I am in a lot of emotional pain

Creativeboy23

Yesterday, a complaint handler never contacted me when we had a call scheduled. I tried to call the complaints team twice but I could not get through. So, I had to leave a voicemail for her. I have made the effort to be available and have had to follow up. It feels unfair to have had to chase after her when she was the one who missed the appointment. I have been feeling resentful, disappointed, and frustrated. The experience caused me to predict what will happen, making me feel more upset.

Today, I received a call in response to my voicemail. The call handler said she does not know the person, and that there are lots of complaints departments, and listed most of them. She focussed on the fact that I contacted the wrong service rather than primarily acknowledging my missed telephone appointment. She could have tried to locate the complaint handler and get her in touch with me.

I expected some empathy and understanding, recognising that navigating the various departments can be confusing for patients. Instead, her tone came across as rude, making me feel personally attacked and upset. I am already feeling let down by the missed appointment. So, this experience made me feel worse. I felt blamed for the initial problem when the complaint handler was responsible.

Even though there are always possibilities to situations, my feelings are real and valid. It is understandable to feel these emotions after my negative experiences.

Creativeboy23

Hello everyone.

While I know everyone is busy and responses can be delayed and appreciate getting a reaction on this thread, a lack of response has made me feel forgotten, ignored, and invisible.

Azziman

Hey @Creativeboy23, firstly I'm sorry that you haven't received a reply so far. What you have to say does matter, and we are here to listen to you.

I can hear that you're frustrated by the complaint handler not turning up to the call as you agreed. When we agree a time with someone to do something, it can feel upsetting when that isn't respected because our time does matter.

I understand that the call handler then focussed on you contacting the wrong service rather than acknowledging your missed appointment. You expected to receive some empathy and understanding but instead was met with a rude response that sounded like it blamed you. It's not nice to feel blamed for something like this, especially after the initial frustration of a missed appointment.

I appreciate it's been some time since you posted this, but how have you been since this experience happened? Did you manage to speak to a complaint handler in the end? We're here to listen to you

Sian321

Hey @Creativeboy23 , how are you feeling this afternoon? I want to echo what @Azziman has shared above here - it sounds really frustrating to have had to chase up the complaint handler only to be then spoken to in a tone that felt rude and told you'd contacted the wrong department.

You had hoped the call handler would be more empathic to the fact that your appointment was missed in the first place, and just how labourous it can be sometimes as a patient to feel passed around all the different internal departments of an organisation.

I share Azziman's questions too - did you hear back from them in the end? How did the process of making the complaint go?