“Refresh every 10 minutes” Service in a First World Country
I wrote this post a while ago before my impending trip to Canada. I often rant about the inept service industry back home only to be silently reminded that the customer is not treated any different here either. Below is my phone conversation and my follow-up rant. Let’s hope I am not deported for my rant.
Excerpt of my call to the US Consulate in Canada
Welcome to the US Consulate Services Live Representative Call Center. Your call may be monitored for training purposes. If you are calling from the United States you will be charged $1.59c per minute. (why am I being charged this fee?)
Please have your credit card information with you. Your card will be charged a $35 flat fee and adjusted according to your actual talk time. (they did charge me a sum of money for taking 2 minutes of their time and for not giving me any answers.)
(after keying in your credit card information you are immediately connected to a live person who asks for a reference number and passport information)
She: When do you need an appointment for?
Me: September
She: Umm sorry but there are no appointments for Septmeber. You’ll need to check back again.
Me: When can I check back?
She: Well it would be best for you to go back the website and refresh the calendar every 10 minutes.
Me: Every 10 minutes? Why?
She: Since appointments are added everyday for 8 weeks in advance.
Me: Is there a particular time I should be checking the site?
She: No, there is no set time. Appointments and cancellations are arbitrary but I think they are supposed to add an appointment availability today. So check every 10 minutes.
All I am thinking is after 2 hours of trying to fill an online form, pay fees for nothing gained, I am told that I need to check back a site for availability every 10 minutes.
Without going into too much detail I am sharing my own frustrations with a system that sucks in every way. Try filling a form online at a US Consulate site abroad, either you face errors or no explanations about what errors are. Form fields are ambiguous and there are no guarantees about the submission. So even after you have gone through an ordeal of filling out a very complex form there are no cues to inform you of what’s next.
In the past I have traveled to my home country and worked through details. Yes the process was cumbersome and the form extremely unusable. The overall experience of standing in long lines at the Consulate and being herded like cattle by your very own people is humilating but all this pales in comparison to my experience in booking an appointment in a First World country.