Public service

Lately, I have been not feeling well as my body was aching all over.  Now I had sore throat.  I am writing to share with you what I went through when I need information etc from a public service department.  I called first to make sure when I go it will be the right department.  There is no point for me to bring my mom in her wheel chair and come back empty handed...She is 83 years old this year.  Maybe..you have experienced it?

You see, my mom received a letter to collect something from one public sector office last week.  On that letter it gave a unit number and a reference number.  This was issued by another department.  To collect it you need to go to another department.  But no phone number was given for me to contact or where to collect it.  Since I was asked to handle this, I contacted one number (the dept concerned) thinking that it would be the correct one as this was the department which was mentioned to me to contact once I received that letter.   But unfornately you can never get the right answer first time.

After I called one number, I was told to call another number.  I called the number given.  It was either engaged or nobody answering it.  These were the signs that you know it would be a long day.  I got so frustrated.  I redialled the number and managed to talk to someone and gave them the data required.  After hearing what I said, I was asked to contact another number.  They were polite on the phone but somehow unable to help me.  I was given another to called - again.  This time while they checked with the data I gave, I was hanging on there for more than 15 minutes.  I could hear the lady asking her colleague, where is this..where is that?   OMG...How can this be even happening?  You are a public service department, how could you let your customer waited on you? Haven't you gone to training on this kind of thing?  The least she could do was, either tell the customer, "Can I get back to you" or "Can I have your number and call you back once I've checked?"  But no...no..I have to wait....tick tock..tick tock...Once she got back to me, she asked me to contact another number again.  What a waste of time.

In between these, I talked to and called 8 different numbers.  Finally, I gave up and called the one department that issued the letter and finally they gave me a number.  The number given was the number I called correctly earlier.  hmmmm.....Another dead end!!  What do I need to do to get the right one???  aahhhhhh.....After 4 hours of doing this and my BP was raising, I really wanted to shout and scream.  In the end, I told myself I would try to contact them next week.

I contacted them just now.  Still I am being asked to call this number and that number...why..why..why..can't they give me the right one?????

I called the department whom issued the letter to help me to get the right person in the department concern for me to take the letter to.  I am still waiting from the guy who is helpful enough to call that certain department on my behalf as the letter was issued from that guy's office...He will try to get the log number for me.  I am still waiting for his call.....still waiting..... Hope it is good news.....  That was yesterday...

Today I got the log number...Thank you to the guy who is so helpful....He is customer orientated.  To me, he is The Good Worker of the month.  Five Star to him!!

I am trying to call the number and tell them the log number..But it was either engaged and/or no answer....I called 5 times already....Here we go again........

moral of the story:

when you know that you are going to call any public office (coming from where I am now), make sure you tell yourself to be patient and calm.....sabar......sabar.........sabar