I ran an errand for a friend the other day because they weren't familiar with this certain part of town. They were involved in a fender-bender, and I offered to run down to the police station to pick up their accident report while I was in the general area running an errand for myself. After driving through the parking lot twice I finally was able to find a parking spot fairly close to the building. My luck was going to be good, I thought. I walked to the police station and as soon as I opened the door I saw a little area enlcosed in plexiglass with a huge sign that said "Accident reports - this window." It's not often I find the right area or office on the first try when dealing with the city or county. Good luck once again. I was the only person there, and told "Teressa" that I wanted to pick up an accident report and handed her the little card with the report number on it. She said "Just one moment" and handed me a customer service survey card to fill out about my experience there. It was fairly short - I just check-marked "excellent" on everything and put the card on the counter. Then Teressa came back and told me that it would about 15 to 20 minutes because they didn't have any paper, and a woman was bringing some back to put in the printer. Ohhhhkay. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but this woman's sole job is to print out accident reports for people. This is what she does all day long. You'd think she would keep am ample supply of paper there in her little office for her job? I'm sure she wouldn't be too thrilled if one of the police officers in the office next door to her was chasing a robber that had just mugged her told her "I'm sorry, I don't have any more bullets. Please wait 15-20 minutes while my partner goes back and gets another box."
The woman who actually worked in the accident report office came back and Teressa picked up her purse, coffee mug and some papers and left. She was just filling in while the other woman was getting the paper. I'm still sitting in a chair in the waiting area, which consisted of one chair, and am waiting patiently. Time goes by, and 4 people come to the window and get their reports. Color me stupid, but I was under the impression that Teressa told the lady that I was waiting on my report. Color me wrong. Aftet 25 minutes, I went up to the windowand told the lady I was still waiting for my report, and that Teressa took the card and said I would have to wait because somebody was getting more paper. The woman muttered something under her breath about Teressa and went off to another room. Five minutes later she came back with the report. "That will be forty cents" she told me. At this point, I was beyond the fed up stage. I got in my purse, and even though I did have the correct change, I reached in and pulled out a twenty dollar bill and handed her. I was expecting her to say something like "Do you have anything smaller?" so I could fire back, but she didn't even flinch. I got my $19.60 in change and left.
I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation for the paper problem. The woman at the accident report desk had to ask the paper-stocking-person for the paper, who had to ask the supply room clerk for the paper, who had to ask the security guard for the key to the supply room closet, who had to have the supply room clerk to fill out a request for the closet key. Then, they found out they didn’t have the requested paper in the closet, so they had to as the purchasing coordinator to purchase more special paper, who asked security for authorization to make a call on an outside line, who….. I think you get the picture.
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