Here we go again...

Remember this.  Well I've finally worked up the courage to try again.  A friend got sick recently, and it reminded me that I needed to get a checkup.  I related my experience and she told me what a wonderful doctor she had, so easy to get an appointment with, really nice and respectful and what great care she was getting.  Call him she said.  You won't be disappointed.

So yesterday I called.  Here's how it went.

Call #1: There is an automated system, you pick numbers to get you to the right person.  When I get to who I think is the right person there is a voicemail box.  I start to leave a message and the system hangs up on me.

Call #2: I call back and choose the option to "speak to a person".  Someone answers, I tell her my plight and she transfers me to the same voicemail box that hung up on me 5 minutes before.  Hang up again.

Call #3: I call press 4, press 1, I'm in and this time, it let me leave a message!

I sit in my office by my phone for an hour.  During lunch I go for a walk.  During the hours that the automated message say is lunch for the whole doctor's office. I miss the return call.

Call #4: repeat call #1

Call #5: repeat call #3

Wait, 30 more minutes and I have to go to a meeting that lasts the rest of the day.

Return to a voicemail that says:  "I have tried to call you several times today to make a new patient appointment with no success, please call us back"  -that is a direct quote, I have the google voice transcript to prove it.

GRRRRR.  Here's what I think:
When I've had to leave as many messages as you have you don't get to express any type of annoyance. 
When part of your job description is to answer the phone and you don't,  you certainly do not get to imply any annoyance when I don't answer the phone.  I don't get paid to do it.  In fact during your working hours, I get paid to work, not hang around waiting for you to call me back.

Well, call #6 was placed to the voicemail box again this morning, I (possibly not so) politely asked if there was a specific time I could call and expect to reach a person since I have many appointments and meetings today.

If I don't have an appointment by the end of the day I guess I'll just randomly start calling doctors from the phone book.