The end of competence

I heard a piece the other day about the end of competence. You just can’t get shit done right these days. Dudes that know how to do stuff are mostly dying off or retiring. Now, that’s not to say you can’t find pockets of competence here and there. For instance, when I tried to get my watches fixed, the jeweler screwed it up royally but the local watch shop knocked it out of the park for cheap.

The girl has had headache after headache in Reynosa. Dude installs a new mini-split. Doesn’t know what to do with the drain hose. (hint: it goes outside) So her bedroom floods. Dude goes to install a new seal on the fridge door, now the door hinge is messed up.

I’ve been deep in it this week with the medical community. Even just now on the phone:

Me: I’d like to schedule a blood draw for my appointment next week.

Her: I have Wednesday or Thursday

Me: Thursday would be best.

Her: We can’t do Friday, because the office is closed but I have Thursday….

Me (gritting my teeth): Thursday would be best.

At least I got through. Yesterday, they upgraded the portal. So I tried setting up my new account. Every time I was sent a security code, when I entered it I got “Not valid code” or “That code has expired”. How either could happen in the ten seconds it took to get the code and enter it in is beyond me. It said if you have issues call the office. So I call. They have nine choices on their Auto attendant. None are for what I need. There was no way to get out, even to dial “0”.

I was deeply regretting not moving doctors like I planned.

That’s a design flaw, or a numbnut that doesn’t understand auto attendants. It’s supposed to be an aid, not a hindrance. You aren’t supposed to hide behind the thing. I’ve worked with this tech for decades, spending over a decade, at least, teaching courses on it. First menu, three choices tops – 0, 1, 2, 3. That and dial an extension if you know it. Here’s how that call above should have gone:

“Welcome to our office. The operator will be with you shortly. If you know your party’s extension, you may dial it at any time. Otherwise, Press one to schedule an appointment. Press 2 for billing questions. If you are a physician, dial 3.”

The menus would branch from there, with zero being help or I don’t know. I’ve been to that office. There’s 2-3 bodies at the front desk. No reason they can’t handle a call. No reason they shouldn’t handle a call. Meh. It’s in Dallas. I’m not at all thrilled at having to go into the heart of darkness for these appointments.

Last week, my ENT was going to refer me to a voice therapist to deal with my busted, scarred, throat. So I get a text from “Sara” my personal AI referral assistant. Swell. I play along. “Sara” referred me right back to the same damn ENT office, to the doctor I was originally sent to see before scheduling me with a different one. So I called. The scheduling person was mystified why I’d be sent back to a different doctor in that same office. You got me. I was there Thursday morning. Left at 11 or so. 11:24 I get a text from “Sara” the AI idiot referrer.

I see that guy this morning. This’ll be fun. I told them I had a really good laryngologist. Why see that guy instead?

This is just a few interactions. I have a few eye rollers a month. I have zero patience for it. None. When it comes to medical matters, if your office staff is that dumb, lazy, and incompetent, I bounce.

When the guy came out to install my interweb cable, he ran it to roughly where the electric box was, then along the top of my gutter to the far side and down. There’s no barrel connector in my office. The wire shoots out of a plate in the wall. I used to install this shit, and I know none of that is right. He should’ve followed AT&T’s fiber route to the side of the house where I needed it installed. Nope. Did it the hard way. He hooked up the modem fiddled with it and left. I had to call in a service call. Next guy comes out, finds he never made the call to have my modem initialized. Dude fixed it in a minute.

I showed him the shitty install, and he agreed that wasn’t right. Showed him the main trunk line drooping through the trees behind my house. Someone didn’t attach it to the guy wire. He agreed that wasn’t right either. Did anything get done? Nope. Not at all.

Lucky for me, I know how to do things. So I don’t suffer when it comes to car or bike repairs. I can’t imagine what that is like these days. Can’t be good. I’ve had more than a few tire shops draw my ire.

Maybe this is crotchety old man things. But I remember a time where it wasn’t so messed up.