Shopping!!!

We're going shopping tonight.

We're shopping for a Pediatrician. We've shopped around online but now we are ready to meet one in the flesh. We took some recommendations from neighbors, and have high hopes that the one that we are meeting with is going to work for us.

We did consider a different place, and called them to make an appointment. As far as I'm concerned we are customers, so we deserve to be treated as such. When we called them we were told that 1) We would have to pay $20 to walk in the door, 2) we could only visit them at hours that didn't really work for us, and 3) We couldn't speak with a lactation specialist while we were there. I finished the call to that place with a 'ok, thank you very much yousnarkysnidebitch' and hung up. We tried to call again, and this time Alise spoke to the same woman. She tried to ask a few questions about the doctors and their specialties, but she was pretty rude and curt, so Alise ended her call in much the same way that I did.

I've always thought that the friendliness of a receptionist is key to my feelings about the company or organization as a whole. The receptionist is the first person that we will speak with when we are calling in a panic, the receptionist is someone who will either reassure us, or infuriate us. The receptionist that I spoke with at this particular place was a bitchy snarky fuckface, and we won't be speaking with her again.

We then called a local hospital, which is actually a 10 minute walk from our house. The receptionist here was lovely, friendly, and told us that we absolutely did not have to pay to come and speak with them. Alise asked her the same questions that she had asked the snarkysnidebitch, and she was very helpful. She even said to one question 'I'm not entirely sure myself, hang on, I'll find out and call you back in 10 minutes', and was true to her word. She was reassuring, and I know that if we speak with her in a panic she'll be experienced and caring enough to direct us properly.

So, we have high hopes for this place. The Doctor is a specialist in pediatrics and pediatric gastroenterology, which considering that we both have crohn's in our family is a selling point. We shall see...