I HATE Waiting For The Repair Man . . .

It’s now 9:30 am and I’ve been waiting since 8:00 am for my appliance service man. Okay, I understand everybody has a job to do, but how come our (the average person) time is not worth as much as the person who is going to do something FOR us?

I’ll set the scene and I’m sure you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about . . . I called my Home Warranty Company and continued to play phone tag for about 4-5 phone calls until I set up the appointment with the appliance company who was going to come out to the house to work on my dishwasher that is currently making a noise like a cement mixer and leaving most of the dishes as dirty after as when they went in. Luckily, when the woman on the phone asked me if there was any other appliance problems I remembered my front loading washer was also making noise. The nice woman said the noise wasn’t covered (?), so I remembered the spots . . . really, it’s putting weird stains on my sons white t-shirts. It’s always something.

So, I waited 24 hrs. for a return phone call (?) to set up my appointment, then they give you a 4 hr. window so you can sit and wait for them. Well, you have to wait for them to call you first so what’s some more waiting? As I wasn’t home, I couldn’t decide what “window” was most convenient, so now I had to get up early to sit and wait for 4 hours. Thanks Appliance Man! No, I have nothing to do but wait for you, thank you very much. And we KNOW he’ll be on time . . .ha, ha. I’m so sure.

It’s kind of like my Orthopedic Surgeon who constantly has the patients waiting way too long in the “Waiting Room”, thus the name. What does an appointment time mean anyway? It’s just a suggestion,  an approximation, because at this office it is definitely not your real time to see the doctor, no where near it!  He is notoriously behind with his appointments, I don’t know why or how since he only spent 5 minutes with me.  You’d think perhaps the woman who books the appointments would learn after YEARS of this and start booking the appointments a little further apart, knowing it hasn’t worked thus far, huh?

Why is everybody’s time more precious than ours? It is not fair. I’m thinking that regular people need to start taking a stand. If your repairman is late, say something, be nice, but make your point, perhaps call the company and let them know that you weren’t happy. We have to start making a point with the doctors, too. Perhaps if people start leaving the office when it’s too full and they’ve waited too long, making sure they make a point of telling everyone involved why they are leaving, maybe this rude service will stop! Make sure you tell the doctor, too! If we are late, they let us know, even sometimes not acknowledging our appointment. If we cancel, we get a service charge, why do they have ALL the power. Bull! The consumer must take back their power! There are other companies out there and there are other doctors out there, we do not need to be treated like sheep!

What do you think?

(C) Written by Evelyn Garone 6/2011