Friday, February 29, 2008

How can it possibly take close to an hour to schedule a ride to a hospital in order to get some physical therapy?  It is not as if this place just suddenly popped up overnight -- it did not.  It has been there for several years.   I have an appointment next Monday afternoon at four o'clock in order to get some physical therapy.  In order to get to the clinic I have to take a local transportation service by the name of Access-A-Ride, which provides rides for people with disabilities.  Most days it takes three minutes or less for me to tell one of their receptionists where and when to pick me up, where to take me, and when to pick me up so that I can come home.  Today I either got someone who was new at her job, or who was a complete idiot.  It may have been a combination of the two.   Even after I had spelled the name of the street to where I was going three times, she still could not get it straight.  I told her I had been there two days ago, and that she could look on her computer to get all of the pertinent information, but even that did not help.  She had me go over the same information time after time after time.   After 13 minutes of this, she put me on hold while she got her supervisor to come on the line.  This woman took down the information without any problems until she asked to put me on hold again.  I said that would be all right, which turned out to be a mistake.  Instead of putting me on hold, she accidentally disconnected me.  So much for competency!   I called back again, but this time I had to wait 15 minutes before my call was even answered.  Then I had the bad luck of all bad luck -- the same woman answered my call who had answered the first time.  We went through a similar question and answer routine as we had previously.  Fortunately, by this time she had most of my answers.  Just to make sure she had gotten everything down correctly, I asked her to read everything back to me, which she did.   Despite everything, I will be somewhat surprised if I make it to and from the proper destination Monday afternoon.  I have heard of at least one person who has suggested that this transportation agency change its name to Ass-A-Ride. I think that would be very appropriate!