The next decade....what's in store?

SERVICE AT THE UNITED STATES EMBASSY SUCKS

When I calm down, and finish doing the school run which they have made me now extremely late for, I will give you details.

.....OK, I'm back.

I need to make an appointment to apply for my students' visa. Called this morning, and the automated service said to go to Scotiabank, pay the fee and make the appointment. Goody, I said, since I was going to the bank. I reach there only to be told "no....they took that service away from us nearly a year now. You have to go to Paymaster".

I called the embassy immediately to complain. Says the operator "you know how long we telling them to change the recording".

Ok, so paid at Paymaster, and now I have to go online to make the appointment. The date that I want (June 21st) is not yet making itself available for clicking, so I call to find out if I can make one over the phone. All I want is a yes or a no.

Well would they answer the *$#^#%@& phone? No. Ring ring ring ring x 100 times. No joke. Finally the phone is answered and I tell the operator I have trying for nearly 40 minutes to get somebody to answer the phone. I tell her what information I need and she puts me on to an extension.....that rings out too. No, I do NOT want to leave a message damn it. I want a live body.

Call back again. No answer. No joke. Call back again. No answer. Really, no joke. I could even go into another room in the house and look for a book for Sis, while I was holding on to a ringing phone.

Eventually, while I take the chance to go to the potty, the phone answers. I explain my plight. She says she won't release me until somebody picks up at the other end. How kind. This is after I tell her how dissatisfied I am with their service.

I get a lady, and within a minute she gives me the information I need. I tell her, always very calm I am, that it is quite unreasonable for me to have to wait ONE hour, une heure, una hora, uno ____ (hour in Italian which I should know but forgot while waiting on the ringing phone !) to get this info. I told her that I was put on to an American, who, before she could listen to what information I needed, said "stop right there, before you go any further, you have the wrong section" and transferred me to an automated service! No joke.

I will reserve my letter of dissatisfaction to Ambassador Sue Cobb, until AFTER I have been granted the student visa.....lest they hold it against me!

Posted by yamfoot at June 9, 2004 04:08 PM