Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Oh my geeeessss!!

 

Today I seriously needed to rant before my head exploded, so I attempted a blog via moble blogging. This simply does not work unless you want to just put a line or two, if you text out a full blog then the text goes through as several text so what I ended up with was several blog post that didn't post in the correct order and didn't make any sense... so here goes another attempt.

I had an appointment at the VA Medical Center in Dallas today. Everything started off just fine, we didn't have to be there until around noon so we were able to sleep in a little bit. Then I was able to actually do my hair, most days I am lucky if I have time to brush it before putting it in a pony tail. The drive there wasn't to bad and overall things were fine.

Then we arrive at the facility pretty early, it was almost 10'clock when we turned into the entrance of the hospital. From that turn on I wanted to scream at people. First of all I have to wonder who had the bright idea to build this huge VA hospital in the middle of what appears to be a not so nice side of Dallas and include a parking area for ants? Really the parking lot is the size of an average size Wal-Mart parking lot and it is all divided up with these space wasting medians. We drove around for a good hour trying to find any spot at all. The thing is that there are VA employees on the lot at all times so it is fairly safe to leave your vehicle on the lot, if you choose to park outside the parking lot, well good luck and I hope you still have tires and no spray paint on your vehicle when you come out, that is the type of neighborhood the hospital is in.

Seriously the only way to find a parking spot is to hover around the hospital entrance and wait for a patient to exit the facility, then you must stalk the patient until they reach their car, get in and start backing out. At that time you better have all other entrances to the spot blocked or some over zelious driver may take the spot with out doing thier own stalking.

Do you have any idea exactly how hard it is to stalk an 80yr on oxygen and a walker? I know it sounds easy but I can put my car in drive and never touch the gas and still almost plow over most of these patients. What really saved the patient I chose to stalk was the fact that I needed his spot and if I ran him over I knew his car wouldn't be moved for days! So I crept behind him with my foot on the brake. The traffic in this parking lot is so bad that they have employees out there directing traffice. People are honking their horns, doing drive by yells at the traffic directors and at one  point the traffic director got so fed up he yelled back. It was an insane mess seriously!

Once we fnally park and get into the facility, we had plenty of time, I have been attempting to get a new VA ID card but the facility I typically go to never seems to have a workind ID card machine. We found the general area where I thought I needed to go in order to get an ID card. I walked up to the desk and ask the lady if this was where I signed in. She was very nice, she went to find the sign in form and then explains where to sign and what blocks to fill in. During this conversation I ask  "I need a new ID card, is this the correct place?"  I said "I" need a new ID card right.. so why is it that the woman's reply was "well is he signed up at this facility?" I guess I had a blank look on my face because I couldnt even speak, it took  a second but she realized I needed a new card and corrected herself. I just wonder though why is it that when a refrence is made to a veteran it is always assumed that the veteran is a man? There are a lot of women veterans out there so it is pretty much past time to recognize it as fact.

Now I have been to this VA  before but I guess I have not went exploring very much. We wondered into this area where I just have to ask this question... who the heck decieded to turn the VA hospital into a flee market? I thought it was ok that they had an AAFES in the hospital, ok there isn't an AAFES on every corner and really I rarely shop at AAFES because the products are so over priced. This was more than an AAFES though there where venders every where selling products just like at a carnival or something. I suppose they annoy me because everything is  so over priced, seriously that jewlery is not real so stop charging like it is! Not to mention the vendors who where selling military memorbilia never seem to have anything with my patch on it!

So we decieded to go ahead and check in as the vendors where a bit nerve racking. We headed up to the third floor and to the department where I had an appointment. I walk up to the desk... please excuse my descriptions because I suppose some could be offended however with out the descriptions you just can't get the real picture... I walk up to the check in desk and see this short, overly round black lady with a less than realistic looking hair piece... she already has the body language of some one who is pissed off that people actually think they should go to the check in desk to "check in" .. she looks at me like I am really am screwing up her day out out of her mouth comes an explosion of "What do you need?". Head bobbing, wig slipping, attitude all over her and all I could think was "man I didn't piss in your cheereos" . I inform her that I have an appointment for an ultrasound. Another explosion of head bobbing, wig slipping, eye buldging, hard to understand words come flying out of her mouth  "You have an appointment here? Today?" I really wanted to say "um no next week I just wanted to check in early". Really lady would anyone bother dealing with you if they didn't have an appointment?  So she takes my informaton and then some sort of explosion came out of her mouth that sounded like "k..sit down". I was taken aback, wouldn't the professional thing to say be " have a seat" . I wasn't sure that I had even understood her, so I verified that she wanted me to "sit down" and then just before I turned to go "sit down" I said "thank you" and turned to leave. I almost stopped dead in my tracks when I heard her mumble under her breath "ummmhumm" .She did this in such a way that it was as if she was discusted with all these ignorant people wanting her to check them in. I bit my tounge and managed to keep walking.

Ok I realize that not all people have a lot of customer service experiance and not a lot of people are customer service driven. However the truth of the matter is that no matter where you are employed at there is a customer somewhere that needs a service which created the need for an employee. I don't really care if you don't like your job, I don't care if you have had a really crappy day, or if you are in general a misserable person, you have a job because of that customer.. In this case this woman is employed because a whole lot of people gave up their time, health and family time in order to go out and make sure that you have the right to bob your head like a hood rat and wear cheap  wigs. Even if you don't know how to act professional, at the very least use the manners that you know your mother and grandmother attempted to teach you!

After the VA we stopped in Dallas and took a few photos, so here are a few of those.. maybe I should write a Veteran's blogg tommorow!

1 comment:

  1. the pictures look awesome, Well done and thanks for letting me spend the day with you

    ReplyDelete