Exchanges with People that Make Your Brain Hurt

[MommyPenguin]

What frustrates me, in terms of trying to remember appointments, is the way our military base does doctors' appointments.  They basically only open up the calendar a certain amount in advance.  So, for instance, it's September.  I realize that my daughter has a birthday at the end of October, so I call to make her well-child checkup.  I'm told that the calendar for that part of October isn't open yet, so they can't make an appointment.  I need to call back later.  When?  They don't know.  I call a week or two later.  Still not open.  And then it slips my mind, and I forget until November.  By which time we're about to leave for vacation for two weeks, and then by the time we get back it's December, and... it's just so annoying.  I don't understand why they can't accept an appointment for more than two weeks or so in advance.

[Midnight Kitty]

We have rules that describe our responsibilities as a Board.  It is one of our responsibilities to send out renewal notices to all currently certified operators 60 days before the licenses expire.  It is in the rules which are available on line, so the operators know it is not a "courtesy notice."

If the notices don't get sent out, though, does that absolve the operators of the responsibility of renewing the license on time? I could certainly see it being a valid reason to waive a late fee or similar charge, but that's not quite the same thing.

Unfortunately, the $5 late fee is also in the Rules.  We are allowing them 60 days after their licenses expired to renew.

[Virg]

I havfe a friend who works in our town clerk's office, and she gets the "I didn't know my registration expired" stuff all the time.  There reason why it belongs in this thread is that our state bases registration renewal on the owner's birth month, so no matter when you get a vehicle, the registration need to be renewed in the month of your birthday.

The discussion about missing a doctor's appointment reminded me of something that happened to us a while back as well.  We got a call from one of our doctors saying that we'd missed our appointment and that they'd have to bill us for it.  That's normal procedure for a missed appointment but the problem is that neither of us had an appointment with the doctor and in fact hadn't seen her for many years.  They straightened it up when we told them that, but we both found it brain-hurty that they'd booked us in with no reason and then failed to notify us about it until after the "missed" appointment.

Virg

[Kaora]

One with my BF.  We were trying to discuss something, and came up with the thought it should be pine cone shaped.

He agreed. and stated that it should be smallest at the top, and biggest at the bottom.

I looked at him and asked him if he meant, "Wide at the top and narrow at the bottom?"

Apparently, he thought of pinecones upside down from how I did, if that makes much sense.  His sense of the top part was the point, where mine was the widest.

... And David Bowie's "Up the Hill Backwards" just came on the radio.  Which somehow makes sense.

ETA: Also, a conversation I was once having with my dad.  I think I can blame this on him being very tired, or something, because I've had conversations about languages with him the past.  Once came up because we were listening to Pink Floyd, and got into an interesting discussion about Scots.

In the past, we've had a nice discussion about how English is full of Celtic influences, mostly in grammar formation.  Once, he came up and discussed Old English with me, and how it was mostly a French language with the German coming in around the Norman Invasion (1066).

I'll chalk it up to him being tired, I just smiled and nodded.  He hasn't since repeated that.

[Diane AKA Traska]

One with my BF.  We were trying to discuss something, and came up with the thought it should be pine cone shaped.

He agreed. and stated that it should be smallest at the top, and biggest at the bottom.

I looked at him and asked him if he meant, "Wide at the top and narrow at the bottom?"

Apparently, he thought of pinecones upside down from how I did, if that makes much sense.  His sense of the top part was the point, where mine was the widest.

... And David Bowie's "Up the Hill Backwards" just came on the radio.  Which somehow makes sense.

ETA: Also, a conversation I was once having with my dad.  I think I can blame this on him being very tired, or something, because I've had conversations about languages with him the past.  Once came up because we were listening to Pink Floyd, and got into an interesting discussion about Scots.

In the past, we've had a nice discussion about how English is full of Celtic influences, mostly in grammar formation.  Once, he came up and discussed Old English with me, and how it was mostly a French language with the German coming in around the Norman Invasion (1066).

I'll chalk it up to him being tired, I just smiled and nodded.  He hasn't since repeated that.

For the record, I agree wit your boyfriend about pinecones.  It's a more stable arrangement. 

[tiff019]

Same thing happened to me a couple years ago.  When I mentioned to the clerk that I never received a renewal notice, she scolded me, saying the renewal notice was a courtesy on their part and they didn't *have* to be courteous. 

 

Her tone might've been rude, but I don't have a problem with the sentiment. We do the same thing at the library - if you provide us with an email address we'll send you reminders when your books are coming due. If you don't receive those emails for whatever reason - it's most often because your email system sends them to the spam folder, but sometimes the problem is on our end - you're still responsible if the books go overdue. Same thing with car registrations, it's your responsibility to know when it has to be re-upped. And I say that as a guy who forgot a few years ago and had to pay a hefty fine.

I agree. The courtesy warning is nice but its absence is no excuse.

I do agree that it's up to (general) you to know when your car registration is due. But here in CA (I can't speak for other locales) the amount you pay changes each year (usually goes down a bit), so without the renewal notice, I wouldn't know how much to pay. Not to mention that CA requires smog checks periodically (and sometimes from a 'test only' center) so without the renewal, someone may go to pay but not have all of the required documentation. I think too, that with the renewal notice, the smog check place can send the results directly to the DMV (rather than mailing/taking in a printout). I think of renewal as similar to a bill - It's my responsibility to know when I need to pay it, but it's the 'vendor's' responsibility to send me the bill so I know how much to pay, and where to remit payment. Then, if I don't get the bill when I expect, then it's on me to follow up to get the info.

[kherbert05]

I havfe a friend who works in our town clerk's office, and she gets the "I didn't know my registration expired" stuff all the time.  There reason why it belongs in this thread is that our state bases registration renewal on the owner's birth month, so no matter when you get a vehicle, the registration need to be renewed in the month of your birthday.

The discussion about missing a doctor's appointment reminded me of something that happened to us a while back as well.  We got a call from one of our doctors saying that we'd missed our appointment and that they'd have to bill us for it.  That's normal procedure for a missed appointment but the problem is that neither of us had an appointment with the doctor and in fact hadn't seen her for many years.  They straightened it up when we told them that, but we both found it brain-hurty that they'd booked us in with no reason and then failed to notify us about it until after the "missed" appointment.

Virg

Makes me wonder how much that office is making billing people for missed appointments - or maybe just someone in the office is making the money.

[mmswm]

I havfe a friend who works in our town clerk's office, and she gets the "I didn't know my registration expired" stuff all the time.  There reason why it belongs in this thread is that our state bases registration renewal on the owner's birth month, so no matter when you get a vehicle, the registration need to be renewed in the month of your birthday.

The discussion about missing a doctor's appointment reminded me of something that happened to us a while back as well.  We got a call from one of our doctors saying that we'd missed our appointment and that they'd have to bill us for it.  That's normal procedure for a missed appointment but the problem is that neither of us had an appointment with the doctor and in fact hadn't seen her for many years.  They straightened it up when we told them that, but we both found it brain-hurty that they'd booked us in with no reason and then failed to notify us about it until after the "missed" appointment.

Virg

Makes me wonder how much that office is making billing people for missed appointments - or maybe just someone in the office is making the money.

To be honest, my first thought was medicaid/insurance billing fraud.

[ica171]

I havfe a friend who works in our town clerk's office, and she gets the "I didn't know my registration expired" stuff all the time.  There reason why it belongs in this thread is that our state bases registration renewal on the owner's birth month, so no matter when you get a vehicle, the registration need to be renewed in the month of your birthday.

The discussion about missing a doctor's appointment reminded me of something that happened to us a while back as well.  We got a call from one of our doctors saying that we'd missed our appointment and that they'd have to bill us for it.  That's normal procedure for a missed appointment but the problem is that neither of us had an appointment with the doctor and in fact hadn't seen her for many years.  They straightened it up when we told them that, but we both found it brain-hurty that they'd booked us in with no reason and then failed to notify us about it until after the "missed" appointment.

Virg

In my state, the registration due date is based on when you registered it. Usually I pay online, and you have to have the slip to do that. For that reason I think they do always send out reminder notices.

The doctor's appointment story reminded me of one. I had had to go to this doctor's office once to get a referral to another doctor; it was an insurance thing and I don't actually use the first doctor. One day I got a call reminding me of my appointment the next day. I told the woman I didn't have an appointment and she tried to get me to verify some information. Well, yes, it was my information but I didn't make an appointment. The best I could figure was that they had entered the appointment under the wrong [my name], which is very common. I hope it wasn't too much of a mess for the other person.

And that reminds me of another story of the joys of having a common name. In my state you can vote by absentee ballot; you just have to request one. DH and I both requested ours; he got his and I didn't. I gave it a few days, then went down to the courthouse to just vote there. Gave them my name, she looked it up and said "oh, you've already voted." I assured the clerk I hadn't voted. She said "Over at [grocery store on the opposite side of town from where I live and have not visited in close to ten years]?" Nope. So she got another clerk and they pulled out the envelope and showed me the signature. It was my first and last name but not my middle initial and not my signature. Whoever had entered the ballots collected from that store had entered the other person's name into the computer but clicked on my name instead of hers. They didn't send a ballot because I was recorded as having already voted. I was able to vote just fine and the clerks apologized profusely and were very nice about the whole thing. I think everybody's brains hurt after that one.

[LB]

I work in a medical office, and we quite often get blamed for people missing their appointments because we didn't call to remind them. We do usually try to call all the people who have appointments the day before to remind them. But, we do point out when schedule appointments that this is a courtesy. Sometimes we get backed up with other tasks and run out of time. We have a lot of providers, so it happens.

And we charge a $10 no-show fee. You have to sign a paper acknowledging that you know we will charge you this fee if you miss your appointment without calling to cancel it within 24 hours.

None of this should be a surprise. Still, I get calls from people scolding me for not calling to remind them of an appointment they scheduled. And a few asking me what I am going to do with the $10 I have personally stolen from them.

[RingTailedLemur]

The NHS sends a text message the day before my hospital and physiotherapy appointments, which I quite like.

[Piratelvr1121]

About a month ago, I had walked up to a shopping center down the road and stopped into the Family Dollar for something.   I had Piratebabe with me and she made a comment like "Enjoy them while they're this age, it doesn't last long!" I said "Oh I know, I have two others."

"You have three babies?"
"Well, the other two aren't babies, they're 11 and a half and ten."
"But you have three babies?"
"Well, I have three boys, yes."
"But they'll always be your babies, is what I mean."
"Well, yeah."

I don't know what perplexed her so much about me having 3 kids.  I'm told I look younger than I am, but I doubt that I look that much younger that it would be hard for someone to believe I could have 3 kids.

[jpcher]

Another twist on courtesy calls and cancellation charges . . .

The last time I went to the dentist, I received a courtesy call reminding me of the appointment. At the end of the message they stated "Please call us back in order to confirm this appointment."

Well, one thing led to another and I never called them back (never had to do this before.)

I showed up for my appointment and the receptionist pretty much admonished me saying (not exact words) "You didn't call back to confirm. You know we require a call back from you. You're lucky we can squeeze you in this time and we won't charge you the missed appointment fee."

I clarified with the receptionist what the new rules were. Yes. Even though I made the appt. only 2 weeks before once they call me to remind me of the appt. I am required to call them back within 24 hours prior to my appt. in order to confirm. If I don't my appt. can and probably will be given to someone else and I will owe the $70 missed appt. fee even if I show up.

Does anybody else have to call to confirm an appointment? Or is my Dentist office just odd this way?



Oh, and the last message I received from them clearly stated "It is a new requirement that you must call us back to confirm blah blah blah" Instead of a simple "Please call us back."

[LB]

My pediatrician has an automated system that asks you to press 1 to confirm or press 2 to reschedule when it calls you. But there have been times it's gone to my voicemail and I haven't confirmed or rescheduled. I've had no problems when I've gone in for those appointments.

That does seem like an odd policy. Maybe they have a high rate of no-shows so they decided this would help fix it?

[drzim]

Another twist on courtesy calls and cancellation charges . . .

The last time I went to the dentist, I received a courtesy call reminding me of the appointment. At the end of the message they stated "Please call us back in order to confirm this appointment."

Well, one thing led to another and I never called them back (never had to do this before.)

I showed up for my appointment and the receptionist pretty much admonished me saying (not exact words) "You didn't call back to confirm. You know we require a call back from you. You're lucky we can squeeze you in this time and we won't charge you the missed appointment fee."

I clarified with the receptionist what the new rules were. Yes. Even though I made the appt. only 2 weeks before once they call me to remind me of the appt. I am required to call them back within 24 hours prior to my appt. in order to confirm. If I don't my appt. can and probably will be given to someone else and I will owe the $70 missed appt. fee even if I show up.

Does anybody else have to call to confirm an appointment? Or is my Dentist office just odd this way?



Oh, and the last message I received from them clearly stated "It is a new requirement that you must call us back to confirm blah blah blah" Instead of a simple "Please call us back."

This makes no sense.  I always thought the missed appointment fee was to cover the fact that they couldn't schedule anyone else (they are holding the time open for you) and if you don't show up the time is wasted.  If they schedule someone else, or if you do show up, then why the fee?