Rant: Places that answer the phone over face-to-face customers..

[azekeil]

This morning I went into the doctors' surgery to pick up a sick note for the period I've been ill. (Why they couldn't post it I don't know). There was a large queue of people waiting to speak to the receptionists.. both of whom were on the phone. Such a simple thing I wanted. A piece of paper. I was in half a mind to wait until they hung up and call them on my mobile:

Me: Hello? Yes, I'd like to pick up a doctor's note. The name's (my real name).
Rep.: Yes we've got it, just come in and pick it up.
Me: *waves* Here I am, thanks very much!

*sigh*

Comments

[racinghippo.livejournal.com]

That's why email is so much better than phones - you can ignore an email until a time that's convenient for you to answer it, whereas phones demand to be answered immediately.
I do like your idea though.....

[gerald_duck]

That kind of trick really does work, more often than you'd expect.

In the cinema, for example, it's often quicker to book tickets using their telephone system and collect them from the pre-booked tickets machine than stand in line for a ticket kiosk. As a bonus, you can start using the telephone booking system while queueing, then either abandon the telephone booking or leave the queue, depending on which completes first.

Similarly, I once went into a restaurant and was asked if I had a reservation. I didn't, and was told by the maitre d' that they were very busy that evening so were only seating people who had telephone reservations. I took one of their pamphlets and called the number on it. The maitre d', standing right beside me, answered the phone. I asked for a booking for two minutes' time, and got given it, whereupon we were promptly shown to our table. At least he had the decency to look embarassed by the farce. (-8

[dylan.livejournal.com]

The reason they don't post them is that it would cost the NHS about a million pounds a year in postage. If you send them an SAE they will generally post it back.

I'm guessing they give priority to phones because people in the queue can wait and see its not going to be that long. If they gave priority to people in the queue then each person phoning would probably have to try about 5 times before getting through so the phones would be ringing continuously. They'd probably find that as the queues of people were finished the phones wouldn't ring and they would only start ringing when people appeared again. Hence receptionists would be sat around waiting for phones to ring. If it was you that was ringing you would have to ring at the time there was no queue which might only be about 20% of the time assuming they spent 20% on the phone, 80% dealing with the queue. Think about it logically for a busy practice and you can see why they give phones priority

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

I guessed the bit about postage.

As there were two of them, one could do each, no? Even so, I feel aggrieved that people calling in get priority over the ones that have made the effort to come in. There must be a better way of doing it ..

[stuartl.livejournal.com]

A few weeks ago at our regular bowling I was attempting to book next week's session and there was a HUGE queue of people changing shoes. I rung the alley and booked next week. The guy turned round just as he hung up and saw me on my mobile waving at him.

He didn't seem to see the funny side.

You know that party you're having?

[invisigoth51.livejournal.com]

How late is it going to be in swing for as T and i might have to come a bit late as he has another do earlier on. K

Re: You know that party you're having?

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

It's going to go on for quite a while :) Come when you feel like it :)