After being stirred

2003-10-27 - 10:08 p.m.

If there's one thing I hate, it's being taken advantage of. When I was a student and an intern, I understood that I was at the bottom of the totem pole and that such things would happen. I remember in my first hospital job I would work the A shift and the person on the B shift would insist that A shift did particular things. Then I would work the B shift and the person on the A shift would insist that B shift did those same particular things. And of course these particular things sucked. I understood I was being taken advantage of and I just did it because I didn't care. But now that I'm not a student or an intern, I shouldn't be taken advantage of. In fact, I'm in charge of the whole pharmacy, so I should pretty much get my way, don't you think?

Anyway, what I meant to say is, I hate it when patients think they can pull the wool over my eyes. Dude, pharmacist does not equal dumbass, you see? So this evening, fifteen minutes before closing, I get a call from an AT&T operator. My first response was, "No thanks, we don't want any," but then he explained that he was actually helping a customer who either had a hearing or speech deficit. The customer was using a teletype machine and the operator would read what he typed to me and then type what I said to him. It started out innocently enough, he asked if we sold One Touch test strips. "Yes, we do." Then he asked if we sold 100 count One Touch Basic test strips. "Yes, we do, but we don't have any in stock, can I order some for you?" Then he asked how much it would cost for a box. "$89.60." Then he asked how much it would cost for forty boxes with the discount. This is where I first started getting suspicious. "What discount?" "I get a discount for buying so many." "No, you don't. Forty boxes cost $3584." "OK, order them." "OK, but since it's such an expensive order, I'll need a credit card number." "But I'm sending these to my friend in Africa. Please include shipping in the cost." And it just got worse from there. I have heard stories of people who order large quantities of things from pharmacies, pick them up (or have them shipped), and then cancel the credit card before the bill goes through, and the pharmacies are shafted. I wasn't about to be aparty to such a thing. Basically I ended up explaining this to the operator and the operator offered to track where the call was coming from. Right after he started though, the person hung up. I told everyone in the pharmacy about the call and just a few minutes later the same person called again through a different operator. I wasn't unlucky enough to pick up the call this time, so I let the tech that answered it deal with it. She seemed quite capable. This went on until well after closing time. Blah.

And then I had to drive home in the dark. Yuck! It was only around 6:30. In other bits of random news, I wore my new pants to work today. They are quite comfy. I also wore my squeaky shoes. I desqueaked them first with a Kleenex placed strategically in each. I can't believe I wore them for a whole year without ever attempting to desqueak them before. And it was 94 degrees in San Francisco today. Any chance that fall will get here ever?