Don't Hang Up On Me.

[CrochetFanatic]

I guess this is the right place for this, or it could be "Life...In General".  Since it was over the phone, I'm putting it here.  Feel free to move it.

I called the doctor's office this morning to make a follow-up appointment for my neck and arm (stenosis), and apparently their power is still out.  Either that, or they never got around to changing the message.  But I don't know, because the woman I got a hold of gave me the brush-off, told me "Call back at 8:30", and hung up on me.

I can only assume that "Call back at 8:30" means they've got power again, but I wasn't asking her to make a doctor's appointment or take a message. 

Has anything like this happened to anyone else?

[WillyNilly]

What I'm guessing is the office doesn't open until 8:30.  But perhaps someone was in, listening to the messages from the last few days, and so when the phone rang, the machine was in playback mode and wouldn't answer to take your message, but the person there wasn't ready to help you either.  I know even though I get in at 8:50 most mornings, I will not answer the phone until 9 on principal and will let it roll over to the machine.

I can only assume that "Call back at 8:30" means they've got power again, but I wasn't asking her to make a doctor's appointment or take a message. 

I admit I'm curious though - what were you asking of her if not to make your appointment or take your message?

[CrochetFanatic]

Yeah, the office's power is still out.

I was actually trying to ask her about that, but I never got that far.  I called back at 8:40, got forwarded to these guys again, and got a different woman on the phone.  This one was much nicer, but there's nothing they can do, so I won't be calling back.  The first woman made a point of saying that she can't make appointments or take messages, so maybe they've gotten a lot of people trying to do that.

Maybe it's just the pain making me irritable, but I just think it's rude to hang up on someone who isn't being rude to you.  If I was cursing her out, yeah, I could see why she would do that.

[Luci45]

Yeah, the office's power is still out.

I was actually trying to ask her about that, but I never got that far.  I called back at 8:40, got forwarded to these guys again, and got a different woman on the phone.  This one was much nicer, but there's nothing they can do, so I won't be calling back.

Maybe it's just the pain making me irritable, but I just think it's rude to hang up on someone who isn't being rude to you.  If I was cursing her out, yeah, I could see why she would do that.

I understand what you were calling for after you explained it. The woman was probably overwelmed with calls at that point, but it wouldn't have taken her any longer to say, "If this is an emergency please contact ...............or go to your local hospital. I am sorry that I can't help you. Please call back after 8:30. Thank you." Then hang up - the hanging up would have been rude, but nearly justifiable.

So sorry you had this experience.

[hobish]

All the time. It doesn't phase me anymore. It helps that the people doing it to me are at work, and they are the people who generally know how to do their jobs better than most. It's almost a weird sort of indicator - if they don't let you get the sentence out before transferring you without a word they're not gong to need a whole lot of explanation on why i am calling them. They're actually the people i prefer to talk to; but i am pretty much alone in this.