Pro-tip

[lydy]

If you are calling a large bureaucracy (say, a hospital) and having a lot of trouble reaching the person who can help you, and the person you are currently talking to asks you "What number did you call?" they are very likely trying to diagnose the problem. It is possible that they simply want to diss you for calling the wrong number, but not all that likely. Refusing to answer the question and being obstreperous about getting the runaround from everyone you talk to is likely to get you more runaround. In general, if people are trying to get rid of you, they won't bother asking you questions; they'll lecture you and hang up, or transfer you. If they actually try to engage with you, and ask you a series of questions about your previous experiences getting shunted from one unhelpful person to the other, they aren't making fun of you. They're trying to retrace your path so that they can figure out what you actually need. Being unable to distinguish between a sleep consultation and a sleep study, or a sleep clinic and a sleep lab will cause some confusion, and the person trying to help you will likely try to clarify the difference. This is not an attempt to tell you you're wrong, it's an attempt to figure out what the heck is going on.

tl;dr: Just work with me, ok? You were the one who called me.

Comments

[lydy.livejournal.com]

Many and many a year ago, when I worked at the Department of Surgery at the University of Minnesota, I was trying to schedule a procedure for myself. I no longer remember what it was. It was neither time-critical nor esoteric. It took me forty-five minutes and I don't remember how many people. More than three, less than ten conversations. And it was even more annoying because I _knew_ the system, and could tell whether the person on the other end of the line was being incompetent or struggling in vain against the vast forces of the horrible system within which they had to work. It was excruciating.

At the same time, refusing to answer questions is rarely a winning strategy. And having absolutely no clue what has happened to you, an inability to describe your actions previous to this call, and a flat refusal to believe that the person on the other end of the line is attempting to help you is rarely a winning strategy. A snarky, "Yes, of course you want to transfer me to X, but I've already talked to X and they sent me to you," is, in my book both completely within bounds and actually helpful. If you're caught in a loop, I would very much like to know. (I am actually really good at busting people out of those loops. But I need to know what happened.)

All of which is to say, I've seen this from several different sides, and I really do understand why my caller was sullen and defensive, but lords it added another whole level of problem to the problem.

[naomikritzer]

Clearly!

The thing I will also note is that if someone is asking me new and different questions, like "what number did you call," that's generally a good sign that I've found someone helpful and competent who will send me to the correct person on the next jump, or at least get me closer to my goal.