A few months ago I visited a doctor, a specialist. After a long wait, his nurse put me in an examining room. Another twenty minutes passed. What's the point of leaving a patient alone in an examing room for twenty minutes? I wasn't exactly pissed, but I was annoyed, and I did not want to be forgotten. So I took out my cell phone and called the doctor's office. I asked them at the front desk how long I had to wait.
The doctor showed up a few minutes later, and was he angry! He took my phone call as a terrible insult. I was so amazed, I didn't even try to justify myself. I just accepted his whine (I think he's a good doctor) and moved on to the business at hand. And the next time I get left in an examining room for a long time, I'll call again.
But I think this is even better: I was in aisle 13 of the supermarket, and -- remember, I'm a guy -- I just couldn't find a product that had to be there. The natural thing to do is to walk to customer service (over at aisle 3), wait on line and ask for help. Instead, I called the store, got customer service, and said "I'm in aisle 13 and I can't find Mop'n'Glow. Can you help me?" They sent a guy over, and we found the product. (Hint: If you call, they will help you first, ignoring the people on waiting line for customer service. Everybody helps the phone caller first.)
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Once in my bookstore I answered the phone, interrupting a customer's query. After I hung up the customer informed me that it always made him angry that the phone took precedence. He pointed out that it took little effort to ask the caller to hold while I finished the open transaction.
I took that to heart and thereafter callers got in line just like people.
From the retailers point of view, though, it is easier for the caller to hang up and go elsewhere than it is for the person in the store to walk out.
You might consider informing your Doctor that your time is also valuable and you will bill at $-- rate for any wait time over 15 minutes. The main reason the waits are so long is that Doctor's are over booked. They need to delegate more to PAs and Registered nurses. /rant Thnx for use of the hall.
--ml
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