If You Don't Ask, They Won't Tell

I'm wondering how people work these days when they don't know how to do their jobs, or rather, when they don't have all the information needed to properly help a client. I just spent the week talking to seven different people at four different agencies to get information to solve the same exact problem. Only three of those people had any real information that could help me.

I woke up Monday morning with a hole in one of my teeth and it needs to be filled. I called the main office of the clinic I use for medical reasons because they have dental care also, and they're income-based so it's inexpensive. I asked if my local clinic had dental or if I'd have to go into Kansas City to have the work done. My local clinic does provide dental care but only on Thursdays and Fridays and none of the locations are taking new appointments unless I want to schedule one for September. I was told I could go on Thursday as a walk-in client and wait to find out if the dentist could see me. Okay, I could do that. I did, and that's where it all started.

They open at 8:30 so I arrived a little after 8:00 with a few people already there. When the doors opened we all found out that they only take three walk-ins a day and there were four people ahead of me - basically I was shit out of luck. I went home and complained to the main office because I wasn't told on Monday that I needed to be there at 6:00 in the morning to even have a chance of getting seen. The girl I spoke with apologized and referred me to Clinic B. That place is also income-based but they were still going to charge me $70 to do the work. Fuck that!!

Clinic B lady referred me to Agency C where the director is a friend of mine. Nice. I felt better. I called and the #1 prompt sent me to Director's voice mail where his message said he couldn't return phone calls but the receptionist would and she'd answer any questions. I left Recept a message but never got a call back from her. I had to call her back later in the day. I told her the problem but she said the only thing they could do was extract my tooth because that's all the agency supplying the funds would cover. I was in tears. Why do I need to have a tooth pulled when it would be easier to just fill it?

Recept referred me directly to the agency that supplies the funds and said maybe they could send me to a place that could help. I called. Fund lady listened patiently as I explained, through my tears and squeaky voice, what the problem is and then she replied that her agency doesn't only pay for extractions, that they'll pay for whatever work needs to be done. Fund lady told me to call Agency C back again and speak to Director, she mentioned him by name so I told her that I've known him for eight years. She said he'd be the one to speak with because he's the one who issues the dental vouchers and that he'd refer me to one of the clinics they fund, one of them being Clinic B. WOW!! A BIG sigh of relief from me. I thanked her profusely and called Agency C back again and left Director a voice mail that I'd be seeing him this morning.

The main phone message at Agency C says that they open at 8:00 so I was there a few minutes after that. Recept was there and I told her what I needed, and I mentioned that I'd like to get the voucher to Clinic B since it was close to home. She told me they don't work with Clinic B and that Director didn't arrive at work until 9:00. FUCK!!! I'm wasting gas driving all over town because nobody will give me all the information I need. I left because I had another errand I could run and returned a little after 9:00. I got to speak with Recept - again. I repeated the problem for the third time to her and, again, she told me that they only do extractions. Um, no, I spoke with Fund lady yesterday and she said they'll pay for whatever work needs to be done.

Recept actually looked at me like I had two heads and left to go speak to Director to make sure I wasn't bullshitting her. HAH!! I'm right, you're wrong!! She came back looking all ashamed and allowed me to complete the necessary paperwork. I wonder how many other people Recept turned away in the past who didn't get the dental care they needed because she doesn't know what's what. A lot of those people probably weren't told to call Fund lady, either. Anyway, I waited for about 45 minutes before Director called me into his office to do whatever he needed to do to print my dental voucher. I asked and, yes, they do work with Clinic B - I was right again, Recept - but he was sending me to an even closer place. YAY!!

I came home to make the appointment and even the receptionist at the dental office didn't know that Fund lady's agency would pay for something other than pulling my tooth. She was very polite and excited to make the appointment for me but was really surprised when I gave her that little tidbit of information. She smiled through the phone and said she'd see me Monday morning at 9:15. I've never been so excited to see a dentist in my life. I can't wait.

Here's a little tip. If you need something done for yourself, make sure you ask every question possible to get all the information up front; I don't care how long you have to keep the person on the phone. All the referrals I got yesterday were because I asked each person I spoke with to refer me to someone who could help, not because they offered - none of them but Fund lady, anyway. Unfortunately, not all the people I spoke with had correct information, nor did they offer what they did know, but that's my fault because I didn't ask enough questions. You can bet, though, that from now on I will. I'll ask so many questions people will start volunteering information just to get me to stop talking. And if you know me at all, you know I'll make that happen. :)

Until next time... peace to all.