I finally got hold of someone at Tom’s doctor’s office and arranged for the notary to go to the office on Nov. 1 to notarize the doctor’s letter. I faxed over the instructions and sample letter - FOUR SEPARATE TIMES. Following up with phone calls (which all went to voicemail, of course). I sent the notary his fee ($75.00) by FedEx ($13.00) a letter of instruction and another FedEx envelope to get everything back to me by Nov. 2 ($11.00). I spoke with Steven from the doctor’s office, he wrote the letter while I was on the phone with him, went in to see the doctor and confirmed everything with him and told me we were all set.
Of course, I assumed they would screw it up (since trained monkeys can run an office better than these people), so I called both the office and the notary on the morning of Nov. 1 to confirm everything. Well, I was right, they screwed it up. The notary is due to arrive at 3 PM, the receptionist is to pull the doctor out of his appointment so he can sign. She refuses to do so, so I get a call from the notary about 3:05. I call Steven on his cell (of course, he’s not in that office that day. Why should this be easy). He swears that he has taken care of everything and he’ll call the office direct and make sure they do what they promised. I call the notary back and explain.
He calls me back 10 minutes later. The doctor is in with a patient, the receptionist won’t get him out and she can’t find the letter. I call Steven again and leave a message - frantic and a little angry. I call the notary back. He tells me he has to leave soon for a closing. I ask him to give his cell phone to the receptionist so I can talk to her. She’s an idiot. She tells me that she can’t disturb the doctor, he may be giving someone a shot. WTF? I told her that when Tom and I were in the doctor’s office, we were constantly interrupted, that this entire 2 minutes endeavor has taken over 30 minutes at this point and $100, that the doctor knows about it, etc. Nothing. She’s an idiot.
Then she says “Oh wait, he’s coming out now.” I tell her to get him immediately as the notary needs to leave and this has taken way to long already. We hang up. It is now 3:40 PM. I’m so frustrated that my hands are shaking and I’m forcing myself not to cry.
I get another phone call two minutes later. The notary is with the doctor, the letter is fine, but the notary block is missing. He can’t write it in, as it’s illegal. The doctor will have to do it. I hear the doctor in the background saying that he’ll get his secretary (yes, the idiot) to do another letter. The notary has to leave. I ask him to put the doctor on the phone and I tell him that his office staff is a nightmare. That I sent over the sample letter on four separate occasions, that this is a simple thing that the people in his office have turned into a nightmare. I told him I need him to write the following words on the paper, and I dictate the notary block to him. We hang up.
I get a call about 5 minutes later from the notary. He says everything is done and he will drop the FedEx in a box for me, since he doesn’t trust the doctor’s office to do it.
Unbelievable. Freaking unbelievable.
