Here I Go Again!

Wow! It has been more than a month since I complai… I mean wrote a new blog entry.

FEAR NOT TRUE BELIEVERS! THE GRIPE MAN IS BACK TO ENTERTAIN YOU WITH HIS MISERY!

I can’t believe how busy I have been the last couple of weeks. Work, School, Work, School… I’m spending so much time in school that even the drink stall aunty at the canteen recognizes me. Just yesterday, she even commented that I had arrived earlier than usual. Wah!

I also can’t believe that so many people are leaving or have left the practice. If I were the owner of the practice, I would seriously rethink about the way the staff are being treated and try to make improvements instead of telling everyone that staff is replaceable. Sure. Workers can be replaced. Just try finding EXPERIENCED people that are willing to put up with you long term.

Anyway, JT is resigning and I was approached to take over her position with a small pay increment. Initially, I rejected the offer as the increment was really small, and I was also very scared of working in such close proximity with He-Who-Likes-To-Be-Named. Eventually however, I agreed to do it to help the person who asked me as she sounded really desperate. Talk about major stress!

To relieve my stress, I got myself a brand new IBM T43! It basically looks a lot like my R40 but it’s slightly smaller and has a BUILT IN WIRELESS ADAPTOR!!! Muhahahahaha! I also got a ThinkPad Port Replicator II from the Scitec Exhibition. To further add to my retail therapy, I got a new bag for my new electronic baby.

Chocolate & Orange… mmmm…

It goes nicely with the voodoo thingie that SheShe and Sooks got me from Thailand.

And now… on to the gripes!

NOTICE
The following tales depict extreme human stupidity and pig headedness. If you suffer from mental depression, do not proceed without first consulting your psychiatric specialist.


Case 01: The Early Bird

On Sunday, I was working with Sooks and Jake. Sooks had something on during lunchtime and could only make it back to the clinic after 4pm. Thus we blocked off all consults after lunch till 4pm but remained open for merchandising.

Around 2:30pm, this Tai-Tai looking aunty barged into the clinic with her maid in tow, each carrying a fat Shih-Tzu looking dog.

She breezed past the recept counter, barely stopping to say, “I have a 4 o’clock appointment”, and plonked herself onto the couch.

I looked at the clock and then checked the time on my trusty S700i just to make sure that neither was in the wrong time zone. I then told her that she was awfully early for her appointment.

She said that she decided to “come in and sit around” just in case the vet will see her earlier.

I then told her that there was no vet in the clinic until 4pm, to which she got off her ass and marched up to the recept counter with a bewildered look on her face.

“What??? Why didn’t you all tell me earlier???” she said.

“Well, your appointment IS at 4pm. We didn’t ask you to come at this time because there is not vet available at this time.” I replied.

“How come like that??? You all should have told me the truth!!!” she shot back.

“???...” I went.

I then spent another 5 minutes trying to explain to her the concept of appointments and also the art of calling up in advance to announce your intention of queue cutting so that we might be able to tell you to go to hell.

To cut things short, she then decided to wait till 4pm. She then started speaking to the dogs, saying that they have come on a car ride for nothing.

I went back to my task of checking and trying to arrange the margins of 6000 labels of client addresses for the bloody Christmas cards that the clinic sends each year. After 2 minutes, I realized that she was talking to me from where she was sitting. I probably didn’t notice that she was talking to me because SHE WASN’T EVEN LOOKING IN MY GENERAL DIRECTION.

She was apparently asking me if Dr (XXX) was not here now because she was at another branch participating in some therapy treatment event. Acting on my suspicion, I looked at the appointment book. Her pets’ names were not on it. I then asked her if she called the right clinic as the vet she thinks she is seeing would not be at this particular clinic. She then insisted that when she made the appointment, she was assured that the vet she requested to see would be available at the clinic the whole day.

To cut a long story short, her appointment was at the other branch. It was supposed to be at 4:45pm (Not 4pm) and she was only supposed to bring ONE DOG. I got the information from SheShe, who was quite upset and referred to her as a F**K Face. Heh heh heh F**K Face.

Anyway, the F**K Face eventually got tired of waiting (after 10 minutes of patience has worn out) and decided to try her luck at jumping the queue at the branch she was supposed to go to in the first place. So she made a call (at the top of her horrible voice) to book a taxi, telling the call operator that she has 2 MEDIUM SIZED DOGS with her.

(Your dogs may be fat but anyone who’s not mentally retarded will consider them small sized.)

CASE 02: The Sleeper

This happened today.

We had 2 surgeries booked in this morning for sterilization. Both didn’t turn up and so V started calling them to find out if they were still coming.

The first call she made was unanswered. The client in question later called back and it turns out that she completely forgot about the appointment. I’m sure the many other clients who couldn’t get a surgical appointment with us today will forgive her.

V then called up the second client, whom she booked the appointment for. From her side of the conversation, we managed to gather that she was speaking to the client’s maid.

It appears that the maid told her that yes, they are coming in for the surgical appointment but they would be coming in at 3pm. V then spent about 10 minutes trying to explain to her that it was not the time she told them to come at, and that our surgeries had to be done in the morning.

The maid then apparently tried to argue that her “Sir” told her that they were told to bring the dog in at 3pm, and that her “Sir” usually sleeps till 1pm and would come in only in the afternoon.

Again, to cut the story short, V held her ground and told the maid to check with her “Sir” when he decides to wake up and call us to reschedule the appointment for another day.

I, unfortunately, picked up the phone when the “Sir” called.

He sounded old and his command of spoken English was not very good. He tried to insist that we gave him a 3pm appointment for surgery. I explained to him that we would never do that as it has been the practice of the practice (hee hee) to do the surgeries in the morning.

He then went on to say that he didn’t understand our system (WTF?), and that there was no point in trying to prove who was right and who was wrong.

I was tired and the effects of my coffee was wearing off, so I told him I don’t understand how he couldn’t understand our system (whatever he was referring to) as our hundreds of other clients who made surgical appointments with us had no problem understanding when WE TOLD THEM TO COME IN AT 9:30am!

I really don’t know what the hell was going through his empty head as he was rambling on and on. I also didn’t understand how the hell someone can think that their appointment is at 3pm when they were told specifically to come in the MORNING at 9:30am. In the end, I managed to reschedule the surgery (2 weeks later. Ha ha ha). He was quite shocked at the length of time till the next available appointment slot so I had to explain to him (slowly) how our surgical appointments are very full and that we have a limit of the number of surgical cases we can take in per day.

He ended the conversation happy. I hung up with a headache and a dry mouth.

I really detest some of our clients.