Very unprofessional service, really shocking. I was scheduled for my first appointment with Dr. Borland. I woke up the day of the appt very sick and slept in, missing the appt. Definitely my mistake, admittedly, and I did not call ahead of time. I am not normally a person that misses doctor appointments, and I felt guilty for not rescheduling ahead of time... but again I felt so sick that I completely forgot my responsibilities that morning.
So the next week, I called and apologized first thing before asking to reschedule. The person on the other end of the phone abruptly put me on hold without discernably responding to me. 5 or so minutes later someone else picked up the phone and seemed annoyed or confused. She muttered a few times as if the phone was too far from her mouth. I was having trouble understanding as she seemed as if she was talking under her breath. So i asked her, politely, if she could repeat herself because I couldn't hear what she said. Then i was put on hold again for about 7 minutes.
The same person then picked up again and informed me that she has to follow the instructions on my account and she is unable to schedule my appointment. I found this a bit confusing, because she wasn't explaining why I couldn't get an appointment scheduled, just that she has instructions not to do it. Finally I asked her, "are you saying that I cannot get an appointment scheduled because I missed my last appointment?", and she replied "yes". Awestruck, I asked if she could make an exception because I really did have a bad day that day, I was very sick suddenly (all true) and it is not normal for me to just miss appointments. Silence. She said nothing. I tried one more time because I felt like there was some kind of misunderstanding or that maybe she just wanted to assess what kind of person she was dealing with or something. She again said that she had to follow the instructions in the account and could not set up an appointment for me. It was a bit surreal. I didn't know what to say for a second but settled on something like, "so you are denying me access to Dr Borland because I missed a single appointment which I have apologized for ?". "Yes." Wow. I paused, again because this conversation was so weird that I was wondering if I accidentally said something offensive or came across like a jerk. Finally I just told her (nicely) that she can expect some negative reviews on social media, to which she responded to only with "OK".
I get it that some people can be difficult, adversarial or unpleasant to deal with on the phone. I am not one of those people. I've been on the other end of the phone in a service postion many times so I have too much empathy to treat people badly in these kinds of interactions. In general, I try to be kind to others whether it is walking down the street, at work, having dinner, doing anything... I am a respectful person so there is no chance that I said anything offensive to trigger this sort of response from the staff. What I received was nothing short of contempt, and upon reflection it is a good thing that I won't be visiting this office. What kind of care can you expect from a doctor whose staff has unwarranted animosity toward its patients? I also told my GP about this so that maybe he is less likely to forward his patients to this practice. I was patient and apologetic and gave the staff opportunities to help turn this conversation around, i did not make it me against them, I tried for a graceful resolution. Oh well, guees I won't be meeting Dr, Borland :). read more
