Waste of time.

Ok, I have no problem repeating myself when someone doesn't quite understand what I'm trying to explain, or if the client is say, elderly, and his/her daughter calls for a clarification. It happens.

But there are three scenarios that drive me up the wall.

Scenario #1: Who are you again?
The owner sends the son/daughter/maid/dog walker in with their pet for an appointment. Usually the person has no idea why they brought the dog in, or they have a vague idea (i.e. "there are dark, wet spots on the carpet"), but they don't have the details such as whether those dark spots are vomit, diarrhea, urine, or coffee. Then when I've spent 20-30 minutes trying to determine the cause, I have to proceed to spend another 20 minutes on the phone with the actual owner explaining my findings. Waste of my time (but apparently a great use of their time, especially doing productive things like getting a tan on the beach).

Scenario #2: It's called voicemail.
Why have all of these newfangled gadgets if you're not going to use it? Since we're open during the day like most businesses, it's not uncommon for me to have to leave a message on someone's voicemail and/or answering machine. But I can't tell you the number of times I've gotten an immediate call-back from the owner asking for me to repeat the very detailed message that I literally just left for them. Interestingly, a large portion of those clients actually have no idea how to check their voicemail. Seriously.

Scenario #3: Broken record.
This could happen in the exam room or on the phone. The wife is in the exam room and the husband is sitting in the lobby, probably because he "hates needles". Unfortunately for me, he obviously doesn't hate wasting my time. After 20 minutes discussing Fluffy with the wife, I walk her and the dog out to the lobby to say goodbye and hand the file to the receptionist. That's the moment when the husband pounces and asks me to repeat everything I just said to the wife before thinking to ask her and letting me move on to the next exam room. Just the other day I was on the phone speaking to the owner of a dog with a urinary tract infection. about 5 minutes into the phone call, the husband jumps onto the other line, apologizes for missing the beginning and, "do you mind starting over?". Grumble. However, where that would simply be a pet peeve, it immediately turned into complete annoyance when about 5 minutes later the college-age daughter joined the conversation and, yep you guessed it, apologized for missing the beginning and, "would you mind terribly starting over?". Um, yes. I do mind, actually.