Dental receptionist - Was there any need for this?

[applesandorangejuice]

Hi everyone, I've just had a very unpleasant phone call with the receptionist at my dentists office. I've been with them for a few years now. I know how lucky I am to have a dentist, especially with the NHS and as such I've never cancelled, rescheduled or been late to an appointment.

Anyway, I've had terrible tooth ache since Monday night. I've been monitoring it, taking painkillers and hoped it would go away on its own. This particular tooth can be sensitive at times, however it hasn't stopped on this occasion and seems to be getting worse.

I phoned the dentist this morning to ask for an appointment and before I'd even had a chance to finish my sentence/explain what was wrong, the receptionist cut me off and said "well it's no good phoning now, why didn't you phone on Monday?" I replied "Ok, well I wanted to see how I got on. The tooth can be sensitive sometimes and the pain never usually lasts this long". She ignored me and offered me an appointment on Monday.

I'm travelling for work on Monday and had totally forgot so I apologised and said "I'm so sorry, Monday is the only day I can't do because I have a work trip and I can't cancel it at such short notice, do you have any other days available?". She then said, quite sarcastically "we don't, no. Look I've offered you an appointment on Monday and you don't want it". I told her it wasn't because I didn't want it (of course I want to get it sorted) but that I was going to be 6 hours away and couldn't come without cancelling the entire trip. She then managed to find me another slot on Wednesday.

I'm very grateful for the appointment obviously, but was there any need for this attitude/unpleasantness? I know how much shit nurses/receptionists put up with from patients at times. But this woman just seemed gunning for an argument as soon as she answered the phone.

If you work on the phone or customer facing you are not allowed to have 'bad days'. You leave your personal life and issues at the door.
This nasty little madam is highly unprofessional, sulky and rude, and she was dealing with someone who was in pain.
I hope you are making a complaint to the practice OP.

Oh come on what is frustrating about negotiating an appointment??

You first. Seeing as you said it first. YOU provide a link to the claim you made that nobody is entitled to NHS dentistry.

You can't can you? Because you're spouting a load of nonsense.

!

I think dentists specifically hire people like this and would be cheering them for setting the tone with patients. They would rather the receptionist tenderises you for the dentist so you're ever so grateful and compliant. My private dental centre is like this, the lovely receptionists were replaced by 2 horrid shits, coupled with the arrogant dentists there.. the whole team has a God complex.

So your dentists and dental manager knows their receptionists are cunts and they encourage it.

I wonder how the lady is usually when you phone up? It might be the case she had a lot going on in her life. If she is usually fine with you I would not complain. She might have been unwell or patients could have given her a hard time that day. Possibly wait and give her a chance to improve things.

no, there is no need for the receptionist to be 'frustrated' if she's at all professional. We all have 'lives' to live and sometimes we have to work around other things that happen in life i.e. OP's work commitment that absolutely could not be cancelled. The receptionist should have then just said, the nearest appointment is XYZ and made no comment on OP's personal situation. It was very rude and unnecessary.

Why aren’t these equally human beings allowed to have a bad day? Or, if no one is allowed a bad day because of “professionalism”, then what does that say about employers and customers dehumanising low paid, working class staff? Or is this strict disallowance of back chat on a bad day a class issue? A know your place because I’m the tax paying customer and my taxes fund your pittance of a wage so smile and never correct me or get an uppity tone with me?

Thanks for responding and I'm so glad to see that the majority of you agree. I was worried I was being unreasonable. By lucky, I just meant that I know people who pay a small fortune for private dentists and others that can't afford a dentist at all, but yes you're right, we do pay for the service and there's no need for staff to be rude to patients. Even if they're having a bad day.

@HaPPy8 I can see why it looks that way, but I genuinely wasn't being awkward. This trip has been planned for months and I'm travelling 6 hours away, leaving early Monday morning. If I was working in the office or from home, I could easily pop out for an hour but there's no way I can go on Monday without cancelling the entire trip. It's difficult when you work full time.

What a rude woman...I'd complain 😒
It's horrible to be spoken to like that, she's clearly gotten way too comfortable thinking she can get away with talking down to people 😕

Tax payers do not pay for the reception staff, the practice does. Dentists are not employed directly by the NHS. The government pay the dentist for each NHS patient they treat. Unfortunately, the payment does not cover the true cost, which is why it is difficult to find a dentist under NHS.

Honestly, the receptionist didn't sound as bad as I thought you would say.

I've had much worse 'reception' before.
So bad I had to call the specialist doctor myself to complain about his receptionist, who turned out to be his own 20 year-something daughter!
She was replaced, and came back a year later having lost her unbelievably atrocious attitude.

Your dentist's receptionist did the best she could, she did her job, and if your tooth warranted a call to the dentist because of pain, you should have taken Monday off.
If not, the Wednesday offer was very fair, considering the high demand these days for appointments, and therefore the exasperation that can be shown by those who deal daily with cancelled appointments, rearranged schedules, complaining and unhappy patients.

it's never nice to be treated with anything less than kindness and understanding, but when you experiencing pain, it's expected that you get it seen to asap and that's what the receptionist did for you.

You are being paid to provide a polite and helpful service, not be sarky and rude.
Imagine if a doctor was 'having an off day' - is he allowed to jab the needle hard into the arm of a reluctant toddler 'because I'm having an off day and you're pissing me off'. Is a teacher allowed to lose it and yell at his/her class and tell them they are a bunch of entitled little shits who should never have been born 'because they are having an off say' No. At work you do your job. You take a deep breath, do a virtual eye roll and wait until home time when you can go home and wallow in your temper.

My dentist made it more and more uncomfortable to be an NHS patient, particularly if they thought you had any means to pay privately.

Cancelling appointments, emergency appointments only available weeks away, being treated like a second class citizen.

Eventually I went private, but at a different practice.

I'm telling you, the dentists know and like to choose receptionists like this. They will back her up if you complain and mark you as difficult. She might be asked why did you make an emergency Wednesday appointment and not used up the Monday slots first so she will explain your story and then she will be told it doesn't sound like it's an emergency then if she waited from Monday, and then it's the receptionist who will have to explain why she gave you this appointment. So she thinks your reasoning is annoying and will make her look bad for accepting it. I used to book appointments and being questioned about who I booked and why such and such slots have disappeared first and having to explain clients reasons to someone else was my least favourite part.. she might have been told to book emergencies on Monday and she bent the rule for you. Either way, they know she is rude and they allow her.

Had a receptionist at a dental surgery just like this. Your dentist isn't in a market town that begins with B?

Current dental nurses are very nice, friendly and accommodating

One of the doctors receptionists can be a bit rude as well, but we are on booking on line appointments so don't have to deal with them very often and I always kill with kindness and smile and say thank you when I leave even when she hasn't done anything for me

What a rotten experience when all you needed was empathy 💐

Some people are downright vile and enjoy kicking people when they're down...sadly a lot of them apply for these jobs as a power trip. They're probably emboldened by people just putting up with it. Bullies 😒

YANBU, there's no need for that unprofessional attitude at all.

As an aside, you need that tooth sorted properly because teeth don't tend to be sensitive at times for no reason.

Everyone is entitled to common decency and mutual respect..

Yes, dentists are greedy arseholes and do unethical things to push you onto private. I had nhs appointments cancelled, bad treatmemt, bare minimum. Even their attitude was so different if im private versus nhs. They get into dentistry, cosmetic injections and invisalign for money with no conscious or empathy.. if BDA didn't force them to do certain things for the patient's wellbeing they would skip them to save money.

Another thing that amuses me is that there are signs in Dr's and dentists about "not abusing staff"...

They want to take a look how some NHS workers talk to and treat the patients!

Whoah! You are going to extremes there. Ofc no one is allowed to physically assault or verbally abuse with profanity someone when having a bad day.

I was referring to a person being a bit short or curt in what they say as being something we can all sympathise with and give a bit of an allowance for as a one off. Which is how the receptionist was.

I personally think formal complaints should be for misconduct beyond I didn’t like their tone or how short they were.

Honestly I would have thought the same as the receptionist, if you have been suffering all week why on earth leave it until just before the weekend before calling, but I probably have been more professional and wouldn't have said it over the phone.

It is either an emergency appointment you need or, if you choose to wait, it isn't.

No need at all. But perhaps she'd had a bad day, with awkward patients etc? Or had toothache?

@rapidsrunner I'm not complaining about the appointment though, after all asked for another slot. I will just have to manage the pain as best as I can until next week. I'm complaining about her attitude and the fact she was confrontational on the phone for absolutely no reason whatsoever (and this was before we arranged the appointment)

It's easy to say just take time off work but this trip has been planned for months. It's really hard when you work full time.

Nail on the head.