Friday & Saturday

I feel like I need to write about a few things.

On Friday afternoon I had an appointment to pick up my new pair of contact lenses at the eye doctor. This would be only the 3rd time I have been there and the first two times were not so fun. I found the woman at the front to be incredibly rude and unprofessional and the rest of the staff broke a lot of patient confidentiality laws. I could hear them whispering about my diagnosis, my insurance, my age, etc. The woman at the front repeatedly yelled from her desk for me to give her my husbands social security number - mind you I am sitting in the waiting room with other patients. When I was fitted for my contacts I was told they would be about $65 but they would call me when they ordered them to give me an exact quote. Well, they didn't. They called me when my contacts came in (a week later) and informed me they were $365!!!! Ummmm, hello??????!!!!!!!!!!! I called my insurance and they said they would pay for part of it. Still, I'm pissed and feel I don't HAVE to have them especially since they ordered them BEFORE telling me of a $300 difference in what they originally said.

Okay, so that's a little background. My apt. on Friday was at 1:15pm. I got there at 1:08pm and the door is locked and the lights are out. I call the office (the call forwards to their other office) and a very nice woman tells me they are on their way but she will call them to let them know I am waiting outside. No big deal. They arrive at 1:15 and let me in. No greeting. No hello, how are you? Nothing. I sign in and sit down. I then hear the technician and the front desk woman talking about my insurance. She then yells across the room for the optician and says, "George, can you come here and tell me if this girl gets any money for her contacts, I can't tell - I don't think she does, but she says she does." I'm thinking to myself, does she not see me sitting right here? Again she asks for my hubby's SSN. Her and the tech talked about my insurance for 30 minutes. Mind you, I can hear them and I am STILL in the waiting room. Another gentleman walks in who has a 1:30 apt and he gets called right in. Finally at 2pm I asked the wicked witch when I will be called and she says "right now". This was after she argued with me that I don't qualify for even a partial insurance payment because I've used all my benefit. Mind you again, that this is the FIRST time I have even used this insurance. It's not WHAT she said but HOW she said it.
So it's 2pm and I can feel my face turn red with rage and I'm starting to cry. I have never been treated so rudely in my WHOLE LIFE. I am not one of those annoying people who is always complaining of poor customer service. I feel I am always treated well and I also understand that if I am not that everyone has bad days. I make allowance for this. But I don't make allowance for pure rudeness and unprofessionalism 3 TIMES IN A ROW!

After sitting there for a moment with tears welling up in my eyes, I decide to walk out. As I'm walking out, I can't believe what I'm doing but I know I can't be there anymore. I call hubby in tears and he says he will handle it. Hubby then calls, gets the bitch on the phone, gets a lot of rudeness then gets handed off to the tech who apologizes profusely.

Here's what I'm going to do: I am going to write a letter to the doctor explaining what happened so he knows that he is losing a patient (and $365 that they will have to swallow) because the woman he hired for "customer service" is such a miserable, bitchy, unprofessional human being (and that is being nice). I am going to ask my retinal specialist for recommendations.

Okay, on to better things! Our Friday night date was great. The food was not the best but who cares? When we got home we even watched Survivor on TiVo. Gotta love TiVo. Today was even better. We drove down to the water early this morning as it was such a gorgeous day. On the way home we stopped at some GORGEOUS model homes near our house. I LOVE doing this. Get this - the kitchens come equipped with Thermador appliances as a standard feature!! Double ovens, warming drawer, $8000 top front vented extra large refrigerator, 6 burner cook top with built in griddle, walk in pantry, butler prep area, wine cellar and beverage refrigerator! I was in HEAVEN! Of course we can't afford all of that but a girl can dream. Then we came home and put our daughter down for her nap while I lounged outside in our hammock in the sun and read some magazines while my husband worked on his laptop on the patio table. At 3pm we dropped off my daughter at my dad's house and we headed to Home Depot to pick a few things then went to a park and walked around the lake, held hands, and watched the ducks and turtles. Back to my Dad's where daughter did great, then off to dinner with my Dad (for his birthday). Now, at home, I have just finished watching a cheesy teeny-bop movie called "The Princess and the Barrio Boy" I loved every minute of it. It was such a GREAT, full day. Maybe this one nap a day thing isn't so bad on the weekends. We certainly got to do a lot more and the gorgeous weather was such a bonus.