Friday, February 20, 2009

Get On Your Soapbox #12

I am so flippin' mad right now, I am trying my hardest not to use really bad language in this post but I am sorely tempted....

Today, Duncan and I travelled down to Perth for a day trip because I was booked in to have minor surgery on my face at 3pm. I saw a dermatologist in December about a cyst near my right ear which is growing and causing numbness and a tingly feeling off and on down the right side of my face. Last month I made the appointment to have it removed, was clearly told 3pm and I wrote it down in my diary straight away.

So today we rock up only to be told by some snobby admin chick that I missed my surgery because the appointment was booked for 2pm. I said no, I was told 3pm. I had to tell them that about three times for them to get the message, they kept acting like it was my fault. Then they said that the surgeon had gone home and I wouldn't be able to get another appointment for another month!

To say I was pissed off was an understatement. I repeated that I was clearly told 3pm and that we were from the country, had travelled down especially for this appointment and can't just go to Perth all the time. They didn't even apologise, they just said that a 3pm appointment never existed! I mean, what if I was from Broome and had paid hundreds of dollars to fly down only to be sent home again with nothing and they didn't even give me a cruddy apology. We had no choice but to go home and I was so angry I really wanted to strangle that stupid chick behind the desk because she didn't seem to care that country people keep getting crapped on. The day was a waste of petrol, time and money. We can't even say we had a good time during the day because we didn't. Our time was spent running around doing a few errands before heading to the appointment. Duncan had to give up a day of work to take me down.

I am so sick of incompetent admin staff! Lately I've been double booked or given a wrong time a few times now and I'm tired of just putting up with it. As soon as we left the medical centre, I burst into tears and cried pretty much all of the way home. I really dread any kind of surgery and had been psyching myself up and praying about it for weeks, knowing I needed to trust God and the surgeon and that I needed to be brave. After all that, I'm no closer to getting the jolly thing removed and now I have to wait another month before going through it all again.

I want to take this further. We don't live five minutes down the road and I want to let them know I'm not happy with the treatment I received and that I want to make an official complaint. But how do I go about it? Do I just write a letter? Is there any organisation you can go to to demand compensation? I mean, I think I should get a discount off my surgery because of the inconvenience. But how do I know whether I'm entitled to anything?

3 comments:

Iris Flavia said...

That is bad!!! Hope very much you find a place to put your complaint to - and get a discount, too!
Next time maybe ring them the day before the app and make also clear why you do.
Man, I´d be upset, too!!!

bek said...

That is really crap.
Ive had instances like this where I just keep asking for the manager. If they dont satisfy my needs I ask for their manager. I just keep going higher and higher until I get looked after/compensated.
Im sick of businesses ripping people off.

You should definately make a complaint, as most the time people just let it go, and the business continue treating people the same way!!!

GO SARAH!!!!

Sarah said...

I will most definitely be making a complaint! And after thinking about it, I feel it's better to put it in writing so they have an official record. Some people have warned me to wait until after the surgery as they reckon the staff might get vindictive and the surgeon could deliberately do a bad job. I can't imagine anyone doing this but I will wait just in case. Also I plan to make it clear that I'm not complaining about the doctors as they're very nice....it's the rude and imcompetent admin staff! Duncan reckons let it go but I told him I won't. As you said, Bek, they'll never change otherwise.