Update on "Annoyed" Post

So, I made sure to calm myself down before I called my doctor's office this morning...after all, I want them to help me find another appointment, not be so angry with me that they intentionally try to screw me again. 

Anyway, I think I am probably the very first call they received when they turned off the answering service this morning.  I politely say that I showed up for my appointment yesterday and that no one was there.  In return, I get a snarky, "Yeah, well, we had to close because of the weather."  I ignore the remark and continue to tell the receptionist that I need either a Saturday morning appointment or an appointment today or tomorrow after 5:30 pm.  I also, very nicely, tell her that I will see any doctor in either of their offices...just to make this a little easier.

After twenty minutes of what seemed to be her searching through the schedule and several questions, such as:

• How about 3:00 pm tomorrow? (no, I was VERY clear that I could not come before 5:30 pm)
• And who's your doctor? (it doesn't matter...I said I would see anyone)
• Are you already at work right now? (yes, I am)
• Well, when do you normally go into work? (I am here by 8:00 am or earlier unless I have an 8:00 am doctor's appointment)
• Well, why can't you do 8:00 am tomorrow then? (Because I have to be in court in Brooklyn by 8:30 am tomorrow, that's why).

As you can see, my patience is starting to run VERY thin by this point, but I am surprisingly able to keep my composure.  Finally, the woman on the phone gets flustered and hands me off to another receptionist. 

Receptionist #2 is immediately on the defense with me, before I even get one word out.  The first thing she does is lecture me about how my doctor has to be the one to allow me to start seeing the other doctor's in the practice and how I should not be scheduling those appointments on my own.  I calmly tell her that the appointment I had scheduled for yesterday was with a different doctor anyway and that, because of my schedule and how far along I am, I don't care who I see.  She then repeats her lecture.

At this point, I've had enough and have wasted entirely too much time with these people.  I explain to her that on Monday, I was assured by one of the receptionists that they NEVER close.  Then, on Tuesday, my appointment was rescheduled to accomodate the impending storm.  Then, I show up to my appointment and the doors are locked.  Upon her asking, "What did you want us to do...drive in the snow?" I quickly lost my temper and told her that, while the roads were clear enough to pass by 10:00 am yesterday, what I actually expected was for someone in their massive office to take the appointment list home with them and contact those individuals who were supposed to come in yesterday to inform them the office would be closed.  But since they seem to care more about their well-being instead of the well-being of their many pregnant and laboring patients, I would expect them to accomodate the newly rescheduled appointments as best they can.

I also couldn't help but add that the storm went EXACTLY as predicted.  We got the EXACT amount of snow we expected to get and the storm began and ended at the EXACT times we were told it would.  So there were no surprises here.  Thus, if they anticipated the office being closed, they should not have called to reschedule me for later in the day yesterday!

After some more arguing back and forth and me refusing appointments two weeks out, she "miraculously" found an 8:10 am appointment for this upcoming Monday.  I'm looking forward to meeting this pleasant woman on Monday.