Discussion Worst customer/patient experience?

Simon Daggerhawk

Wanted Pirate
I just had the worst dentist appointment to date, and I'd like to explain how bad it was.

I wrote the timeline of my experience during the waiting:

Arrived at 2:50. Me and my brother's appointments at 3:00 and 3:30. Each appointment should be 30 mins.

Wait until 3:50 to be called in.

Wait until 4:20 then the appointment starts.

X-Ray finishes at 4:25.

At 5:00 checkup begins.

Checkup ends 5:15.

Supposed to be out by 4:00.


I doubt that this is nearly as bad as other people's experiences, so if you want, tell some of your horrible customer/patient experiences!
 
Aww that sounds dreadful! Waiting at dentist is always no fun. :(

I had a horrific dentist/patient experience, and an ongoing crazy experience with the tech dept of the company I'm working for.
Sorry in advance for the wall of text. I'm chatty when I'm overtired.

So, I was at the dentist and she accidentally cracked my tooth. I had to have an unexpected emergency root canal. My appointment that was supposed to be 20 minutes turned into 2.5 hours. I disliked dentists before that, so now when i go I have flashbacks and am terrified.

The new company I'm working for issued me a laptop and phone. The tech department has a new guy who first lost my phone for a week. I've had to travel 5 times already to pick them up. It's always something like I wasn't added to the right user groups yet, didn't have the passwords from the right divisions, etc. It was ridiculous. Finally I have the laptop. Today he said the phone was done so I went downtown again for it, and sure enough it wasn't ready. I have clocked 8 hours drive time and 500 miles so far on this. (it's supposed to be ready AGAIN tomorrow) :eek:
 
If this thread is for worst patient experience with doctors aswell then the worst for me here has been.
Doctors won't show you your x-ray or MRI scan images, will not tell a cancer patient about lumps they saw on a scan months ago until they can operate on them when they have grown big enough. Will not give a ADHD diagnosis because the patient is an adult even though this effects hugely on their life. You need to tell/pressure the doctor persistently to have be tested for a certain condition only for them to find out you were right and they weren't going to look into it. Not being allowed to renew your meds until you have only few left then it takes 7 days for it to be renewed (I fear for those who are on serious life saving meds)
Making sure you are at the doctor's 15min before your appointment and still waiting minimum of 40min to see them.
There is plenty more but these were the major ones and I feel much better now! :D

*Rant over*
 
Spent 10 hours walking around airport hangars and administrative buildings while simultaneously filling countless forms and throwing bribe money left and right just to get my cat from the airport. The process consisted of form-filling, talking to workers and officials who'd "go get another guy" and would never come back, walking inside a maze of cargo, giving away loads of copies of my cats medical records, and receiving a bunch of random cats (poor cats). The search began at 7PM and concluded at 5AM. To add to the list of major inconveniences, home was a 1.5 hour drive away.
 
My Mother's experience of the glorious UK National Health service.....

My Mother was disabled. In 2016 she started with various health problems that all seemed to indicate serious heart problems. They made her an appointment to get it checked at the Hospital.
Some 3 weeks later, while waiting for that appointment, she collapsed in the shower. This was at 6am.
12pm the neighbour(70 year old guy) becomes worried ..... her curtains are closed and the dog is running free in the garden but no one answers the door.......so, he climbs over the 6' wall and finds her. Bare in mind she is disabled and not able to get up off the floor, so she has been naked, sat under the running water for 6 hours at this point.
He calls for an ambulance and is told 'We're very busy at the minute, we'll send a Paramedic when we can'. So, he turns off the shower, puts cushions behind her, covers her with blankets to warm her up and waits.....and waits........and waits.
4pm finally a Paramedic shows up and whisks her off to Hospital...she's in a pretty poor state by now (10 hours since collapsing)
At the Hospital she is told 'The Doctor has finished his rounds for tonight, so someone will come check you over in the morning!'

6.30 am I get a phone call 'Sorry to inform you.....'
My Mother had died at 6am.....24 hours after collapsing, 11 1/2 hours at the hospital and still not been seen by a Doctor!

8 weeks later...the day before her funeral, she received a reminder in the mail, not to miss her Hospital appointment.

The National Health Service.....envy of the world!
 
My Mother's experience of the glorious UK National Health service.....

My Mother was disabled. In 2016 she started with various health problems that all seemed to indicate serious heart problems. They made her an appointment to get it checked at the Hospital.
Some 3 weeks later, while waiting for that appointment, she collapsed in the shower. This was at 6am.
12pm the neighbour(70 year old guy) becomes worried ..... her curtains are closed and the dog is running free in the garden but no one answers the door.......so, he climbs over the 6' wall and finds her. Bare in mind she is disabled and not able to get up off the floor, so she has been naked, sat under the running water for 6 hours at this point.
He calls for an ambulance and is told 'We're very busy at the minute, we'll send a Paramedic when we can'. So, he turns off the shower, puts cushions behind her, covers her with blankets to warm her up and waits.....and waits........and waits.
4pm finally a Paramedic shows up and whisks her off to Hospital...she's in a pretty poor state by now (10 hours since collapsing)
At the Hospital she is told 'The Doctor has finished his rounds for tonight, so someone will come check you over in the morning!'

6.30 am I get a phone call 'Sorry to inform you.....'
My Mother had died at 6am.....24 hours after collapsing, 11 1/2 hours at the hospital and still not been seen by a Doctor!

8 weeks later...the day before her funeral, she received a reminder in the mail, not to miss her Hospital appointment.

The National Health Service.....envy of the world!
Wow, that’s terrible. I’m sorry for your loss.

NHS sucks since it’s free. They don't always take too long when responding (depends on the area, I assume) but they take patients and constantly drag them from one room to the other and even leave people laying on beds in corridors.
 
@Darkslinger thank you for the kind thoughts.

Ye, to be fair that was a pretty extreme and thankfully rare experience.
Generally I haven't had that many problems with the NHS. Although I do tend to avoid Doctors so maybe that's just because of my lack of experience with it :)

As you probably noticed I'm still pretty bitter towards my Mother's treatment (or lack of) in this case. I feel very strongly that if she had at least been seen by a Doctor, even if they couldn't do anything for her, at the very least we (her family) might have been informed that she was IN the Hospital so that we could have been with her, rather than her being alone!
 
On a somewhat lighter note...as someone that works in a Customer Service industry I can say categorically that the Customer is NOT always right!
Some people have absolutely no idea how to behave in a reasonable way. They come to you shouting and demanding before they have even told you what their problem is, or given you a chance to fix it. They don't seem to realise that we are human too and to act so aggressively before even saying what the problem is, is not gonna make you want to help them.

Some months ago I had one such 'customer'. When I arrived at the situation, he was leaning over the counter trying his best to physically intimidate the tiny 67 year old lady who was serving. He was shouting, demanding a refund for a pair of shoes. I spoke to him quietly and calmly to find out what the problem was. He was threatening both verbally and physically, but eventually he told me that he wanted a refund because the shoes didn't fit his wife. He had no proof of purchase...they were quite clearly old shoes, well worn and covered in mud and they weren't even shoes that we had stocked in our store. Needless to say, I refused the refund. I honestly thought the guy was going to hit me at that point, but he did leave after I threatened to call the Police.

I later discovered that this guy lived next door to my older (and somewhat protective) brother. My bro took exception to his treatment of me and .....well, let's just say he had strong words with him and the guy ended up moving from the area :p

#mybrothergivesgoodcustomerservice
 
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