One of the many reasons I hate phone calls is that “making the phone call” doesn’t typically mean I get to cross “make the phone call” off my list, and there are few things more discouraging. Recent examples:
1. I called a hardwood-floor-refinishing place on Monday morning. “Great!,” they said. “One of our workman will give you a call back to set it up!” Nothing Monday. Nothing Tuesday. Nothing Wednesday. Nothing yet this morning. How long am I supposed to wait before I MAKE THE SAME PHONE CALL AGAIN?
2. A doctor says they want to set something up; the office will call us to do so. Then they say “But if you don’t hear from us in a week, CALL!” Why is it that SO EXTREMELY OFTEN I do in fact need to call? Why is it up to the PATIENT to track that the doctor’s staff is doing as they’re supposed to do? How about THIS: how about the DOCTOR do that, or else HIRE someone to do that, instead of asking PATIENTS to do that?
3. Or right now I’m waiting because the only way to get an appointment at the big city hospital is for THEM to call YOU, and we have TWICE heard from other medical people that Elizabeth needs a follow-up and that the hospital will call us—but they have not called us. Now what? I’ll have to call the people who assured us that the hospital would call us. Then we’ll have TWO entities wasting their time because someone isn’t doing what they’re supposed to do.
As long as I am venting, I will tell you I am frustrated because we are trying to have propane delivered, and the propane company needs someone to meet them at the house so they can handle the pilot light, but they cannot give me any estimate of when they will be there, no estimate at all, not even a four-hour window. The woman I talked to on the phone acted as if this had never been a problem for anyone before. Like, she was surprised I was even asking.
But in happier news: although it was surprisingly difficult to find a number for a locksmith (as opposed to a number for a locksmith referral service masquerading as a locksmith to take a commission off emergency calls), I did find one and it happened the locksmith had availability that very day and so he came out and changed all our locks and I now feel much happier. (Our house was rented to tenants for a few years and I was picturing keys scattered all over town.) If you have a child looking ahead toward a job that makes a good living, may I suggest locksmithery? The locksmith I called says all the older locksmiths are retiring and he has to keep expanding his territory wider and wider to cover the need, and now he makes enough that someone in his family quit their job and came to work for him, and actually he’d like it if he could talk a second family member into doing the same.
Another happy and stress-relieving thing is that Paul called someone to come look at the furnace and give an opinion about converting to gas, and the person said that actually our oil furnace was one of the most efficient of all oil furnaces, and that with such a big house we might be happier if we take a year to notice how the current system heats/cools before we change anything, so that when we DO change things we can address specific issues. So now we don’t have to deal with that yet.
And my dad figured out how to turn down the way-way-way-too-high heat on the water heater, even though two realtors, an inspector, the seller, and the seller’s property manager were all unable to do so, and so now the water heater is not as pressing an issue and can wait awhile. The guy who came out to look at the furnace pooh-poohed the idea that it even WOULD be an issue: “If you have to, just get a cheap electric one to bridge the gap!,” he said, casually. So we don’t have to worry about that yet, either.
If only the flooring guys would call me back.
That thing where they pretend no one has ever had a problem with that is an old tried and true tech support thing, they act like every single complaint is a brand new one. It’s designed to make you feel like the dummy and it drives me BONKERS. Don’t believe the hype! Of course that is ridiculous!
Interesting that you have propane and heating oil…we do too! I didn’t realize when we moved into this house (inherited from my in-laws) that there is IN FACT natural gas on our street, but we still have two propane tanks and a home heating oil tank…outside the house. Turns out my mother-in-law didn’t want to make the switch because she thought the house would explode. So we are getting regular propane and oil deliveries, and it’s fine and when I mentioned to the furnace guy that we were going to switch to natural gas when the 26-year-old furnace died, he indicated that we might we waiting quite some time for that to happen (apparently it is the Cadillac of oil burners).
We happen to know a locksmith, who worked in a restaurant with my husband back in the 1970s, and he really is the only guy in town as far as I know. He, too, would like to retire. I think any of the trades (plumbing, electrical, etc., etc.) are wonderful for young people. They make a ton of money and, as I always say, “you can’t outsource plumbing.”
But also, since this is a small town and everybody knows everybody, we now have house keys all over town — fire department, oil/gas delivery company, guy who watches the house when we’re not here, all the neighbors. It’s a thing, and if you need something fixed they can bring their set of keys or you simply leave the door unlocked and people come and go like it’s no big deal.
Wow can I ever relate to your rant about incompetent people in the medical field!!! I wonder how any of them manage to stay employed!!!
I deal with LOTS of medical entities, as my husband is a 100 % disabled veteran and our grand daughter, who lives with us, has hypoplastic left heart syndrome (and has had the three open heart surgeries as a babe). She is currently doing well, but STILL there are all these different appointments and trying to coordinate care!!!
It is SO aggravating to be playing telephone tag with the various offices, and then to be waiting and waiting for someone to contact you back! Or you get in touch with someone who is recommended and they say “no, you need to talk to ….” and oh boy, here we go again!
You are not the only one dealing with this!! I was SO frustrated yesterday I was about ready to pull my hair out!
Congratulations on your new house, good to hear that the heating and hot water heater issues seem to be resolved.
Wow – props to your dad!!!
The phone call thing drives me NUTS. I am going through it with my eye doctor, whom I finally called after many weeks of not calling. I left a message and the unidentified person on the other end of the line assured me the doctor would call back and maybe I would need to make another appointment. But now… nothing. And it’s further complicated by the fact that I called the WRONG number (knowingly! because I didn’t know who else to call!) to get in touch with the doctor in the first place. And so now… do I call THAT number back, risking annoying the very patient receptionist who first answered? And then annoying the doctor who will think I am badgering her? ARGH! Phone calls are SO HARD in the first place, why can they not RESOLVE THE PROBLEM?!?!
Also your propane person makes me feel enraged. Not even a four-hour window? What the actual WHAT?
Medical stuff like that can be so annoying. I had to make an appointment for some prenatal testing, and the only way to make the appointment is to leave a message for the scheduler to call you back. They are supposed to call within 1 day, but I waited three days.
My doctor’s office was supposed to send a new prescription to the pharmacy on Friday. I show up at the pharmacy on Saturday. No prescription. Not just not ready for pickup, but not in the system. Not just for that location, but not for any of their locations. I don’t need it quite yet, so I’m putting off the call, though I’d really like to remind them that I check with the nurse twice that she had the info to send it in and again with the doctor, who had the nurse check a third time. And she didn’t send it.
In our area, plumbing is the hot ticket, especially those who are willing to work on old houses. Can’t tell how many times I’ve heard people complain they can’t get a plumber to their house without paying a premium because the plumbers all only want to work on new construction.
Just came here to say “Hurrah for Swistle’s Dad!”
:)
My very least favorite thing in the universe is when I gird my loins and do the horrible thing like make a hard phone call and I have to DO MORE to actually finish the task. I already called! Why do I have to do MORE??? Especially more phone calls.
So exciting to have your new house!!!
If the flooring company can’t call you back to schedule business FOR THEM then I would say find a different flooring company. If it’s that hard to get them to call you just imagine how awful it will be trying to work with them during the refinishing process.
I love reading about this whole process, by the way, so keep the fretting house stuff coming!
I totally agree with this! If you can, you might be best to find another company.
I usually call back on the 3rd day the first time, the up it to 2 days and eventually every day. So if I call Monday, I’ll call again Thursday, then Monday, Wednesday, Thursday etc.
I put off phone calls like everyone but once I START calling, it just becomes a Normal Chore and less of a Dreaded Chore, if that makes sense.
Construction people are the worst at calling back. I think maybe many don’t have an admin person, to call people back? Or it’s the contractor/foreman himself who needs to call back and they are in the field all day and just put it off like all of us. But I REALLY HATE IT.
Ugh – the world thwarts people who hate making phone calls at every turn. Hope they call you back!
It once took me months – months! – to call one of our banks and ask to have a particular account put under the name of our trust. I was so please with myself to have finally called, and then the guy I talked to said, “Oh, we don’t do that anymore.” I can’t remember why, but he gave me the distinct impression it was due to problems that might well in the future be fixed. Which meant that I would have to wait a few months and call again. It’s been 9 months and I still haven’t called again.
My 12yo is asking for a lock picking set for Christmas and I’m now wondering if I should actually consider getting it…perhaps the gateway to a future, lucrative locksmithing career vs the other sort of future I was imagining with this skill!!! :)
The doctor thing happened to me last week! We went to a specialist who wanted my daughter to do a sleep study to rule out something. Okay! Great plan! But then we left and went home. So….am I supposed to be figuring out who what when and where this is happening? Or are they calling someone and setting it up? She was just like, “I want to get her over for a sleep study”. Okayyyyy.