April 1st I made an appointment for July 12th at 12pm. On July 11th at 4:42pm, I receive a message:…read more"Hi, This message is for _______. This is Dr. Day's office calling to remind you of your appointment for tomorrow, the 12th of July at 12pm. If you are unable to make this appointment or need to reschedule, if you can give us a call back at the office. Our call back number is _____. Have a good day." Notice there's no request for me to call back UNLESS I was cancelling or rescheduling. Notice the time...had I called back their office would've been closed.
In the middle of work and another phone call on July 12th at 9:55am, I received another phone message: "Hi, this message is for_____. This is Dr. Charles Day's office calling in reference to your consultation that was setup for today at 12pm. Unfortunately, due to failure to confirm, we will have to get your appointment cancelled. If you did wanna reschedule you can give us a call back at ____. Have a good day" Notice this is not a second confirmation; this is a cancellation bc I did not pick up the phone in the middle of me being busy. Notice this is 2 hours before my appointment was to take place, and 3 months after the appoinment was made.
I send a message to speak to an office mgr or to Dr. Day. I get a 3rd long message from Christal (not sure how it's spelled) at 11am, stating that "usually" there are two confirmation phone calls, "usually" they will call days before, and "usually" they tell the customer to call back to confirm since they dont use either texts, or emails. Basically, a lot of "usually", BUT these usuals did not happen to me. When I return Christal's phone call, she went on the same long tangent without allowing me to speak for almost 2mins. Finally, I had to interrupt her and let her know that I did not receive a request to call back. I received a "reminder call." No where in that message was I instructed to call back, UNLESS I was cancelling or changing the appointment. Since I was doing neither, my appointment should have stood the same. She stated that "just like every other clinic around here" they call for a confirmation. I took her tone as an attitude and replied that "I am grown, and have been to many appointments around here, so have my children, I got to the VA and when there's confirmation required they send or ask for it. Otherwise it's just a reminder, which is what I got." She replied "Well we're not the VA..." to quickly I responded,"I didnt say you were. YOU compared yourselves to every other clinic around here. As a matter of fact I go to a clinic in Your bldg on your floor. And there's a STARK CONTRAST between what is a confirmation call and just a reminder." She begins to raise her voice and interrupt, "well moving forward...MOVING FORWARD..." So I interrupt, "moving forward you all need to work on not confusing your verbiage. I did NOT receive a confirmation request. I was reminded of my appointment from 3 mos ago. I did not receive a 2nd request..." She interrupts "yes, you did..." I retort, "NO I DID NOT! I have the voicemails, I listened to them twice before you called. You cant tell me what someone else said thats recorded! The young lady that called my phone left a message for cancellation. The appointment was cancelled BEFORE she left that message! There was nothing about a confirmation on that message, 2hrs before my appointment. Nothing! So bc of your waitlist...I too was on that waitlist, although, not for a month, FOR THREE...my appointment was cancelled bc why? bc I didnt pick up the phone as soon as yall called. I work, just like you are, I cant always pick up the phone right when people call me. This is why voicemail was created. And if Im asked to return a phone call, I do, when I get a moment. What if I was in a medical office? In court? I STILl would not have picked up the phone, but would have been to my appointment ON TIME. I didnt get that opportunity."
She finally replies "well, when we call we expect our customers to call back, even if we dont ask them to, we just assume..." "How would I know to calk back if you dont say so? Again, EVERY OTHER CLINIC will ask, or they will leave a reminder. Months ago I was told she would call and remind me, but I didnt need to do anything else." So now it changed from we leave confirmation requests, to you dont tell them to call back and confirm, you just assume they will. Customers now have to have an ESP requirement?
She began to raise her voice even more. Finally, I said "...and you just keep on giving excuses. Im tired of listening, bc youre not. Im good. Thanks. You lost your doctor a lot of money, so Im good. Thanks Bye Bye (as I pull the phone away she is just loudly speaking)" and I hang up.
I leave a message for Dr. Day anyway, as we have a personal connection, about his staff. What they need to work on. How maybe consideration that some of us that work are not sitting by the phone waiting for it to ring. No attempt was made to ask for a confir