You know what makes me so mad I just want to slide down  a razor blade into a pool of alcohol? (I actually stole that line from Earl Pitts.  And you might be an old fart yourself if you remember Earl Pitts).  More and more businesses are getting what I call “how to  kill a business” computer assisted answering systems.  You know how it goes.  “If you want English dial 1, if you want sales dial 2, if you want to speak to a human, Ha Ha”!  It is becoming more and more difficult to speak to a live person these days.  Even if that person is in India.



Ten years ago I was sitting in my doctor’s office and noticed every time the telephone rang a receptionist picked up the phone and placed the caller on hold.  I thought, hum, this is the same treatment I get every time I try to call that office.  Being the SOOF buttinsky I am I mentioned to my doctor, “ hey Dr. S____ (name not important) have you ever called your office”?  He said “sure I call all the time”.  I replied, “no, not the back line, how about the front line”?  “Well no”.  So I proceeded to inform him my experience.  I told him I had never called his office that the receptionist didn’t say, “doctors office can you hold?”.  Then I am put on hold before I could let them know if I had a hang nail or a heart attack.  Dr. S____ thanked me for the information.  
Guess what happened the next time I called their office about 6 months later?  Here is what happened.  “Doctor’s office.  If you have an emergency hang up and call 911.  If you need an appointment dial 2,  If you need a referral dial 3.  If you want to speak to the nurse dial 4.  And so on, and so on.”  After listening to my choices, twice, I selected the one I wanted, number 2, and the receptionist picked up the phone and said, “doctor’s office can you hold?”, click.  Right back where I started. I guess it just smacks of old fart that this bothers me. 

-Barry

4 comments:

  1. This is exactly why I have the pharmacy call in my expired prescriptions and wait for the nurse to call me when they think it's been too long since I've been there. If I'm sick I just go to their walk-in clinic. Calling them is pointless.

    Since I have the number programmed into my phone so I can see who's calling, maybe next time I'll answer and say "patient's phone, can you hold?...click". :)

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  2. To agree with the old fart, please press 1.
    To disagree with the old fart, please press 2.
    To leave a comment for the old fart . . . . . please hold.

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